The Connecticut Gay Men's Chorus (CGMC) is Connecticut's first and, until 2012, its only performing arts organization composed of openly gay men. It was begun in 1986 by a small group of gay men under the directorship of Robert Read and led by him until 1992. Since 1986 the Chorus has rehearsed in the gymnasium of St. Thomas's Episcopal Church in New Haven.
From 1993 to 2007 the CGMC also performed in September in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a town with a large gay population. The shows, sponsored by the Provincetown Business Guild, have been sold out every year since the first year. The CGMC is a member of GALA, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.
Famous quotes containing the words gay, men and/or chorus:
“The well-cared-for woman is a parasite, and the woman who must work is a slave.”
—Cora Anderson, U.S. male impersonator. As quoted in Gay American History, part 3, by Jonathan Katz (1976)
“We teach boys to be such men as we are. We do not teach them to aspire to be all they can. We do not give them a training as if we believed in their noble nature. We scarce educate their bodies. We do not train the eye and the hand. We exercise their understandings to the apprehension and comparison of some facts, to a skill in numbers, in words; we aim to make accountants, attorneys, engineers; but not to make able, earnest, great- hearted men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I’m fed up! Fed up playing Greek chorus to your rehearsed nightmare!”
—Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)