The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus has become the target of right-wing trolls following the release of a new comedy video.
The song, titled “A Message From the Gay Community,” debuted on YouTube earlier this month. The song, a satirical tune making fun of the longtime right-wing charge that gay people would recruit children, makes note of gains in visibility and acceptance by LGBTQ people in recent years.
“There’s really no escaping it/’cause even grandma likes Rupaul/And the world’s getting kinder/Gen Z’s gayer than Grindr,” sing the men in the video.
The premise of the song–and a few out-of-context lyrics–have attracted the fury of the Republican troll machine. Right-wing conspiracy site InfoWars attacked the chorus in an article, accusing it of promoting pedophilia. Members of the chorus have also received death threats as a result.
“We have received emails, phone messages, threats across all of our social media platforms — not just the chorus, but the staff, as well as the soloists who were featured in the song,” Chris Verdugo, executive director of the Gay Men’s Chorus, told the website SFist. “The [Youtube] comment that continues to stick out in my head is the one that said ‘We’re going to put lead in your head.'”
Related: WATCH: A Gay Men’s chorus just dropped a song about dating apps and OMG
“Someone on Twitter took a screenshot of the singing members of the chorus and created a spreadsheet and was starting to identify them,” he elaborated. “Some of our members’ jobs were contacted saying, ‘Do you know you have a pedophile working for you?’ or things of that nature. Singers on their social media have been getting threats.”
Detractors of the song have latched onto one specific lyric in the song as justification. “We’ll convert your children/Someone’s gotta teach them not to hate/We’re coming for them/We’re coming for your children,” say the lyrics.
The tongue-in-cheek nature of the lyrics is apparently (and perhaps, willingly) lost on right-wingers already disgusted by the existence of LGBTQ people. SFist further reports that a Twitter user has also claimed to have identified men in the video as registered sex offenders. An investigation, however, revealed that the men the user claims to have identified only have similar names and do not match photographs listed in the Megan’s Law database.
Meanwhile, the Gay Men’s Chorus has made the original YouTube video private in an attempt to protect the participants. The group has also reported the harassment to the FBI and San Francisco police.
The attack on the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Francisco comes at a somewhat ironic time given current sex scandals plaguing Republican lawmakers and donors. At the moment, Congressman Matt Gaetz is under investigation for sex trafficking of minors. Republican donor Jerry Falwell, Jr. spent most of last year deflecting from allegations of sexual exploitation of students at the college where he served as President, Liberty University. Just this week, GOP Congressman Madison Cawthorn also became the subject of renewed sexual harassment charges by a group of women.
GayEGO
Ha ha ha! Kudos to the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Francisco!
MissTerri
Tacky Tacky Queens!!! NEEEEEXT!!!!!!!!
dougie
Are you serious, MissTerri? What’s tacky about that? It’s actually an uplifting, hopeful message that hateful people need to hear – even if they don’t want to.
Kevan1
@MISSTERRI you are the tacky one. You constantly come out against your gay brothers and sisters. How can you be gay? I guess you are a self loathing queen. Do you not have a Trump, Blackburn, Green Gaetz rally to attend? Why do you even bother coming to this site? You hate your own kind. We have enough haters without you. Please go troll somewhere else.
DarkZephyr
Do you have a soul?
Den
It becomes more and more apparent that “missterri” is an incel that wishes he can get the chance to breed before his tiny nuts shrivel up for good. His only sexual outlet is trolling gay sites, and the outrage he incited gets his little thing hard.
So save your anger and outrage. Just share how much of an idiot you think he is, and how much you laugh at his stupidity. Rob him of the pleasure of his troll fetish (and he is definitely a troll on a whole bunch of levels). Let him know what we think of pitiful breeders like him, who could not ever attract the sex objects they desire.
cuteguy
What a great chorus and I applaud them. But the left have got to learn to message better and stop giving ammo to the right wing trolls. BLM, Defund the police, and now this? The right wing trolls target the moderates who decide elections. The lyrics were meant in jest and we all know that but it is fodder for the GQP and Faux News and all those losers that follow them
scotshot
Let’s all go back in the closet and be very, very quiet? Don’t piss them off! Sod off.
rickywintour
You white gays are so fragile. Your upset BLM is a thing. You definitely ain’t a cute guy with that nasty soul you got. I hope you a police officer does to you what they do to black people daily.
