SFGMC Returns to St. Ignatius, 37 Years Later

In October 2018, as the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus prepared for its 40th anniversary concert, Chronicle columnist Heather Knight told the story behind the venue: St. Ignatius Church, the same church where the chorus had been turned away decades earlier.

What happened in 1981

The young chorus was booked to sing at St. Ignatius on April 25, 1981. Weeks before, Archbishop John Quinn canceled the concert, saying it could be misread as church approval of homosexuality. The chorus had already sold tickets and hired the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. It went to court, lost its bid to keep the concert on, and later settled with the church for $5,000. Longtime members told the Chronicle the cancellation felt like a betrayal; it sparked protests, and replacement concerts at smaller venues sold out.

An unexpected invitation

In spring 2018, Artistic Director Tim Seelig received a letter from St. Ignatius inviting the chorus to perform. Father Greg Bonfiglio, a pastor there, told the Chronicle the church had invited a range of choirs as a way of building bridges, and called the concert a chance to repair the relationship.

“This concert offers us an opportunity to repair the relationship after all these years.”

— Father Greg Bonfiglio, as quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle

Singing for the fifth section

For the anniversary concert, the chorus, soprano Ellie Dehn and a chamber orchestra performed When We No Longer Touch, the first requiem dedicated to people who died of AIDS. Chorus historian Tom Burtch told the Chronicle that the chorus’s “fifth section,” its list of members who have died, then numbered 389, most of them lost to AIDS. Robert Rufo, the only singer who had been with the chorus since its 1978 founding, remembered the first cancellation well.