In May, 1970, Jim Parrott moved to Kitchener-Waterloo to take a job in the University of Waterloo Library. A year later, on 1971, March 8, fortune smiled on him when some other people organized the first meeting of Waterloo Universities Gay Liberation Movement. He came to the first meeting and was involved with the group until some time around 1980 or 1981.

He returned to the group in January 1991, by which time it was known as GLLOW, and he played a part in organizing the 20th anniverary of GLLOW in March 1991. He helped set up the Tuesday evening discussion group in January 1992, and served as a facilitator in that group and others until he left GLOW in 2000 or so. He was involved in setting up the Rainbow List in 1995 and administering it until about 2000. He also played his part in preparing for GLLOW's 25th anniversary in March 1996. He also served on the Regional Pride Committee from its inception in 1996 until about 2000.

The year 2000 was a pivotal year in his life, since his relationship with William Pensaert, the man he was later to marry, was demanding a fair amount of time, as relationships so often do at the beginning. Some time in the mid-2000s he once again resumed the role of administrator for the Rainbow List, but maintained a very low profile in the community otherwise. He retired from the UW Library in 2007 and by 2011 finally managed to recover from 37 years of working according to someone else's schedule. On 2011, March 14, he and some friends began to pull together the beginnings of a project documenting the history of the rainbow communities in the Grand River area.