LGBTQIA+ Resources
Boulanger Initiative is glad to highlight some fantastic organizations advocating for LGBTQIA+ composers and artists to help amplify the impact of their work.
AMS LGBTQ Study Group
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Study Group is a recognized special interest group of the American Musicological Society. Their objectives include increasing awareness of sexuality and music in the academy, promoting contact among music scholars working in LGBTQ studies, and establishing a forum for the presentation of such research. They also intend to provide an environment in which to examine the process of coming out in academia and to contribute to a positive political climate for affirmative action and LGBTQ curricula.
Black Trans Femmes in the Arts
BTFA is a community-based arts organization that builds community and mobilizes resources to support Black trans femme artists (artists who were assigned male-at-birth and now identify somewhere underneath the femme umbrella). They organize programming that centers and highlights Black trans femme artists, executive produce projects led by Black trans femme artists, and provide direct support to Black trans artists.
ClassicalQueer
ClassicalQueer provides a space for queer+ people working in the classical arts to tell their stories in their own words. It is an archive of instrumentalists, performers, administrators, composers, writers, and conductors from around the world who have a diverse and complex set of experiences working in the classical arts.
GALA Choruses
GALA Choruses leads the North American LGBTQ choral movement. They cultivate the artistic development of 10,000 singers from more than 190 choruses in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. They serve choruses small or large, offering help whether you have 5 members or 250, a budget of $10,000 or $3 million.
GLBTQ Encyclopedia Project
This site is the world’s largest encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture and history with its own section for arts.
LEGATO European Association of LGBTQ+ Choirs
More than 128 member choirs from 20 countries with approximately 4120 singers look to LEGATO for support and leadership. They promote art, culture, and understanding between nations, staging choral singing events with participants from many European nations. They maintain an up-to-date list of LGBTQ+ Choirs in Europe and publish events being run by these Choirs locally, and encourages people to go and support the events. They connect new LGBTQ+ Choirs with more experienced ones so that they can avoid some of the pitfalls of starting a new Choir. They are actively supporting the development of LGBTQ+ Choirs in Eastern Europe, where in many countries to be LGBTQ+ is considered a crime, and people are persecuted. They work for the emancipation of LGBTQ+ individuals in Europe and combat discrimination against these groups.
Lesbian and Gay Band Association
Lesbian and Gay Band Association (LGBA) is a musical organization comprised of concert and marching bands from cities across the United States and the world. Formed in 1982 as Lesbian and Gay Bands of America when seven independent bands met formally in Chicago, the Association has grown to 38 member organizations including international bands. LGBA remains dedicated to its original goals of providing a network of lesbian and gay bands at all stages of development, promoting music as a medium of communication among people, improving the quality of artistic and organizational aspects of member bands, and stimulating public interest in the unique art form of community band music in our culture.
LGBTQ Band Composers Project
The intent of the project is to compile a list of pieces by composers who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and additional gender/sexuality minorities) community and who have written works for band. This project will be treated as a working document and resource for conductors, educators, performers, and scholars interested in the music of LGBTQ+ band composers.
LGBTQ+ Music Study Group
The LGBTQ+ Music Study Group was established in 2016 and receives support from professional bodies throughout the UK and Ireland: the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE), the Royal Musical Association (RMA), the Society for Music Analysis (SMA), and the Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI). The Group’s mission is threefold: 1) to promote academic inquiry into issues of gender and sexuality in the study of music; 2) to create a safe space and support system for LGBTQ+ people within the scholarly community; and 3) to serve as a consulting body for wider issues of diversity and inclusion within music research, education, and performance. Aspiring toward queer politics informed by feminist and decolonizing efforts, the Study Group provides a space for cultivating and developing cutting-edge academic, political, and social work.
OutMusic - The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts
OUTMUSIC - The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (LARA) is registered as Outmusic Inc. a 501c3 non-profit organization that serves as an umbrella to support the work LARA (LGBT Academy of Recording Arts), the Outmusic Awards and the Outmusic Foundation. Their mission is to increase visibility and promote the advancement, contributions, and appreciation of LGBT+ music, entertainment, culture, and heritage as an equivalent entertainment platform. With a focus on creating opportunities to support the development of young aspiring artists, in a safe space where they can thrive and become industry professionals in the field of their interest.
OutVoice!
OutVoice! is the internet GLBT musician’s top twenty chart and service network which has been online since 1996.
Pride in Music
Pride in Music is a non-profit charitable collective working to create a cross-industry network for the LGBTQ+ community, artists, and allies working within British Music. Pride in Music aims to provide a support network to break down stereotypes, to work as an educational service to employers and staff, as an entry point to the industry for underprivileged youth, and to provide peer mentoring, networking, and an industry-wide social group to help those who may struggle with the anxieties and stigmas that generally arise with these topics. They also work with a number of up-and-coming and developing artists to showcase new music by those who may not normally be afforded that opportunity.
Queer Music Heritage
From January 2000 until March 2015 "Queer Music Heritage" was both a radio show and a website, and the goal of both was to preserve and share the music of our culture. It has become the resource on the net for the history of LGBT music. Each month's page gives the playlist and additional pages of info, and you can stream or download every show; there are over 580 hours of programming available.
QueerSounds Podcast
QueerSounds is a podcast on queer folks’ taste in music. A great love for music and the need to offer other LGBTQIAP+ people a place to talk about this is what brought this podcast into being. Music plays a huge role in queer life. With so many memories, anecdotes, and other stories that have songs attached to them, it would be a shame if no one would ever share them.