Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus celebrates 40 years of community through music

The Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus has been around for 40 years, but it was “in the closet,” as one former member said, for the first half of its existence.

“At the time, none of us felt safe having it called the Gay Men’s Chorus, so it was decided the first few years we would be the Sacramento Men’s Chorus,” said Dennis “Denny” Mangers, one of the groups’ founding members. “We wore black pants and white shirts, and we behaved really well.”

The group was out and proud Sunday at Southside Park, where it performed a 40th anniversary celebration concert. The “birthday bash” concert featured songs including “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross and “Sissy That Walk” by RuPaul.

Those songs “tell our stories as much as we can,” said artistic director Alex Heetland. They are “by queer icons, songs that have been part of the queer story.”

The Peace and Justice Choir and the Sacramento Pop Choir also performed.

At the time of the group’s founding, there were few anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. Started at the height of the AIDS epidemic with little more than a dozen members, the group became a place for its singers to express themselves freely and find community with each other.

“The chorus during that time for us, was our safe haven,” said Dr. Steve Winlock, another founding member and Sacramento Arts commissioner. “We could be together and be who we were and feel like that we weren’t going to be threatened in some ways.”

While it provided a space for connection and support, the chorus was also impacted by the AIDS crisis.

“Many members of our own chorus fell ill. We had to sing for some funerals that were sobering at the time,” Mangers said. “And the overall atmosphere for being an LGBT person didn’t feel safe.”

Now with 110 singers, the chorus still fulfills its original purpose as a place for people to connect and celebrate the LGBTQ community through music, Heetland said. While it retains its name as a tribute to its history, the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus is open to anyone who can sing in a tenor or bass range.

“We’ve got some straight guys, we’ve got some straight women. We’ve got queer women, we’ve got trans people, we’ve got nonbinary folks,” he said. “It’s so exciting to have such a wide expression of our queer community in our group.”

While much of the chorus’ repertoire is joyful and celebratory, the group also gives tribute to the pain and struggles LGBTQ people have faced as they fought for rights and acceptance.

The group is scheduled to perform “Considering Matthew Shepard,” a 105-minute program that tells the story and celebrates the life of Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student who was brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998, on June 5 at the Mondavi Center in Davis.

Founding members Whitlock and Mangers – a former state Assemblyman – said while California is generally supportive of the LGBTQ community and the arts, there are troubling undertones in the current political climate.

Soon after President Donald Trump appointed himself chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., a performance featuring the city’s Gay Men’s Chorus was canceled.

“We’re not having to face that. But Steve and I are well aware that what happens there – and it’s happening in Florida and some of the other states – could happen here, and that’s why we’re as vigilant politically as we are artistically,” Mangers said.

Singing in harmony as a group “makes you feel more like a family, more together,” he said.

Heetland, the artistic director, agreed. “That sounds so cheesy, but when you sing with a group together … there’s no other way that you feel like you’re striving towards a common goal together and creating something beautiful. That’s what I love,” he said.

This story was originally published May 25, 2025 at 5:38 PM.