Juneau Pride Chorus — “a chorus of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers and grandmothers bonded by love of singing and desire to celebrate diversity” — will celebrate National Coming Out Day this coming Tuesday, October 11, with a festival of gay and lesbian short films from some of the country’s top film festivals. The Pride Chorus will sing at intermission.

Admission is free, but donations are not only welcomed but encouraged: Pride Chorus is raising funds in hopes of going, for its first time ever, to the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA) International Chorus Festival, which will be held in Denver in July 2012. GALA’s festival happens only once every four years.

National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an internationally observed civil awareness day observed by members of the LGBTQA communities on October 11 every year (or October 12 in the United Kingdom).  Its date was chosen in commemoration of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, held on October 11, 1987.  National Coming Out Day is also an important for another reason, the Juneau Empire reports: the Juneau Pride Chorus held its very first rehearsal on National Coming Out Day in 1997.

The Juneau Empire continues,

Pride Chorus lays claim to the title of Juneau’s only year-round chorus, not counting church choirs. It rehearses every Tuesday from 5:30–7 p.m. at Resurrection Lutheran Church, open to the (female) public—to listen or to sing.

In fact, Pride Chorus prides itself, no pun intended, on its unrestrictive admission policy, which does not limit membership by audition, voice part or even sexual orientation.

“You don’t have to be LGBT to be a member of Pride Chorus, just supportive of our causes,” [Pride Chorus director Leslie] Wood said, who estimates that a third of the women in the chorus are lesbian, a third bisexual and a third, allies.

“You don’t have to be able to sing, either, but it helps.”

Juneau Pride Chorus holds an annual concert in April and also performs annually at Alaska Folk Festival and sometimes for World AIDS Day.

If you’re in Juneau, make time next Tuesday evening for some terrific films and terrific music. As one of Bent Alaska’s friends — a Pride Chorus member — wrote on our Facebook wall yesterday, “Come hear us sing — it will be a blast!”  And don’t forget to chip in to help the Pride Chorus on its way to GALA 2012!

• Date/time: Tuesday, October 11, 6:30 to 9:30 PM
• Location: Gold Town Nickelodeon Theater, 171 Shattuck Way, Juneau, AK (see map)
• Cost of admission: Admission is free; donations accepted and encouraged: this is a fundraiser for Juneau Pride Chorus.
• Further info: see Facebook events page