Portland Gay Men's Chorus

Last updated

Portland Gay Men's Chorus
AbbreviationPGMC
Formation1980;46 years ago (1980)
Type Nonprofit
Location
Affiliations GALA Choruses
Website www.pdxgmc.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Portland Gay Men's Chorus (PGMC) is a gay-identified, non-profit choral group based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The group was founded in 1980 and formally incorporated in 1981, and is the fourth oldest chorus to publicly identify as gay by using that description in their official name. Today, the group is open to all adults regardless of gender or sexuality, and currently includes singers who are women, transgender, and/or straight. [1]

Contents

Since its founding, PGMC has been active in the civic and cultural life of Portland and Oregon more broadly. [1] The group holds an annual holiday concert and performances for Pride Month in June, and regularly appears at the Portland Pride Festival. [2] PGMC has also performed at places and events as varied as the openings of Pioneer Courthouse Square and the Oregon Convention Center, the Oregon Zoo, Portland City Club, and the Oregon State Legislature. The group sang at the 1985 inauguration of Oregon Secretary of State Barbara Roberts, making it the first LGBTQ chorus to sing for the inauguration of an elected state official. [1] [3]

PGMC is a charter member of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses and has performed with other LGBTQ choruses, including its local counterparts–the Portland Lesbian Choir, an LGBTQ youth choir called Bridging Voices, and Rose City Pride Bands–as well as national and international groups like the Beijing Queer Chorus. [1] [4] [5] [6] [7] PGMC has collaborated with the Oregon Ballet Theatre and the Oregon Symphony, and has commissioned pieces by composers such as Kate Campbell, Lou Harrison, Anne LeBaron, Robert Seeley, Tom Simonds, Tomáš Svoboda, and David York. [1]

History

In April 1980, Gary Coleman, Mark Jones, and Mark Richards were inspired by a performance of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. They placed an advertisement in a local newspaper called The Fountain, looking for potential members for a choral performance at the upcoming Portland Pride Festival. Twenty men responded, twelve showed up for rehearsal, and on June 19, 1980, the group sang in their inaugural concert at the Metropolitan Community Church of Portland. PGMC was formally incorporated on June 30, 1981, and quickly grew to over 100 members. [1] [8]

PGMC lost more than 120 members to HIV/AIDS during the beginning of the AIDS crisis, at one point dwindling to only 30 members. [1] During this time, the group worked to raise funds for HIV/AIDS activist groups, such as the Cascade AIDS Project, which PGMC still works with today. [2]

In the 1990s, PGMC toured in protest of 1992 Oregon Ballot Measure 9, which would have amended the Constitution of Oregon to say that homosexuality is "abnormal" and "perverse". [8] The measure failed, but two years later, 1994 Oregon Ballot Measure 13 was proposed, and the group went on another protest tour of the new measure, which was expected to have a similar effect on the LGBTQ community in Oregon. [8] [9]

PGMC was one of the Portland cultural icons to appear in the 2011 TV show Portlandia . [10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Grubbs, Terrill. "Portland Gay Men's Chorus". The Oregon Encyclopedia .
  2. 1 2 McCann, Fiona (December 9, 2015). "What's It Like to Sing With the Portland Gay Men's Chorus? (Hint: Pretty Awesome)". Portland Monthly. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  3. ↑ Kramer, Linda (July 21, 1985). "New Right, AIDS stirs Gay Community". Oregonian.
  4. ↑ "Portland Gay Men's Chorus". GALA Choruses. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  5. ↑ Lemus Kristensen, Isabel (December 1, 2025). "5 Portland Activist and Community Choirs to Know". Portland Monthly. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  6. ↑ Shastri, Kamna (March 14, 2018). "Beijing Queer Chorus sings for a better world – The Seattle Globalist". The Seattle Globalist. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  7. ↑ Ogle, Wesleigh (March 17, 2018). "Beijing Queer Chorus, Portland Gay Men's Chorus to perform at Reed". KATU. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 Holm, Samantha (July 3, 2024). "Portland Gay Men's Chorus celebrates 45 years of music and activism". KATU. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Oregon Anti-Gay Ballot Measures". www.glapn.org. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Portlanders Bid Mixed Goodbyes To 'Portlandia'". opb. Retrieved January 25, 2026.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.