Elevator Speech

As a BGMC board member, I am supposed to have an "elevator speech" at the ready at all times. That's a little spiel that you prepare and memorize so as to be able to engage a listener, explain the group and it's mission, and--just maybe--sell a few tickets to a concert or other chorus-related event, encourage a donation, or even encourage the listener to join up and sing with us. It's similar to what they call, in business, an "elevator pitch."

The first thing, of course, is to write the speech. Then it's a matter of practice. One of these days I'll be at the monthly board meeting and suddenly be called upon to recite my speech--which means that I'd better have it down pat.

And you, dear reader, are my practice person. Ready to hear it?

"Oh yes, I sing with the Boston Gay Men's Chorus. Have you ever been to our concerts? We have a big show every Christmas in Boston. We also sing our Christmas program in Provincetown. And we put on a big production every June for Pride, as well.

"If you read EDGE, you might also have seen my recent interview with Jay Kawarsky. He's a gay composer who wrote the music for the song cycle based on the book 'Prayers for Bobby,' about the gay California teen who threw himself off a highway overpass in 1983 after his family tried to 'cure' him. The chorus sang 'Prayers for Bobby' at our Spring Concert last month. In addition to Christmas and Pride, we also have a third concert each spring, and usually the theme is a little more serious than at the other concerts.

"But 'Prayers for Bobby' is also a perfect fit for the Chorus' mission. You see, we do a number of outreach concerts every year to benefit local high schools. Aside from helping the gay-straight alliances raise money, our concerts also serve as a form of musical ambassadorship to the wider community. You would think that the world had changed enough by now that anti-gay prejudice is a thing of the past, but just looking at the way marriage equality is still denied to our families in most states, it's easy to see that we haven't made as much progress as we might like to think. We reach out through music to talk to people in a way that's better than mere words. Our songs are all about hope, struggle, and shared humanity. Music has a way of speaking to the heart and the soul that words can't match.

"It's also a wonderful thing for the kids to see that--just like the 'It Gets Better' videos promise--they can grow up to be happy and successful. When they see 150 of us in concert, or when 30 or 40 of us sing at their high school, they have living proof--right before their eyes--that they don't have to believe the rhetoric about gays. They don't have to buy into the wild stories that their preachers might tell them, or that their classmates invent in the absence of comprehensive education around human sexual diversity. When they see us in our tuxedos, happy and full of song--with many of us wearing wedding bands--they're seeing another story about what their future might hold.

"Now, I have never yet made it to one of our outreach concerts. I work nights and weekends and it's just been impossible so far to participate. But when I talk to my chorus friends, and when we sing in Provincetown or Boston and hear back from people in the audience, there's a sense of connection that both the guys on stage and the people who come to hear us feel and enjoy. When I read a review about our performance or see a YouTube clip of us up on stage, my heart just about bursts with pride. Our mission is to create a better and more accepting society through song, but we are the beneficiaries of our own work, too. If we bring healing to others, it's only because we are also healed."

So: What do you think? A little long, maybe, unless we imagine that we're riding a rickety elevator to the top of the Empire State Building.

But will it convince you to come to our Pride Concert, 'All You Need is Love?' I mean, what's not to love about the music of the Beatles? It's the evenings of June 9, 10, and 12, at the John Hancock Hall.

Or how about the absolutely bitchen party we're throwing in a couple of weeks, a get-together we like to call Crescendo? It's at the House of Blues this year. Buy a VIP ticket and come hang with this year's special guest, Jennifer Coolidge. Of course you know who she is--she's "Stiffler's Mom!"

It's fun. You'll feel good, and you'll do good. So come hear us, come party with us--and think about auditioning. Even if you don't live in Boston, there are many gay choruses around the country, and they belong to the same international group we do, GALA. We're one big community--and that's really our message.

Straight or gay, we're united through music.