‘For nearly five decades, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles has believed that music can do more than entertain – it can create community, give voice to those who have been silenced, and help change hearts and minds.
‘Founded in 1979 at the dawn of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, GMCLA has sung through some of the most consequential chapters in our community’s history: the struggle for equality, the devastating years of the AIDS crisis, the fight for marriage equality, and the continuing work for dignity, acceptance and belonging.
‘Alongside our performances, that mission has grown to include free community concerts and our Alive Music Project, which has reached more than 100,000 young people with messages of acceptance and hope.
‘The AIDS epidemic holds a particularly profound place in the history of GMCLA. Like gay men’s choruses across America, we lost far too many members and friends during those years, and music became both an act of mourning and an act of resistance. We sang at memorials, we sang for people who could no longer sing beside us, and we sang against the fear, stigma and silence surrounding HIV and AIDS. That history is one reason our first-ever visit to the UK felt as though it should be about more than simply giving concerts. We wanted our time in London to have a purpose that reflected where we came from and the values we still carry with us today.
‘Choosing Terrence Higgins Trust as the beneficiary of our London concerts therefore felt deeply meaningful. The Trust was born out of the same crisis that so profoundly shaped GMCLA and the wider LGBTQ+ community, and its continuing work to end new HIV cases and confront HIV stigma speaks directly to a struggle our organisations have shared across generations and across the Atlantic.
‘While extraordinary progress has been made since the darkest days of the epidemic, that work is not finished. We are proud that the proceeds from our three London performances will help support Terrence Higgins Trust’s mission – and honored to stand alongside an organisation that has transformed grief and loss into decades of advocacy, education and care.
‘Nearly 80 GMCLA singers will arrive in London following our appearances at WorldPride Amsterdam for Love Across the Pond, three concerts at The Actors’ Church in Covent Garden on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 August. The music ranges from Motown and Broadway to gospel, pop and LGBTQ+ anthems – a celebration of joy, resilience and the extraordinary culture our community has created.
‘But beneath all of it is something very simple: a belief that our histories are connected, our struggles have crossed borders and so has our pride. After 47 years of singing for equality and belonging, we can think of no more fitting partner for our first performances in the UK than Terrence Higgins Trust.’