The last two decades have brought about dramatic changes in attitudes and laws concerning the lives of LGBTQ+ Americans. With Supreme Court decisions in 2003 and 2015 came legalization not only of behavior but of same-sex marriage, and American opinions have largely crept toward acceptance. 

Yet we are far from home. A third of Americans still believe that homosexuality is a choice. And during a one-year period from 2022 to 2023, the percentage of Americans who regard same-sex relations as “morally acceptable” actually dropped, from 71 to 64 percent — according to the international statistic-gathering body Statista.

Moreover, in more than a dozen states, the status of legal protections for LGBTQ+ citizens in employment, housing, and health care remains ambiguous. 

Kansas City’s local choirs have long celebrated the spirit of activism that helps advance the progress of gay and lesbian Americans. At the same time, concerts such as the Heartland Men’s Chorus’ Rise Up! presented earlier this month continue to advance a cautionary tale about complacency in the face of ongoing struggle. 

For despite high-profile victories, gay Americans “must continue to stay hypervigilant, because our community is under attack constantly,” said HMC Artistic Director Shawn Cullen. “It’s vitally important for us to continue to fight … because there are people in this world who have very antiquated views that are rooted in ignorance and, sometimes, in hate.” 

Currently the Heartland choir is working toward an event of even broader regional significance: On July 1st at Church of the Resurrection-Brookside, HMC joins Kansas City Women’s Chorus, Choral Spectrum, and OUTside VoicesKC for a mixed program in preparation for a similar performance the following weekend at the GALA Choral Festival in Minneapolis. 

Cullen has been on the forefront of American choral music for more than a decade, previously as artistic director/conductor of Reveille Men’s Chorus and Desert Voices Chorus in Tucson and since 2020 as artistic director of Kansas City’s 38-year-old Heartland Men’s Chorus.

From 2017 to 2023, he also served a six-year term on the national board of directors for GALA (Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses), which represents more than 100 choirs large and small throughout North America. 

“We are singing activists, singing protest,” Shawn said. In the days before social media transformed public channels of communication, “we had to go to the streets to protest for the things we felt were important,” he added. “Harkening back to that, we’re trying to inspire the next generation to raise its voice in all of the new ways.” 

Gun violence was a surprising topic, perhaps, for the HMC concert, but in recent years it that has had a major impact on the LGBTQ community — through domestic disturbances and suicides but also through hate-inspired shootings such as those in Orlando in 2016 and Colorado Springs in 2022. 

Toward inspiring a move toward equity and human rights, Shawn said that although he understands the common sentiment that “my voice doesn’t count,” he challenges it. “When we can harness just a small spark of passion around one issue, we can inspire that spark to grow,” he said, citing “Louder Than Words” from Tick, Tick, Boom, which occupied a central place on the Heartland program. 

“Why should we try to be our best when we can just get by?” runs Jonathan Larson’s lyric. “Why should we blaze a trail when the well-worn path seems safe and so inviting?” 

The song summarizes the defeatism of a stay-at-home attitude that can become self-fulfilling. “Change starts with someone finding a small moment,” Shawn said, “a spark of passion around a topic that we need to be vocal about.” 

As an example of what collective voices can achieve, Shawn cited the history of American LGBTQ+ choruses themselves, which began to flourish in the 1980s as a direct response to the AIDs crisis and became agents of change.

With beginnings in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago, these groups used music to build awareness and to confront the abysmal response of American officials to a pandemic that has killed millions worldwide. 

Formed in 1986, Heartland Men’s Chorus quickly became one of those voices for change, as it grew from a group of 30 to something four times that size.

Since then, Kansas City has seen the establishment of other ensembles: Kansas City Women’s Chorus was founded in 1999 and now has more than 100 members; Choral Spectrum was formed in 2018 by Robert Michael Patch as a mixed (SATB) choir; and OUTside VoicesKC was established during the pandemic under the auspices of Fountain City Performing Arts. 

“Music puts a face to humanity,” Shawn said. “If you’re doing music right, you are truly a storyteller. … And that storytelling frames the music that we perform.”

Time and again, he added, “we’ve seen music and art successfully engage our audiences, unite people across social divides. Music and theater encourage people to embrace new perspectives, to become more aware of what humanity looks like. … And in the process, it does what our mission and vision try to accomplish, which is to change hearts and minds.” 

Still, “there is more work to do,” Shawn said. “If we lived in a world where kids weren’t attempting and completing suicide just for being who they are; if we lived in a world where we found equality in healthcare for all people; if we lived in a world where all communities were able to adopt children, and where the government supported our marriages without the threat of having those things taken away — then you might have an argument for equality having been achieved. But until then, it’s important for … artistic expression to address these issues.” 

—By Paul Horsley

For tickets and more information about Heartland concerts go to hmckc.org. For more on OUTside VoicesKC, see fcpakc.org, for the Women’s Chorus go to kcwomenschorus.org, and for Choral Spectrum see choralspectrumkc.org. To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send an email to paul@kcindependent.com or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501) or Twitter/Instagram (@phorsleycritic).