San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus Truly Brave

[Music]

it was a beautiful

evening october 1978

in san francisco about a hundred men

gathered in the basement of everett

middle school

they were there because they’d seen

flyers around about the formation

of a men’s chorus they sang their first

song a beautiful piece by mendelssohn

and the excitement was palpable then the

discussion turned to

what shall we call our choir that was

the first

major crossroad for this chorus

the discussion ended up with two

nominations

one was men about town and one was

the san francisco gay men’s chorus in

those days

anyone could be fired for being gay but

at the end of the discussion they

decided

let’s call ourselves what we are and

they stepped out of that room into a

beautiful clear night

with courage taking a huge step

that would indeed change the world

it was just a few weeks later that the

chorus on a monday night

gathered and it was the day that harvey

milk and george musconium

were murdered they went down to the

candlelight vigil

and someone knew that there was a new

choir and they gave their first

performance

on city hall steps at the candlelight

vigil

three years later they decided that they

would take this message

of courage and of gay coral movement

to nine cities across the country and

they did

the day they left it was big news the

full page

in the car and the chronicle had gay

men’s chorus takes national tour

and in the corner was a small article

mysterious cancer found in 41

homosexuals in new york city it was a

subtext

on that day and by the time we had

returned

it was indeed the headline and would

remain that

for the next decade the chorus has found

itself at many crossroads

in the 43 years of its existence in 2016

it was our 40th anniversary

and we decided we would take a big tour

we had planned on

mainland china and then with the

election

our board chair actually stepped up and

said why are we spending to do the

mission work

there when our lgbtq members

and family in the south need us and so

we embarked

300 of us to mississippi alabama north

carolina

south carolina and tennessee it was a

crossroads

for this chorus but we stepped out with

the two things

that have held us together the first

is authenticity we believe

that we need to show our true colors

everywhere we go and the other is

bravery

it’s taken a lot of bravery to be the

san francisco gay men’s chorus

even in a city like this but around the

world

we salute you we salute those

who have been so brave in this time

truly brave

[Music]

it’s hard to take courage

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you can be amazing you can turn a phrase

into a weapon

or a drug you could be the outcast

or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of

love

but i wonder what could happen to see

our true

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them gods

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is

[Applause]

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is

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want to is and let the words fall out

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honestly

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i can’t remember when

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them

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oh

i just want to see you

i want to see you i want to see you

[Music]

[Music]

you