Jeffrey McIntyre founded the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus in 1981 because he knew the negative things that the media were saying about gay men and gay culture in were propaganda. Consequently, he wanted to flip the script on this dangerous rhetoric and get a group together to tell true, beautiful stories.  For over 40 years the AGMC has been telling meaningful, powerful, accurate queer stories. The truth is, LGBTQ+ stories told with courage, vulnerability, honesty, and integrity are universal and essential in moving any audience member to be a better ally for the community. Today, the trans community is under fire from the same people who were spouting hateful nonsense 4 decades ago. Our trans siblings’ existence is being threatened by politically imposed, discriminatory laws and cultural violence. In 2023, the ACLU reported over 500 anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation, with the lion’s share of them targeting transgender and non-binary people. This year alone, there are already 125+ pieces of anti-trans legislation, which is triple the number from last year this same time. In light of this reality and in solidarity on behalf of the trans and gender expansive community, the Atlanta Gays Men’s Chorus is strategically elevating the lived experiences of this demographic in a concert entitled, “TRANSformation.” Curated by a group of trans and non-binary members of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and Atlanta Women’s Chorus as well as members of the broader Atlanta trans community, these songs acknowledge the challenges and celebrate the beauty and authenticity of what it means to be your true self in the face of being eradicated.  

Through this performance’s story arc, we’ll get a glimpse of some of the pain and isolation associated with a person’s inauthentic pre-transition existence like in “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls (“I don’t want the world to see me ‘cause I don’t think that they’d understand”) and “Reflection” from Mulan (“When will my reflection show who I am inside?”). The story will continue as we explore the yearning that we’ve all felt to find where we belong in songs like “Corner of the Sky” from Pippen and “Lost Boy” by Ruth B. And then we’ll culminate the journey by celebrating the courage and resolve it takes as well as the joy it brings to be your true, authentic self in this world with “All I Know so Far” by PINK, a new arrangement of Bob Dylan’s “Times They Are A-Changin’” and “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman.