Organizers of this weekend's GALA Choruses festival downtown are hoping their music will not only entertain but also spark social changes supportive of the gay and lesbian community.

        The international gay choral organization's “Sing!Cinnati” regional festival starts tonight and runs through Sunday at the Aronoff Center for the Arts.

        About 1,200 singers from more than 30 choirs nationwide will be performing free and ticketed concerts.

        The festival comes at a time when the city has been struggling with a human rights debate focused on racial issues for more than a year. But gay and lesbian rights have been in the news since 1993, when voters barred Cincinnati from providing “preferential treatment” to gays, lesbians or bisexuals.

        It's a climate GALA members — GALA stands for the Gay and Lesbian Association — understood in scheduling the event.

        “For many, this is the front line of tolerance and intolerance,” said Bruce Preston, a co-chairman with the festival's planning committee. “By coming here, they are making a much stronger statement than not coming.”

        Festival-goers will bring in an estimated $1.25 million for the local economy, including hotel stays and food, Mr. Preston estimated.

        At a time when the city feels the financial pinch from a boycott led by civil rights activists, the festival's economic boost is welcome, said Nick Vehr, vice president of economic development for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

        “Anytime you have thousands of people staying for multiple nights, it's beneficial,” Mr. Vehr said. “Those people not only pay for hotels, but they pay at restaurants and taxicabs and at stores. And they help to employ people not only at hotels and restaurants, but in retail as well.”
       

Progressive policies

        When festival plans started nearly two years ago, organizers wanted to work with businesses and facilities that had policies protecting gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

        The hotels where most participants are staying — the Hyatt and the Westin — have policies stating they do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in hiring or employment practices.

        The Aronoff Center, where the ticketed concerts are being held, also has such a policy.

        “We want to encourage diversity, and our perception of diversity would include sexual orientation,” said Patricia Hakes, human resources director at the Westin.

        Mr. Preston said he hoped other businesses would follow this lead.

        Other GALA festivals have sparked change.

        At the 2000 national festival in San Jose, Calif., GALA members said the event improved relations between the gay community and local government officials, said Barbara McCullough-Jones, executive director of GALA Choruses.

        David Vossbrink, spokesman for San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales' office, said the city continues to support the gay and lesbian community, and works closely with the Billy De Frank Center, which deals with human rights and social services for gay men and lesbians.

        “It was a positive event that is an example of the continued interrelationships we have with that community,” Mr. Vossbrink said. “Intuitively, I'd have to say that it was a beneficial thing to have had here.”

        At a GALA regional festival in Seattle over Memorial Day weekend this year, Mr. Preston said people were inspired when GLASS Youth — a Canadian chorus made up of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and supportive choir members ages 14 to 19 — debuted.

        “Our movement has come so far that a gay youth choir wouldn't have performed 10 years ago; but now, a group of children can feel safe and comfortable under the title of gay, lesbian and supportive,” Mr. Preston said.

        Youth will be a focus of a GALA outdoor concert in Findlay Market on Saturday. The event, which starts at 10 a.m., is a fund raiser for Impact Over-the-Rhine, a program encouraging inner-city youth to raise vegetables and sell them at the market.

        Another free concert is being held at noon Friday at Fountain Square.
       

Inspiration through music

        At these events, as well as the concerts, organizers said protests are a possibility. Activists continue to push a boycott of Cincinnati, asking convention-goers, entertainers and other visitors to stay away from the city until the human rights climate improves.

        GALA did consider changing the festival's location because of that, but rejected the idea after evaluating the commitments it had made here, Ms. McCullough-Jones said.

        This decision has had mixed reactions.

        Doreen Cudnik is a spokeswoman for the gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati, which includes some members who support the boycott.

        “There are some people who are hurt that national gay conference would come here,” said Ms. Cudnik. “It's a well-known fact in the national gay movement that there is that law in the books here in Cincinnati.”

        Despite the issues surrounding the festival, organizers hope it is the music's message that shines through.

        “When you come to these concerts, you're not going to be seeing drag queens or people shouting for social change,” Mr. Preston said. “What you will see is just normal folks who really love choral music.”

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