For nearly 75 years, through song, the Babylon Chorale has provided Long Island with joy, sorrow, praise, inspiration, and hope.
Recently, we were distressed and heartbroken to learn that our concert venue objected to our upcoming performance of “Out of the Darkness…See Your True Colors” which celebrates composers, artists, and arrangers who identify from the LGBTQ+ community. The concert venue notified us that they declined to host our concert in their church. Though we recognize it is their right to disallow our concert, we are devastated that discrimination against our LGBTQ+ friends still exists here within our community.
As our theme for the year suggests, out of the darkness comes light. Within a day, we received support from many of our members and others in the community who helped us secure a new venue. We are thankful to St. Peter’s by-the-Sea in Bay Shore, where we will present our concert as planned on Saturday, June 10, 2023 at 7:30pm.
Much of our publicity was already printed and we had to bear the cost of reprinting all our materials. We are grateful for the support from Shari Levine, from Print-It-Here in Massapequa for their allyship, reprinting our new materials at no additional cost.
The support we have received has given us hope for our future, a time when we can present works by all artists without prejudice, especially towards our members who identify with the LGBTQ+ community.
We stand with the LGBTQ+ community and all those who strive for justice and equality.