From Lesbian and Gay to Queer: The San Francisco Chorus That Made History

The Queer Chorus of San Francisco traces its history to 1980, when Jon Reed Sims founded the organization under the name San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Men’s Community Chorus. At the time, it was the first known choral organization to include both “lesbian” and “gay” in its name, making its identity and intended community explicit from the beginning.

Within several years, the ensemble adopted the name Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, or LGCSF. In March 2022, its membership voted to rename the group The Queer Chorus of San Francisco, a change that brought its public identity in line with a broader understanding of queer community and belonging.

Across its history, the chorus has described its purpose in terms of community-building through music. Its programming has included works connected to LGBTQ+ history, as well as concerts that use humor, popular culture and collaboration to engage audiences.

Among the group’s listed San Francisco performances is “BrokeBACH Mountain,” presented in November 2011 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. The following month, the chorus staged “A Shameless Show of Holiday Shite” at Martuni’s Piano Bar. In February 2012, it returned to the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts for “Love Bites, and so did the 80s,” a concert drawing on the music and sensibility of that decade.

The chorus also presented a major work focused on one of San Francisco’s most important LGBTQ+ political figures. In April 2012, it gave the world premiere of “Harvey Milk: A Cantata” at Lick-Wilmerding High School. The text was by Harvey Milk, with music composed by Jack Curtis Dubowsky. The work was also part of the chorus’s 34th annual Pride concert in June 2012 at the San Francisco Conservatory.

These performances illustrate the range of the organization’s public work: commemorating LGBTQ+ history, celebrating queer culture and creating spaces where identity can be expressed collectively. The name changes—from a title explicitly joining lesbian and gay communities, to a broader queer designation—also mark shifts in the language used by the communities the chorus serves.

More than four decades after its founding, the Queer Chorus of San Francisco remains part of the city’s LGBTQ+ cultural record. Its story links choral singing with visibility, remembrance and community, showing how a local arts organization can reflect changing language while preserving its commitment to connection through music.

Source and reuse information This backgrounder adapts factual material from “Queer Chorus of San Francisco” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_Chorus_of_San_Francisco The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.ebar.com/news///247233 - https://books.google.com/books?id=DEEkVg6YPtcC&dq=lesbian/gay+chorus+of+san+francisco&pg=PA251 - https://books.google.com/books?id=FvjqBgAAQBAJ&dq=lesbian/gay+chorus+of+san+francisco&pg=PA484 - https://www.qcsf.org/blog/weve-become-the-queer-chorus-of-san-francisco - https://web.archive.org/web/20141114235419/http://galachoruses.org/directory/lesbian-gay-chorus-san-francisco - https://web.archive.org/web/20161029132736/http://lgcsf.org/history/ Image rights Original illustrative artwork created from story keywords. It is not a documentary photograph.