Steel City Men’s Chorus brings music and friendship to LGBTQ+ community in Birmingham

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In mid-January, the Steel City Men’s Chorus gathered for their first rehearsal of the 2025 season. The Pilgrim Church in Birmingham rang clear with music as choral members sang together from the pews. Director Elizabeth Fisher kept time from the front of the sanctuary.

The chorus rehearsed a song from their upcoming season, one from the Broadway musical Side Show. They sing, “Who will proudly stand beside me, Who will love me as I am?” 

The Steel City Men’s Chorus is unique in Alabama.

“We’re literally the only queer identified chorus of any kind in the state of Alabama, which is heartbreaking,” Fisher said. “It also, I think, makes our work really important.” 

When the Steel City chorus first started in 2013, founding members chose to leave the word ‘gay’ out of the title. 

“When we were forming, there were and still are people who could be fired or compromised professionally if it was known that they were part of a chorus that was gay,” Fisher said. 

The LGBTQ+ advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign, reports Alabama is one of many states with no legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and more. 

“By not having that word in our title, it allows for more people to be able to participate,” Fisher said.

Today, chorus members say they mostly go untouched by discriminatory behavior beyond occasional hateful messages on social media. All in all, the group is a safe, if rare, space to find community in the city. 

“Being a blue dot in a red state, it’s good to have friends and a community,” Chris Butler, a founding member of the Birmingham chorus, said. “In Birmingham, it’s hard to meet people. There just aren’t a lot of places that people can go and meet other gay people like themselves.”  

Some members have backgrounds in music, either through solo instrumental careers or as singers. But many are drawn to the group for the fun and the camaraderie.r. Throughout the year, the chorus works with and performs for local charities. Ticket sales, fundraisers, and sponsorships from local supporters help keep the chorus running, but each chorus singer pays membership dues as part of their investment in the group.

Frank McCrory, the chorus president, says the culture around being gay in Alabama has changed over the years. He grew up singing in choirs in the Southern Baptist Church and believes things are worse now.  

“Luckily back then, there wasn’t all the stigma there is today,” McCrory said. “With all the craziness of making gay people out to be the spawn of Satan.”

The rehearsal happened to be the day before the presidential inauguration. The next day, the Trump administration removed most LGBTQ+ focused content from the White House website, including mentions of words like ‘lesbian’ or ‘gay’. Executive orders signed by the new president revoked previous orders that took aim at discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That makes members like McCrory nervous.  

“I’ve had friends that have looked at leaving the country or leaving the state because of it, depending on how bad things get,” McCrory said. “I’m just hopeful that things won’t get that bad.”

Chris Wheeler, the tenor section leader, says no matter what happens nationally, the chorus has each other.

“We are here to not just entertain, but to bring voice and exposure to the LGBTQ community and show them that especially here in the Deep South, that they belong. They are loved,” Wheeler said. 

Chorus director Elizabeth Fisher dreams of making an LGBTQ+empire of singing groups for youth, women, and more. But for now, she says the fact that the Steel City Men’s Chorus merely exists today, and in a conservative state, is significant on its own. 

“I think music can often lend itself to social justice issues in a way that can be palatable to people,” Fisher said. “Because it’s combining a thing of beauty and we also use some humor in it and it presents it to the audience in a way that I think people can connect with.”

The Steel City Men’s Chorus will keep offering that connection to people throughout Birmingham and the LGBTQ+ community in the South, no matter what the next four years may bring.