A new concert from the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus aims to highlight the challenges and triumphs transgender people experience.
“TRANSformation” will be performed Saturday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the Byers Theatre at Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. AGMC trans members and trans people from the broader community selected all the songs for the performance.
The timing of this concert is intentional. Over the past two years, hundreds of pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation targeting transgender and non-binary people have been filed in Georgia and across the country.
“Our artistic director, Don Milton, understands us to be not just a musical organization, but an advocacy organization,” said AGMC member Gellin Hughes.
“Our slogan literally is, ‘Changing hearts and minds through music,’ and that has everything to do with positive queer visibility and advocacy for the queer community,” said Hughes. “And right now, trans folks are the category of folks within the LGBTQ community that are the most targeted, at least politically.”
The concert follows an arc that begins with the pain and isolation many trans people feel before becoming their authentic selves. That feeling can be heard in the song “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls and its lyric, “I don’t want the world to see me ’cause I don’t think that they’d understand.”
The story arc ends with songs such as, “All I Know So Far” by Pink, and “This Is Me” from the movie “The Greatest Showman” because they express the courage and joy trans people experience when they understand their true selves.
“I think that seeing the AGMC sing these songs in the context of a concert about the trans experience will hopefully open some people up to the idea that trans people aren’t that different, that we’re actually relatable, because these are our stories, too,” Hughes said.
The AGMC Board of Directors worked with the City Springs staff to ensure…
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