Houston Pride Band “Celebrates” 30 Year Anniversary

The Houston Pride Band’s 2007-2008 season is called “Celebrate” in honor of our 30th anniversary. We decided that, in addition to celebrating this milestone, we would rededicate ourselves to the community. Thanks to sponsors like Concierge Travel, Resurrection MCC, the City of Houston, and our wonderful supporters, we were able to cover the costs of the concerts. That allowed us to designate beneficiaries to our three paid concerts. These community organizations receive the money collected from ticket sales.

The Fall concert was called “Celebrate Diversity” and featured music from diverse styles and times. We also invited groups from throughout the community to set up booths at the reception afterwards. The concert raised $1,200 for AssistHers a local service group that helps lesbians going through life-threatening illnesses.

In December, we joined with Resurrection MCC to present “Celebrate the Season,” a free Christmas concert. We performed with the RMCC choir, gospel choir, and hand bell choir.

Our Winter Concert, “Celebrate Relationships,” benefitted the local PFLAG chapter. We played “West Side Story,” “Rollo Takes a Walk,” “Ukranian Folk Songs,” “My Funny Valentine,” among other works. At the beginning of the year, we had an infusion of new members, and performed with around 30 musicians for the first time in many years.

Our next performance was at the 2008 Houston AIDS Walk, benefitting the Houston AIDS Foundation. We have played along the walk route for many years, but last year we decided to also register as a team. This year we raised over $2,000 for the cause.

Our next event will be our “Celebrate Families” children’s concert. It will be a free concert in the park in conjunction with the Houston Gay and Lesbian Parent’s organization.

The final event of the season will be our 30th Anniversary Celebration and participation in the Houston Pride Parade the next day. The festivities include a special concert on Friday, 27 June, the Houston Pride Parade on Saturday, and pool party on Sunday. The concert will feature classic Houston Pride Band works as well as some great new music. We are excited that Conductor Emeritus Andy Mills will be conducting a couple of pieces that evening. The beneficiary will be Montrose Counseling Center. We hope that former members as well as our friends from around LGBAland will join us for this great event. We also appreciate any information about the whereabouts of former members and any historical information that anyone has out there.

More information will soon be online at www.houstonprideband.org.

By Kevin Taylor

Gay Freedom Redux, or Milking it for All It’s Worth

The Facts of the Day

On March 9, the San Francisco Band enjoyed a unique opportunity to reenact its founding in 1978. It was pretty special to us; we love to do events where we are working for the gay community, it’s why we exist. This was special.

On that day we participated in the filming of MILK, a major feature film recounting the story of Harvey Milk. We helped to reenact the 1978 Pride Parade where Harvey appeared as a Supervisor for San Francisco and his speech at the festival afterward.

We had 60+ musicians and about 20 twirlers, banner carriers, and a group carrying “cards” that spelled G - A - Y on one side of the cards and F-R-E-E-D-O-M on the other. People were up until 2 am making these things.

I arrived at 8 am and it was a lot of hurrying up and lots to do. We had to distribute uniform parts (red web belts and visors), do a “70s suitability check” to make sure we looked 1978. I bought some faded jeans and plain white tennis shoes (we were recreating exactly what the band wore in ‘78). For a group of nearly 80 people, this was a task.

One of my jobs was to work with another band member to lay out a strip of tape every 7.5 feet, so that people could practice step length. Then I helped people put their belts on. I spent four years in the Air Force, so I was surprised how many did not know how to assemble and wear a web belt. I got to belt some pretty cute guys… my belting skills were praised… Then we tuned, warmed up, played “San Francisco” half a dozen times.

After a bit we got our authentic original re-creation band T-shirts. Well, the thing is, white is a bit hard on the cameras so they made them faintly pink… but we weren’t complaining!

Cleve Jones is the gay activist who created the Quilt (the Names Project). He was a young student then, part of Harvey's crew as campaign manager, and during the day he told us how he talked to Jon Sims about the band being formed and also how the rainbow flag made its debut that day (a HUGE one hung from the balcony of City Hall behind the podium erected for Harvey’s speech).

When filming finally began they started with the (after parade) speech scene. Sean Penn is playing Harvey; he really looked and acted the part convincingly! Penn climbed up on the stage while we all went wild cheering. He made Harvey’s very short speech, maybe a minute or two long, and went off stage, then into the crowd – and walked right past me.

We did that at least 8 more times. The last two they changed camera angles and asked band members to go fill in another area in the background so I wasn’t next to him for those two takes.

About 2 pm they reset the street to film the parade, and the band got its chance to really shine.

We played “San Francisco” a dozen more times, marched a half-block long parade then walked back to the start of the block to reset the scene and did it again, while extras on both sides of the street cheered us.

Eventually they had us march down the street all alone taking half-sized steps so they could record the sound. We played San Francisco three MORE times.

Then we were filmed “arriving” before the parade – we walked loosely, talking among ourselves, pretending we were going for our very first ever march in 1978. This is, I guess, background footage, something they took advantage of, but might not use.

