The
San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band has touched numerous lives in
many ways in its over 25 years of performing. You can also submit your
musical memory via e-mail to sflgfb@yahoo.com.
Here are memories from a few of the lives that the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band has touched:
I was in the SF band for two years, '92-'94,
playing the trumpet. It was a great experience for me, a defining part
of being out, having community, and giving back to the city of San
Francisco. When we went to NYC in 1994 for Gay Games, I met my future
partner... I moved to NYC in 1995, and my partner, Mary, and I have
been together 11 years now. Wow, I'm old! Being in the band was so
important to me. Identity, friendships, musicianship, community... the
only sad times were saying good-bye to friends who went way too early,
before they were ready to go, before I was ready to say "good-bye."
Gayle Mahoney
What a journey, my life has taken many chartered and
unchartered paths and the road that hold me near and dear still to this
very moment is the love and care road each and every member of this
band has access to. In many ways this band saved my life! Thank you for
the ability to have dreams and memories.
Every Tuesday night I struggle to remember to
turn onto Howard street and stand in my ministry commitment, and when I
do stop and pray and focus I remember where I learned the true meaning
of harmony, unison, crescendo, decrescendo and these gifts are now
tools in my ministry belt. I know some day soon Tuesday nights will be
free again and I will be with my family and friends in a new way
learning and growing a new.
I thank God for the Freedom Band!!! I know the
work you do in the world changes lives, brings healing balm to those
who suffer in silence, brings hope to the youth who see everything in
the Gay and Lesbian lifestyle as temporary and not stable, you bring
the longevity and stability.
I Love You and Miss You, With Great Respect and Love I Welcome You all with All of My Heart into My Heart.
Miriasiem Barnes
Congratulations on the 20th Anniversary. How time
flies! As one of the original charter members of the San Francisco Gay
Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps (as it was called back
then), I send my congratulations from Tokyo, Japan, where I now live
and where I happened by chance upon your website today.
I knew Jon, of course, and he, Fred Terranova
(now also deceased), Allen Young (still very much alive), and I along
with a few others had breakfast often in the Norse Cove (now Cove Cafe)
on Castro Street, where we planned the organization of the band. While
Jon was certainly the inspiration and driving force behind the Band,
many other volunteers were involved even at the earliest stages of
distributing fliers. Allen Young worked at Byron Hoyt. He is an oboist,
but his major contribution back then was to organize the (all male)
Twirling Corps.
At our first rehearsal (held on a Sunday
afternoon at the old Trocadero Transfer, a late night disco south of
Market which gave us free rehearsal space for a while), nobody,
including Jon, had any idea who would show up or how many people would
come. When well over a hundred musicians assembled (around 17 flutists
if I recall), nobody could believe it. When we discovered that a large
number (around half) not only had been high school and college
musicians, but also had degrees in music, we were dumbfounded.
Jon had chosen just a couple of numbers for the
upcoming parade, and had gotten hold of Jr. High versions from Byron
Hoyt in easier keys because he had no idea what the abilities of the
musicians would be. Well, that day´s rehearsal was the first of many
surprises that awaited all of us. The first read-through of the pieces
knocked us all out because the band sounded like the Univ. of Michigan
Marching Band or The Eastman Wind Ensemble. I am not exaggerating. The
musicianship was really amazing, much to our amazement.
We had no uniforms and no money, of course, so
one of the band members who had a design studio (Tandy was his first
name and he played Baritone) designed a red logo for the band (which
also appeared on the recruitment posters) and silk-screened a hundred
or so t-shirts. At that time, cloth military belts were popular as part
of the macho Castro "clone" look, and we decided to wear levis with red
army-style belts with our t-shirts. We also wore little red-billed
cloth visors. That was our first uniform. I´m sure you must have
pictures of all this in your archives.
I am a trombonist, so I was in the front row as
we turned onto Market Street in front of the Hyatt Regency with the
straight tourist crowd lined up on either side of the street, and I
will never forget the feeling of simultaneous chills and warmth I had
then as we struck up Sousa´s _High School Cadets_. (I´m not sure
whether it was a stroke of genius or mere serendipity that led Jon to
choose this March, but for those of us who grew up in the closet and
found our solace in what was often considered years ago as the
sissified atmosphere of bands, it was a juicily symbolic piece to be
playing).
As we marched down Market Street that morning,
playing "California Here I Come" and "High School Cadets", I and many
others knew that we were making history, that we were in fact building
a community that would never perish.
There was at that time no marching band
arrangement of "San Francisco", so sometime later, I bought a copy of
the sheet music and made a band arrangement, which we played for as
long as I was in the band. I´m sure you have much better arrangements
than mine, but I hope the original score is floating around in your
archive/library somewhere. I donated the score to the Band and
inscribed a dedication to the Band.
This is all very nostalgic for me, of course, and
as I´m sure you know that many political squabbles later marred the
early history of the lesbian and gay musical groups, but the important
fact is that they have survived--and for twenty years!!!
I am delighted to have been part of that early
history, and I truly cherish these memories that I have shared with you
here. I once talked to Lon (?), a flutist in the original band, about
doing some oral history depositions, but we lost contact. I come to San
Francisco once or twice a year, however, and would love to visit the
center (which I have never seen) and look at whatever archival
materials might be there.
