The chorus quickly became a success, and in 1981 embarked a nine-city tour of America. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Tours America 1981 visited nine cities: Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Lincoln, Nebraska; Detroit, Michigan; New York City; Boston, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C.; and Seattle, Washington. The tour ended back in San Francisco with a performance at Davies Symphony Hall.
The performance in Boston took place on June 16. The Sunday before the concert, the Boston Globe included an interview with SFGMC director Dick Kramer, who said:
‘We wouldn’t have such a powerful chorus if we weren’t gay. The fact that we are banding together as gay men draws those with talent to us. You know, gay people have felt oppressed even within the art of music; they want to get together and say ‘we’re gay’ and make music and make art. There’s nothing so unusual about that—it’s like a group of Russians getting together to play chamber music, or any other community that wants to make music together. We are this persuasion, this nationality.
Two days after the concert, the Globe reviewer wrote of the show:
Many more famous musical organizations could learn a thing or two form the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Their program in the Opera House was varied, mostly well-chosen, and performed (from memory) with unwavering enthusiasm. The group won the attention of its audience from its first snappy entrance from the wings, held it throughout, and had the crowd screaming for more at the end — the audience expected to have a good time at a concert of musical substance, which is unusual, and that is what it got, which is more unusual still.
The concert was by all accounts an incredible success for Boston’s LGBTQ community. One person present in the audience was a man named Josef Bevins. He had the idea to bring a chorus together specifically from members of our community. Working with a woman whose name has been lost to memory, the plan was to a create an SATB mixed-voice chorus. Advertisements were placed in the Gay Community News looking for members. In February 1982, a group of thirty people met for the first time at the Boston Center for the Arts’ Community Music Center on Warren Avenue. Unfortunately, over the next few meetings, only a handful of women showed up. This was during a period where gays and lesbians often socialized and organized separately. Unfortunately, the idea of the chorus was not enough to overcome these differences, and the women quickly realized that the mixed-voice idea was not to be. They wished the men luck, and moved on. Thus we became the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.