GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 1995

COMMUNITY GROUPS

Music is a gentle but powerful catalyst for coming out

by John Dellamanna

With National Coming Out Day recently behind us, it's a good time to reflect on just what coming out means to us.

One of the times that we as a chorus sang about coming out was at our holiday concert two years ago, in a delightful selection about a Christmas visit home. Tenor Bill Bartolini intoned, "Lovely turkey, perfect peas, could you pass I'm gay-the cheese?" Well, that's one way of doing it!

More recently, and more seriously, we sang the words of Akron's own Eric Helmuth: No more shame, or silent pain, for the secret inside.

You don't have to play the game, there is nothing to hide.

All the years of pretending, all the pain of your youth,

Fade away as you hold him, and honor the truth.

We thank Eric for such a beautiful sentiment.

In the past, most oppressed groups saw some relief when they decided to "stand up and be counted." This begins as a personal decision that cannot occur until one feels empowered and proud of oneself. When enough people make that decision, a group is formed. Once that group is formed, it can work as a cohesive entity for social and political change.

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So, how do we, as a group of gay men in a chorus, support, enhance and indeed further the cause of gay awareness, gay pride, and gaypositive political change? Perhaps I can best illustrate this with a per-

sonal experience. Last June, Roger Durbin, a fellow chorister, and I saw the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus Pride performance. We felt so

music. As our director Tim Robson once said to me, "As long as AIDS is an issue in the community, we will sing about AIDS. We do, and we do so beautifully. We sing about love

NORTH COAST MEN'S CHORUS

CLEVELANDO 110

great to be part of that sold-out audience. They were singing about issues important to us, we were surrounded by a mixed, but largely "us" group, and it felt really good!

There is something about being entertained by a gay group making phenomenal music that is very empowering. As performers, we get quite a different high singing for you, our audience. As spectators, we could not help feeling immensely proud to be who we are. This is grass roots. This is contagious. This is good.

The North Coast Men's Chorus sings wonderful music that is in its purest form good, serious, complex, well-performed classical

and gay pride, and we do so beautifully. We sing about camp and fluff, and we do so beautifully."

We'll make you feel good about being gay

no matter how good you already feel, and no matter how out you are. We cannot be held responsible for what you do with this infectious feeling once you leave the concert. We hope, however, that it will make each one of our audience members more out and more empowered, and more proud. To the straight community, we hope to represent a musical group, better than most, that just happens to be gay. That's how we, the members of the North Coast Men's Chorus help to advance the cause of gay pride in northeastern Ohio. Our holiday concert is coming up on December 15 and 16. Come and see for yourself as we "Sing the Dream."

African-American Caucus sets its sights on the community

by Frank Lowery

Last July the African-American Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Caucus of Cleveland was born. The intent of this group is to help provide one of the much-needed voices in the African-American community. I emphasize one because I think it's a very important reminder to the larger queer community that who and what we are is the result of many voices.

The Caucus started out with 40 names of African-Americans provided by the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center and some other contacts. The original eight members, Mistinguette Smith Malone, Kim Taylor, Leslie Taylor, Berteena Rollins, Sharon Young, Calvin Stokes, Marcus Lowe, and myself got together to decide upon a direction. The Caucus recognized a need to go to the African-American community and remind them of the values of love, family and acceptance for which we have been known. Along the way, we are learning to love ourselves while relying on each other. We realized that the needs of our community are vast, so we tried to concentrate on the areas outlined in our mission statement:

"We are African-American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people assembled to promote and encourage our political vis-

ibility, support community building, and to be a voice within the African-American community"

It was also determined that we needed some venue for expressing our ideas, concerns, and creativity. Response, the Cultural Voice of Cleveland's African-American Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals was the result. Response is our way of keeping in touch with each other and the community at large. Articles, items, editorials, poems and letters to the editor reflect our lives as well-rounded and whole. Response allows us to be good to each other on its pages-everything written there not only reflects, but also respects our diversity.

Anyone wishing to submit an article to Response should recognize that our article priority is 1. African-American lesbian, gay, bisexual; 2. African-American; 3. Gay people of color; 4. Gay; 5. General. We realize that white gays and lesbians (along with some straight people) may have legitimate perspectives, and we will consider the more outstanding pieces, but this is our time. Our priority is for articles by African-American lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.

If you wish to contact the Caucus, you can reach us at The Caucus, care of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center, P.O. Box 6177, Cleveland OH 44101.

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