Den
@rickywintour:
You think “cuteguy’s ” comments somehow must exemplify the opinion of white gay men?
You are an extraordinary idiot! Keep your kindergarten level stereotyping to yourself child.
Unless of course you want the adults in the room laughing at you.
belugafan
This song is funny and well done, it is unfortunate that some people have taken the lyrics out of context to suit their political needs. I feel bad for members of the chorus.
missvamp
finally- the gay agenda is revealed & i love it!!
whereshouldistart
I don’t know what scares the right more…
the fear that the gays might recruit their kids into homosexuality or that they’re recruiting them to be kind and loving human beings.
PerhapsYesNoMaybe
Good for the chorus. The people on social media who have defamed the members will no doubt be sued into ruin for it. Should keep the lawyers well fed.
Desiderata
It may have been in jest, but it was definitely in poor taste.
It certainly made me uncomfortable to listen to something that perpetuates a bad stereotype of the gay community. I find it hard to be believe not one person involved didn’t question the harm that could come from making the song?
Will the next time someone on the right does something in jest be given the same nuanced understanding from the queerty community?
rickywintour
We get it, your a Republican nut job. So please go get on your knees for Trump. Let him grab your mom by her cat too self hater.
Den
There are enough people in our community sowing division and stereotype and stupidity (look at mr wintour who stereotypes all “white gays” in a previous comment and then tries to act progressive here), we cannot waste out time fearing what idiotic evangelicals and other churchy folks are going to think of us. The song was intended to amuse US and othere with functional minds, the fools be damned!
Their time is over any way and they are dying out. They know it and that’s why they are so noisy.
Prax07
@MissTerri There’s probably some Clorox somewhere in your home, please locate it ASAP. Once you find it, guzzle that stuff down. You’ll be doing the right thing for yourself and everyone you come into contact with.
Willy
It was a stupid song choice that has backfired. The song isn’t funny, and it seeks to arouse the type of backlash it is getting. Can’t the Gay Community do anything that isn’t in bad taste or designed to insight the wrath of their enemies? It is not cute, funny, and is counterproductive. This was an intentional attempt to enrage the very people it has. People who outnumber the “Gay Community” and that are growing old and tired of these shenanigans. How long do you think these people are going to stand for this nonsense?
Kevan1
Please, they are far worse things done by the straight community and the world at large rather than some funny little song meant to raise the heckles of those with no sense of humor. You obviously, included.
DarkZephyr
Girl, please. That is a LOT of rage for a tongue-in-cheek song. Who hurt you? Seek help IMMEDIATELY because something isn’t healthy with you right now.
inbama
70 percent of Americans now support Marriage Equality, and these fools living in the San Fransisco bubble think it’s time to sing about “Coming for your children?”
If they wanted to do political satire, maybe they should have coughed up some bucks and hired Randy Rainbow. He knows how to be effective.
whereshouldistart
Wow.
Right-winger’s heads exploding.
Whodathunkit?
WTF DOESN’T set off homophobes? If you tell them the grass is green and the sky is blue they’ll say, “See? You just admitted Joe Biden is a pedophile!”
Stop giving them ammunition? Seriously? They don’t NEED ammunition. They do quite well without any.
JJinAus
My comment is still waiting moderation after days? I just said it was clunky. Is that so offensive?
lord.krath
First, great song and performance.
Second, imagine a day when these kinds of songs, special months of remembrance or acknowledgment, or days of mourning senseless acts of violence aren’t necessary?
That is the yardstick against which we should measure society. When we just get along and don’t have to sing out against terrible behaviors.
Tombear
Good performance art is provocative. It makes you think and it is very powerful if it ruffles feathers.