A Picture to Remember, by Carol White

In the early 1980s my partner Judith and I had attended the Gay Games in San Francisco, the second one to be held in that city.  It’s actually the Gay Olympics, but the “real” Olympics would not allow us to use that word, so the founders decided to call it the Gay Games.  And they decided that the third one should be held outside the United States, but not too far away, so that it would have more of an “international” flavor to it.  They decided on Vancouver, British Columbia for August 1990, and they would call it Celebration ’90: Gay Games and Cultural Festival, since they were adding many of the arts as well as the sporting events.

Around the beginning of 1988 I got a harebrained idea that it would be fun to organize and conduct a world chorus to sing at that event, and that it would be called the Celebration ’90 Festival Chorus.  So I made a couple of trips to Vancouver to meet with the organizers of the games and managed to convince them to let me do it! 

We formed a small organizing committee in Denver that met in our living room, and we began two years of effort to make that dream come true.  At that time we had no computers and no email and no Facebook or websites to aid us in our recruitment efforts.  So we began to put ads in gay and lesbian publications across the country, as well as advertising through the Gay Games themselves, and trying to use GALA Choruses too, although most of the choruses were not interested because they were so busy with their own rehearsals and concerts.  I rented a P.O. Box at a nearby post office, and I would go by there every day and check to see if we had a new soprano or alto or tenor or bass. 

I decided what music we would sing and we raised money to order all the music, as well as black folders and T-shirts that one of our members had designed.  Somehow I got rehearsal tapes made, which were really the old cassette tapes, and as the time approached, we had mailing parties to send out all the music and tapes and fold and pack all the shirts. 

Meanwhile we were working full time at our jobs and we were not out at work.

After many trials and tribulations, we flew to Vancouver on a Friday in August of 1990 with great anticipation but not knowing exactly what to expect.  The next morning we went to the church where we were supposed to rehearse, and 400 singers showed up with music in hand and ready to go.  We had members from 20 states, seven Canadian provinces, the Yukon Territory, Australia, England, Germany, France, and South Africa.  We arranged them in sections where the congregation would normally sit, and I was up front.  You can just imaging that the first sounds that came out of that choir were absolutely thrilling! 

We had three hours to rehearse that morning, then a lunch break, and that afternoon we rehearsed at B.C. Place, which was Vancouver’s domed stadium, to perform there that very night with three songs for Opening Ceremonies.  They had built risers for us and they were set up on the field. 

By the time we got to the stadium that night for Opening Ceremonies, the energy was through the roof.  There were approximately 10,000 athletes from all over the world, and approximately 10,000 spectators from around the world in the stands who had come to observe.  The chorus went out onto the risers and sang, “Come celebrate, come celebrate, come celebrate our spirit.  The sound of hearts that beat with pride, now let the whole world hear it.” 

Then we sat together in the stands while we had the parade of athletes just like the Olympics, where they marched in in teams from all the different countries and they congregated in the middle of the field.  After some speeches and other performances, the chorus went back out and sang “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Mis.  This song happened while they were running the torch into the stadium, and just as they ran up the stairs and lit the Olympic flame, we finished the song with “Tomorrow comes.”  It was midnight. 

The next morning I could hardly get out of bed.  My body ached all over.  But we had to rehearse all morning every morning for a concert that we were going to give on Friday night at the Plaza of Nations, an outdoor venue which had been built for the World’s Fair when it was held there. 

So Sunday through Friday we worked on the concert program as follows:  Diversity, Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera, March of the Hebrew Captives from Verdi’s Nabucco, Song of Peace from Finlandia, Living with AIDS, The Great Peace March, Brothers and Sisters, and Singing for Our Lives.  And early Friday evening we performed all of those selections to a packed crowd at the Plaza of Nations.  Here is the “picture to remember” from that concert.

Then we rehearsed again on Saturday for the Closing Ceremonies that were to be held that night back at B.C. Place, where we sang “We’re gonna keep on moving forward, Keep on moving forward, Keep on moving forward, Never Turning Back, Never Turning Back.” 

After the chorus sang that night, Judith and our friend Bob and I went up into the stands to watch the rest of the show.  They used the chorus on the field to form two long lines holding up flags for the big parade to pass through.  I remember looking down at that scene as the happiest time in my whole life.  We had actually pulled it off!  I think it was an extremely happy time for a lot of other people there too.

After everyone went back home, several of the individuals who had sung in that chorus organized gay and lesbian choruses in their home towns, including Winnipeg, Manitoba; Toronto, Ontario; Victoria, B.C., and Sydney, Australia. 

I have not attended any Gay Games since then, but it is my understanding that each one has included a Festival Chorus.

© April 2015

About the Author 

I was born in Louisiana in 1939, went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas from 1957 through 1963, with majors in sacred music and choral conducting, was a minister of music for a large Methodist church in Houston for four years, and was fired for being gay in 1967.  After five years of searching, I settled in Denver and spent 30 years here as a freelance court reporter.  From 1980 forward I have been involved with PFLAG Denver, and started and conducted four GLBT choruses:  the PFLAG Festival Chorus, the Denver Women’s Chorus, the Celebration ’90 Festival Chorus for the Gay Games in Vancouver, and Harmony.  I am enjoying my 11-year retirement with my life partner of 32 years, Judith Nelson, riding our bikes, going to concerts, and writing stories for the great SAGE group.