Best wishes again on our 20th Anniversary.
Bill Boletta
When Jose Sarria first suggested that the Freedom Band
invite me to dance with them, I was astonished at the quality of music
this group delivered on a consistent basis. Since then, I have
performed numerous times with the band in many capacities and have
found that their talent is matched by their heart. I love the band as I
love my family. And if anyone ever says anything bad about lesbians and
gays as a group, I instantly point out the band as the best of gays and
lesbians in the history of society.
Dear Diva
I joined the Band in 1978. Our first appearance after
the Pride Parade was the Columbus Day Parade. Jon (Sims) decided to
surround our marching members with "body guards" just in case of
trouble. My fondest memory was when we stopped in North Beach in front
of a drunken and belligerent straight crowd. They were shouting the
usual homophobic obscenities at us when Jon decided to have us play
"Stars & Stripes Forever." By the end of our performance, these
same hecklers were CHEERING us!! It was the power of music, I guess. We
went on to win first prize!
Don Scales
My fondest memory of the band was in college. I was a
freshman at LSU in Baton Rouge, La. and decided to go to the Lesbian
Gay Student Organization. It was there that I saw the Life and times of
Harvey Milk and saw a clip of the band marching down Market St. I
remember saying to myself that I HAVE to be in that band!!! After I
graduated from college, I contacted Doug Litwin who told me I was very
welcome to play with the band that summer. For the first time in my
life I felt I belonged in band and didn't feel quite so bitter about
being the 'band gay man' I had been called throughout my high school
years in music. And the rest....well, the rest in history.
Christopher Smith
There are so many many BIG memories I have of The
Band, but one of the smaller yet very significant ones I recall was the
opening of the Wells Fargo Bank in the Castro. Of all places--a
bank--to first hear and then see The Band coming up over the hill and
down Castro Street in full uniform, playing their hearts out! It makes
me so proud to live in the Castro, have my bank in the Castro, and be
treated to The Official San Francisco Band marching down my street!
Kudos!!!
Sister Dana Van Iquity
It was 1998 and I was standing in the Exploratorium.
And there was the band in full uniform providing a marching escort for
my then-boss as he walked to the other end of the Palace of Fine Arts,
all of it being broadcast live to radio stations around the country and
streamed world-wide on the Internet. And I remember turning around,
looking at a volunteer and saying "is this really happening?"
I joined the band a few months after that and it
led to some of the most memorable experiences of my life, from quiet
times at band camp to appearing in a mini-skirt and a beehive wig in
front of a few hundred strangers at the 2000 Dance-Along. It also gave
me the opportunity to support, and I hope have a small impact within,
the lesbian/gay/freedom community, something I strongly believe in.
Thank you, for all of it.
Ian Gerrard
Being a member of the band has touched my life in more
ways than I ever thought were possible. It's given my friends I
cherish, music I love, and memories that will last me for the rest of
my life. None have touched me as much as the first DAN I ever played
in. It seemed like so much work, grueling hours of rehearsal for 20
pieces of music that almost drove me right round the bend. I swore up
and down that this was the first and last time I'd do this. Then came
the first show. Grumbling because I had to get up early on a Saturday
morning, groggy and nervous as all get out, I couldn't wait to get it
over with. Showtime came, and as I watched the house fill up, I was
amazed at how large the crowd was. Then came the worries. Am I going to
sound good, what if I blow it, how am I going to get through this
without throwing up? So many thoughts running through my head I didn't
have time to think. Then before I even knew it, Jadine was giving us
the downbeat to the overture, then rapidly we played through each
number, the crowd roaring it's approval with each number. Then all of a
sudden we played the last piece, the last note, the last dance and then
too fast it was over, but I had done it, I had played my guts out and
played damn good. I remember going home with praise in my ears and a
smile on my face. It's given me warm thoughts ever since. Thoughts that
keep me warm on a cold winters night when I'm feeling alone. I think
back, smile and feel the warmth course through me. It's a feeling I
never want to let go away, and I know it never will.
Chris Cooney
I had been away from the United Methodist Church for
25 years. I was angry at the church for not leading the fight for the
liberation of LGBT people, as it had led on many other social justice
issues. I felt a yearning in the mid-1990s to return, and I saw a flyer
that said the Lesbian/Gay Band would play a concert at Bethany United
Methodist Church in Noe Valley. I knew that if Bethany allowed such a
concert within its walls, this particular United Methodist Church could
not be all that bad. I started attending Bethany's worship service on a
regular basis, and now am an active member. The band's concerts at
Bethany still continue several times a year. Thanks, band! My return to
the church has been very meaningful to me.
Bruce Pettit
Twenty-five years ago my son Jim and I attended our
first Gay Freedom Parade. At that time, he was employed by a
conservative law firm where he was very much in the closet. As the
small band marched by, Jim's eyes lit up and he turned to me and
declared, "I want to play my clarinet in that band." We both knew this
would be his coming out. The next year he marched down Market Street,
tootling on his horn, for all of the world, including his legal
partners, friends and relatives, to see.
Mary Ellen Haight
