Screeching to the Choir

[April 2nd, 2003] The three most terrifying words in the queer canon are: Gay. Men's. Chorus.

Nowadays, there's one in every city. And almost every one of these gay glee clubs can reduce a once-sensible queer man into a babbling Broadway banshee. For many, this is one aspect of our homo troop we'd like to keep in the closet.

But I don't know how it's going to stay there for much longer. That's because HBO's favorite gay son, "David Fisher" (Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under fame), has recently come out as a loud member of the queer choir. I can only assume he's the sort of gay guy who thinks sexual identity lies somewhere "Over the Rainbow."

Although I'd never admit to
liking choral music, there is something about this stuff that makes me secretly want to join in, too. Perhaps it's a need to open my mouth and have something other than phlegm fly out.

I do know that the Portland Gay Men's Chorus has something to do with my interest, despite the fact its next show is filled with cheery, queer choral music (Gilbert & Sullivan, anyone?).

Now, truth is, I've heard the PGMC sing. Unfortunately, I don't think much of its music, like that of most queer vocal groups. But I think the power of this group is not in its collective vocal chords, but in the bonds it builds in both the choir and the greater gay community.

On that basis alone, this group rocks. Take, for example, what it's done for Andy Cruz. A 35-year-old chiropractor, Cruz started singing with the choir soon after he moved here from Alaska in '99. Feeling like an outsider as a teacher and a part-time park ranger in our 49th state, Cruz saw the choir as a place to be at home being a homo.

And the social and artistic challenge it presented has proven worthwhile, as well as daunting. "Some of the guys have well-trained voices," says Cruz of his fellow choristers. "I'm not one of them."

One who can croon a golden tune is 32-year-old Jason Christensen. A downtown parking-enforcement deputy (he's the one who smiles), Jason started singing choir music in an Iowa junior high. Having joined the PGMC in '97, he describes his gay choral experience as a "rush." Loving the sense of fraternity he has with 100 other men who "care about what is going on in your life," Jason is a firm believer that there's room for both the vocally gifted and "those with room to improve" in a group like PGMC.

"We all give it our best," said Jason. "And where else can a parking deputy interact with a doctor, a lawyer, a judge and a baker and still come out singing on top?"

Or perhaps bottom, depending on what you're into.