San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus soloists ‘received death threats’ after satirical song is misunderstood – By Beth Greenfield (Yahoo Life) / July 8 2021
“A Message From the Gay Community,” performed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC) and posted to YouTube last week, starts out defiantly: “You think we’re sinful, you fight against our rights, you say we all lead lives you can’t respect…”
Then it gets downright satirical: “We’ll convert your children,” teases one of the soloists, parodying an age-old anti-gay narrative, before adding, “We’ll make them tolerant and fair.”
But not everyone got the joke. The video, which was posted just before the July 4 holiday weekend, went viral and was then lambasted by conservative media for its child-focused theme, even prompting death threats against the vocalists, according to the director of the chorus, Chris Verdugo. In response, the chorus removed the video, by setting it to private-only mode.
“It was a difficult decision, because we are an organization whose mission really is both artistic but also activist,” Verdugo tells Yahoo Life. “We are the first gay men’s chorus on the planet. … We are a social justice organization … so it’s very difficult for us to decide to take down that video. But the soloists — who are not in the chorus but, in their own right, rising Broadway stars, have received death threats.”
