ju s t o u t ▼ July 7. 1 9 9 5 ▼ 17
S inging O ijr P resence
7~he PortlandCau Pen s Chorus’ celebrates 75 ctears ob touching hearts andc hanffind minds through music
by Inga Sorensen
magine you’re about to sing the national
anthem before thousands upon thousands
of Portland Trailblazers fans. The throng
is rowdy and revved up, and some of its
members are probably a bit buzzed—
thanks to the beer they’re now allowed to
drink during home games at the new Rose
Garden arena.
That prospect should be nerve-rack
ing enough, right? Well, now imagine you’re a
member of the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, which
has been invited to perform the anthem. For emo
tional support you are flanked by 55 of your gay
choral colleagues, but you still wonder, “What’s
going to happen when we’re introduced over the
loudspeaker: ‘Now here to perform our national
anthem is the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus...’ ”
Pondering the range of potential crowd re
sponses is a bit unsettling. But for the chorus,
which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year,
breaking new ground—and taking risks—is par
for the course.
“I remember when PGMC went to Coos Bay to
sing. This was during the Measure 9 campaign.
Some folks showed up with big banners and signs
saying things like ‘Homosexuality is a sin,’ ”
recounts Tom Norton, who has been a chorus
member for 14 years. “It was distressing, but the
chorus just started singing and within five minutes
those people put their signs down. We have a way
of disarming people through our music. It’s a very
nonthreatening way of saying to the world that we
are proud of who we are and this is who we are—
not those evil stereotypes presented by the OCA.”
As with human rights movements throughout
history, the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus uses
music to celebrate its identity and community. In
doing so, it also becomes a catalyst for social
change, which is an inherently risky assignment.
But Norton and other chorus members say that
risk-taking is simply an intrinsic feature of being
out—especially when one is going to sing that
truth loudly and with dignity.
“I guess you could say we’ve put ourselves on
the line,” Norton says. For instance, there was the
time when PGMC [and the much younger Port
land Lesbian Choir] journeyed to Springfield,
Ore., after voters in that conservative blue-collar
community approved the nation’s first law bar
ring a city from enacting civil rights protections
for gay men and lesbians. The local measure
passed in May 1992, and in October—during the
fieriest days of the statewide Ballot Measure 9
campaign—the singers performed at a Spring-
field theater as part of its “We Sing Out!” tour.
That act was potentially hazardous, in light of
the fact that hate crimes across Oregon were
skyrocketing and tension gripped every comer of
the state. Though there were no anti-gay incidents
reported during the show, the following week the
theater became the target of a hate crime, when
vandals spray-painted racial epithets and the word
“yes” across a window sign that called on voters
to reject Measure 9.
Back in 1983, the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus
was the center of controversy when it held its first
concert in a Portland public high school audito
rium. Spurred on by local fundamentalist preach
ers, callers reportedly jammed the phone lines at
Cleveland High School and Portland Public
Schools protesting the performance. Two years
later, anti-gay picketers made their presence felt
during a chorus concert at Benson High School.
And let us not forget that memorable occasion
IXI
Kate Sullivan and the Chorus sing at Lesbian and Gay Pride
THE PORTLAND GAY MEN S CHORUS
P r e s e n ts :
ZIUJOiYS!
Or:
H o n U’c
Paid O il Tin XathuuU D ebt
AN ORIGINAL MUSICAL COMPOSED BY TOM SlMONDS
when state Rep. John Minnis (R-Wood Village),
an evangelical Christian, turned his back on the
chorus—as a symbolic gesture, he said— when it
performed on the floor of the Oregon House.
“Sure we loved to sing, but at the heart of
PGMC was always, always politics, at least from
my perspective,” says Steve Fulmer, an accom
plished choral performer who became the chorus’
first general manager in the early 1980s.
“For us to go up on stage and sing about being
gay was revolutionary. That just wasn’t being
done,” says Norton. “We knew that having ‘gay’
in our title was very important. There are a lot of
gay choruses, such as the Idaho Freedom Singers
As with human
rights movements
throughout history,
the Portland Gay
Men ys Chorus uses
music to celebrate
its identity and
community. In
doing so, it also
becomes a catalyst
for social change.
or the Turtle Creek Chorale in Dallas, that won’t
do that.”
Norton, a retired helicopter pilot who suffered
a stroke within a few months of a helicopter crash
two decades ago, says, “ It’s a miracle I’m alive
today.” He credits PGMC with being a healthy
and sustaining force in his life. Throughout the
years he has served the chorus in a number of
capacities, including as its rehearsal manager and
public relations chair.
“Like so many men in the chorus, I wanted to
be involved in something positive. I knew PGMC
could make a difference,” he says.
Fulmer, who is director of information ser-
vices for Portland Public Schools, adds: “We
wanted to sing our presence.”
O iA e s itits ie .
et the record show that the Portland Gay
Men’s Chorus was conceived over a pitcher
of beer one night at the long-gone and much
missed gay hangout Wilde Oscar’s,” wrote PGMC
member Richard Brown in 1990, recounting the
chorus’ first decade.
That informal gathering took place in 1980. A
fellow by the name of Mark Richards had just
returned from a trip to San Francisco where he was
awed by a performance of the San Francisco Gay
Men’s Chorus, which was founded in 1976 and had
already developed a solid reputation. Inspired,
Richards came back to Portland where he met with
Gary Coleman, then music director of Metropoli
tan Community Church, and Mark Jones, who
would become the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus’
first conductor.
Following that meeting at Wilde Oscar’s,
Coleman decided to place an ad in the Portland
Town Council newsletter (PTC, an early gay and
lesbian rights group, was the forerunner to Right
To Privacy, Phoenix Rising Foundation and Cas
cade AIDS Project) seeking other gay men who
were interested in choral singing. Fourteen men
showed up for the rehearsal, including Fulmer.
"I went to that rehearsal and I was in tears by
what I felt. I knew immediately that this was going
L
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