No idea how much of this will hit the cutting room floor.

Reflections - What the Day Felt Like and What It Meant to Me.

Doing the parade felt great. We get a great reception whenever we march, and this was no different. Much of it was for the cameras of course, but when we were going back to reset a lot of people cheered us then, too.

It really did feel inspiring.

Gay FREEDOM Day 1978 (not Pride, we were looking for Freedom then…)

That day was seminal a lot of ways.

I could remember the things Harvey talked about in that speech, especially John Briggs and the Briggs initiative (many “no on 6” buttons), and Anita Bryant.

Most of this we had to explain to the young people in the band.

You know, that felt pretty weird. On one hand I was sad they didn’t know all this, but then how could they? On the other hand I was so glad they didn’t have to live with the Briggs Initiative, which would have made it impossible for openly gay people to teach in public schools.

I was a 28 year old college student, president of the gay students organization at the University of Arizona when all this happened; for me today was kind of special. I feel like I got a chance to engage in something I missed, something really important: the appearance of the first openly gay elected official in the US.

Part of Harvey’s message was “you’ve got to come out!” He knew that acceptance of gay people ultimately depended on our being known, on our being a part of everyone’s daily life. When that happens, people find it almost impossible to discriminate and villanize and distort us.

And really that’s what has happened. It may be frustrating, the Supreme Court may not be helpful, but we aren’t that far away from having our rights legally guaranteed. Ultimately more important, there are progressively fewer areas where the people of America are comfortable discriminating.

So this wasn’t the Mattachine Society, and it wasn’t Stonewall. It wasn’t the very start. But it was a moment when gay people, in one place, decided to seize political power, to demand acceptance, and to show that it could really be done.

What Was Wrought:

One of the women who carried the band’s banner that day related this story to us:

As I was leaving the protected, closed street area on Sunday, I was stopped by a very tall, very large, very official, age 50+ policeman. He apologized for interrupting me and again if he was out of line for asking, but “Would there be any way I could get a size small t-shirt like that?”

Thirty years ago, if I had been stopped by this guy wearing that shirt, I could expect at the very least, serious grief. Today, well.... It seems his 13 year old son came out, and is trying very, very hard to get into Julliard. The policeman was looking forward to telling his son about the band and the filming and having a shirt would be just wonderful.

Thanks Jon, Thanks Harvey, and thank you band!

Oh, I gave him my shirt and told him to have his son join the band while he waits to hear from Julliard.

This little vignette really sums up what has happened in America in the past thirty years. What we all did, we did for that boy, and for his father, too. This outcome we could probably not even have envisioned in 1978. Yet, here we are.

The role one gay band played in that transformation was small, the role each of us played was small, but Harvey knew what he was talking about. The simple fact is, when people know us they find it hard to hate us. And some found out they loved us.

And there is, after all, “nothing more All-American than a marching band.”

Story of the filming:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=0&f=/c/a/2008/03/10/BA12VGVQB.DTL

The Movie Extras website:

http://www.milkmarch.com/

By Phil Oliver

Another Gay Orchestra Has Been Born!

The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS), a newly-formed LGBT orchestra, began rehearsals on Wednesday, March 5 in San Francisco. These rehearsals will be in preparation for a concert on June 8 as part of the Old First Church Concerts series. The BARS has been formed by current and former members of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band.

The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony is an orchestra that provides a safe and supportive environment for musicians of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. The orchestra makes cultural, social, and educational contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area by performing ambitious repertoire to a high standard. The orchestra is one of only four LGBT orchestras in the country, joining the ranks of fellow orchestras in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Chicago.

Repertoire for the June 8 concert will include the Andante from the Concerto for Flute and Harp (K.299) by W.A. Mozart, featuring renowned soloist Karen Thielen on harp and Victor Villareal on flute. Also on the program are the Severnside March by David Barton; the Italian Overture by Franz Schubert; Fanfare by Jean-Joseph Mouret; the Rondo from Abdelazar Suite by Henry Purcell; Pizzicati by Leo Delibes; and the March and Cortege, also by Delibes. Rounding out this varied program will be a premiere performance of the Rainbow Fantasy composed by Jay Pierson.

At the podium for this concert is guest conductor Jay Pierson. Pierson (MM, DMA Eastman School of Music) has enjoyed a career as a teacher, singer, conductor, composer, pianist, and harpist for nearly three decades. Pierson is an active and published composer, having over one hundred pieces to his credit. Presently, he is Director of Music at Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, teaches privately, and is a faculty member at Santa Clara University.

The orchestra is delighted that this concert is part of the Old First Concerts series. One of the Bay Area's most active independent concert series, Old First Concerts has been presenting performances of chamber and recital repertoire on a year-round basis since 1970. Artists are attracted by the excellent acoustics, the superb Steinway concert grand piano, and the series’ willingness to take programming risks by presenting little-known artists or composers.

For more information about the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, visit http://bars-sf.org/Home.html or call (415) 57-VIOLA.

Photo Credit: Megan Gorhan

By Ian Harwood, San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band