SF Gay Men’s Chorus Get Death Threats Over ‘We’ll Convert Your Children’ Song
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus said it has received hateful messages and death threats after posting a satirical music video describing how the group will “convert your children”.
The song “A Message From The Gay Community” was meant to be “tongue-in-cheek humor”, the group said. However, the line “we’ll convert your children” was taken out of context by conservatives to spew hate.
Doxxing attempts also came from members of various alt-right communities, such as followers of Alex Jones and QAnon. The bevy of hateful comments and death threats got unbearable to the point that the group, the world’s first openly gay chorus founded in 1978, had to temporarily close their office and send their staff home last week.
Vile Attacks
“The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus was founded, in part, to fight discrimination and bigotry against all peoples. Today, our chorus members are facing death threats, vile attacks, false accusations, doxing, and other forms of harassment because of our satirical video performance ‘Message from the Gay Community’,” a statement from the group said.
#ImFair @GLAAD pic.twitter.com/VCZsbHfT4g
— SF Gay Men's Chorus (@SFGMC) July 10, 2021
“We will not allow ourselves, even in the face of death threats, to retreat or bow to attempts to twist our words, meaning, self-deprecation and humour. We are thankful for the efforts of the San Francisco Police Department and law enforcement for their quick response and assistance in handling these threats,” the group added in a defiant message on its social media pages.
A Message of Equality
According to a message posted on the Chorus’s website, sfgmc.org, the song was meant to be taken as “tongue-in-cheek humour”. However, the supposed joke outraged conservative media commentators and has led to the hate and harassment of the group and its members.
“We’ll convert your children,” sang one vocalist. “Happens bit by bit. Quietly and subtly. And you will barely notice it. You can keep them from disco. Warn about San Francisco. Make ’em wear pleated pants. We don’t care. We’ll convert your children. We’ll make them tolerant and fair”.
The video was about teaching children tolerance and acceptance of people who are LGBTQI, but conservatives pounced upon this opportunity to twist the words and misrepresent SF Gay’s Chorus as a cult who convert children.
Advocacy group GLAAD has stood up to speak in support of San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.
“As a result of manipulation from anti-LGBTQ media figures, the Chorus is now facing uncalled-for and disgusting threats of violence, as well as hate and harassment, across social media.”
“As GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index reported, hate and harassment too often goes unchecked on social media and the platforms need to act swiftly to address the hateful content directed at the Chorus, especially the threats of violence. The ugly anti-LGBTQ rhetoric just reinforces the need for LGBTQ visibility, community, and advocacy, all of which the SFGMC has exemplified in its 40+ year history,” said GLAAD.
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Even though death threats are totally unacceptable ………the back question is WHY?
Who in their right mind thought ” a message from the gay community” was a good idea? A good subject matter to include kids as a focal point? The SF gay men’s chorus has just taken ALL the LGBT+ movement back 20 years. All those accusations and stereotypes of pedophobia! This will be used and twisted by every anti- LGBT+ rat bag organisation forever since the internet is forever. This will be global. It’s not just confined to LGBT+ living in the “gay men bubbles” like SF. This will affect LGBT+ living in communities which are not as accepting or safe like SF. This will be used against LGBT+ in places like Russia, Poland, Uganda, Iran and Nigeria. …etc. Or even against LGBT+ with children.
This “song” is so arrogant, smug and totally cringe worthy. No, ‘this message’ doesn’t speak for all the gay community. Did they really think there wouldn’t be a negative reaction or backlash? Never get between a parent and a child, a dog and its puppies….etc. Any PR consultant would advised to leave the kids out of it. Even the narrative that it’s satirical, singing with glorious music that it’s about tolerance, love, rainbows, anti-hate…blah blah blah unicorns doesn’t really work in this PR disaster. The theme of the message got lost when SF gay chorus, a community – our community – whose whole identity is based on sexual orientation, produced an all men video signing “we’re coming for your children”. What a disaster.
And to make matters worse, the brains behind “this message”, Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne, wrote a controversial musical “The boy who danced on air” which romanticized story of the Afghani practice of Bacha bazi , the custom of child (boys as young as 8) sold into sexual slavery and child prostitution. Afghan community were furious. As a gay man with twin daughters, I cannot understand the focus on kids. Plus the song IS directed to parents. Ironically, the majority of gays don’t want kids, are not interested in kids and can’t stand kids. Leave the kids out of it. The SF gay chorus needs to accept the criticism and to acknowledge they got it so wrong. Instead it goes on the defensive. Stop digging that hole. A lot LGBT+ are pissed off of how short sighted they are. SF gay chorus got it wrong in the messaging and needs to consign “a message from the gay community” to the bin.