Gay Men Singing

The other thing I did last night was see the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus perform at Carnegie Hall in a joint concert with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC.

I’d never seen any of them perform before, and my biggest comment is that the Velveeta was practically erupting from the walls and ceilings. The cheese factor was off the charts. I sang in a men’s chorus in college, but most of the stuff we did was either classical-oriented or very masculine: anything from a Renaissance motet, to a drinking song, to a big choral piece by Mozart (performed with a women’s chorus from a New England college), to a spiritual. And of course, our chorus was 90 percent straight, so any homoerotic impulses were carefully sublimated beneath the ideals of brotherhood and alcohol and song and the occasional trips to women’s colleges. We were in many ways a fraternity that sang: we had a house, and we threw wild keg parties, and sometimes we even had mixers with sororities. Except for the fact that it wound up giving me lots of crushes on straight guys, the group was a blast. Actually, the whole thing was a blast; that beloved group was one of my defining college experiences.

But this concert last night was different. Lots of showtunes, lots of “jazz hands,” big rainbow flags, choreography, songs with unbridled inspirational lyrics and unabashed appeals to emotionalism, even a song from the gay musical Falsettos. I was unprepared for the level of schmaltz. But it was more than schmaltz; it was a cheesefest of Streisandian proportions. These were drag queens in reverse-drag. The tuxedos were all an act. Also, most of the members were middle-aged; from the nosebleed seats — and my friend actually got a nosebleed — I could see many bald spots, beards and paunches. Nary an Abercrombie boy in sight.

They lived out the 70’s and the 80’s in one evening: 180 guys in tuxedos sing “It’s Raining Men” while waving their arms around, and later, another chorus sings of transcending our shared tragedy so we can go on living and being happy.

And it was then that I looked at this stage filled with middle-aged gay men, and I realized, these are the ones who survived.

I found myself getting past the cheesiness and feeling moved and inspired.

It was Gay Pride on the stage of Carnegie Hall: gay men, rainbow flags, corporate sponsorship. The CEO of Fleet Boston (a major sponsor of the concert) gave a short speech at the beginning of the second half, and a representative of the Names Project (they make the AIDS quilt) came onstage to accept a check from the three combined choruses. At the end of the evening, all three choruses gathered on stage and sang a big patriotic piece by Stephen Flaherty, composer of Ragtime. There was nothing quite like seeing 500 gay men together on a stage, singing their hearts out, singing of liberty and equality and the American way.