Groff has expressed how much he values being a role model for the youth as an out actor: "Coming from Lancaster, PA, I didn't have a lot of gay role models because it's a very conservative community [...] But one of the great things that I still value and really valued back then was that I met a lot of gay people working in the theatre, and it was just so comforting to know that you could be gay and have a life… So the fact that if I'm an out actor, and kids can have that same sort of release and experience, it's incredibly meaningful." He has advocated for the importance of sharing coming out stories: "That is the way acceptance happens, and that’s the way you break down those walls [...] And the more we talk about out, then the less we’ll finally have to talk about it. And for me personally, it feels liberating. I enjoy talking about it because I felt I couldn’t talk about it for so long".