Hello, and welcome to our concert, “Legacies.”
In putting together this concert, a great deal of consideration was given to the fact that we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of one of the seminal works out of GALA Choruses, NakedMan. NakedMan in its entirety describes the experiences of what it was like to be a gay or bisexual man in the time of AIDS. While you will not hear the majority of the commission this evening, “Legacies” includes commissioned works from other GALA choruses which also cover many of the themes included in NakedMan. I wish to thank the composers Robert Seeley and Robert Espindola for creating this outstanding piece of music.
I’d like to take a moment to recognize the following: Many of you in our audience have never had the opportunity to hear NakedMan. In fact, quite a few of you are from a generation that has never felt the impact of AIDS. The closest analogy that any of your generation can relate to is the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Even here, however, there are marked differences. Covid-19 sparked a massive worldwide lockdown and a desperate search for a vaccine that would eventually slow the spread of the disease. Not so with AIDS. For years, AIDS was considered to be a gay disease, and thus an entire population of people was decimated by the virus both before and after President Ronald Reagan finally acknowledged the disease’s existence in 1987 after the death of his friend, Rock Hudson. Eventually, research was started in the hopes of finding a vaccine for the disease.
As of 2026, there is still no cure for AIDS.
I can tell you that there are countless stories about how each of our members has dealt with AIDS, homophobia, religious fundamentalism, and worse. Indeed, this is the concert in which I wish we could explain what it was like to live through the AIDS crisis. With such a short amount of time allotted to us, I would like to instead like to acknowledge the one lesson that we can impart to our audience in the two hours we have with you: Our voices matter. Especially in these times, when civil rights laws are failing us and we are beset by many people who would see our communities suffer, this is our time to sing out. We’ve learned this lesson the hard way many times over through the AIDS crisis, ballot measures put forth by the OCA and other groups, and more. And still, we sing. We have taken the lessons of the civil rights movement to heart in recognizing that when we protest together, we create an indomitable force of change that is impossible to ignore. By being present here, both as audience members as well as through the partnership of our combined choruses, we stand strong as a unified community that is working tirelessly for change and equal rights. Thank you for joining us.
You may read more about “Legacies” and get your tickets here: https://portland-gay-mens-chorus.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0SPC000002vudq2AA
Freedman on the Go 
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