Because so many people attended the opening of the Turtle Creek Chorale’s Sing-in for Dignity, the show moved from the Interfaith Peace Chapel to the main sanctuary for the evening.
The chorale is staging a 24-hour sing-in supporting the transgender community, which is under attack by elected officials in Austin.
Chorus director Sean Baugh said the day’s events include eight or nine speakers, four or five groups, four singers as well as 110 members of the chorale. One of the groups that performed was a quartet from the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles.
The Trans Chorus of Los Angeles is the only transgender chorale in the country. Director Lindsey Deaton said the group has more than 30 members and has been performing for two years. Deaton said every member is transgender or gender-nonconforming.
Deaton said for the first 14 months, she commuted from Ohio to L.A. until the group could support her moving to California. Now the chorus is performing an 11-concert season.
Deaton said the chorus is a safe place for trans people and compared the chorus to the gay men’s choruses that popped up in every major city during the AIDS crisis.
This was the first trip the chorus has taken and the first time the quartet performed together. The trip wasn’t confirmed until Thursday and its first rehearsal was on Friday, but they brought down the house.
The city of Dallas not only issued a proclamation for Sing-in for Dignity, but paid for the transportation and hotels for the L.A. singers from its arts budget.
Quartet member Katerick Lash said he’s come up with the perfect name for the quartet: The Von Trans Family Singers.
They’ll be performing on Saturday morning, Aug. 12 at 9 a.m. for the breakfast Cathedral of Hope serve to the homeless and again on Saturday afternoon.
Baugh said they brought over cartons of sheet music and the chorale will perform in the Interfaith Peace Chapel until 7 p.m. on Saturday. The event is free, but donations are being accepts for Lambda Legal, which will fight any anti-trans legislation that might pass in the last week of the legislature, and the Transgender Council of Cathedral of Hope.