The Greenville Gay Men's Chorus, founded in 2011, consists of more than 35 tenors and basses "dedicated to artistic excellence, meaningful collaboration, and the power of choral music to build community and connection," according to the group's website. (Photo courtesy of Nakeshia Shannon)
COLUMBIA — The governing board of the South Carolina Arts Commission denied grants to a pair of LGBTQ+ arts groups in the Upstate without giving a reason.
The commission’s board voted 5-3 Thursday to reject giving $13,000 to the Greenville Gay Men’s Chorus and almost $4,000 to Spartanburg’s Proud Mary Theatre Company.
The meeting comes more than a month after the agency’s governing board approved a combined $3.7 million for more than 170 other arts organizations. In August, the board asked these two groups to provide additional information, despite having received funding in past years and an independent review panel also recommending them for approval.
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Representatives of the groups, along with the state’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter, decried the decision as discrimination.
“Only these two groups are denied funding. Only these two are singled out, are made to jump through additional hoops,” said Matt Butler with the ACLU.
“Somethings rotten in South Carolina,” he added. “It is not a good day in South Carolina for arts artistic expression or for the First Amendment.”
None of the board members talked about their vote during Thursday’s virtual-only meeting, and no public comments were taken.
However, emails provided to the ACLU through public records requests show that at least two board members, Russell “Rip” Park of Easley and Jessica Rourke of Columbia, singled out applications by the choir and theater company ahead of a meeting in June.
“While these organizations have every right to promote their agendas privately, it is not the role of a state funded agency to promote them. I cannot support these requests. In the future, I would appreciate your bringing controversial requests to the commissioners’ attention in advance for discussion,” Parks wrote to the commission’s director June 12.
“I could not defend these programs to concerned legislators who could pull funding for the entire Commission over support of these organizations,” he continued.
That same day, in a separate email, Rourke wrote she would vote no.
“My decision is based on a personal and governance principle that commission funding should not be directed toward organizations structured around specific sexual orientations, nor should public funds support drag performances,” she wrote.
Rourke did not specify what performances she was talking about. But in July, the theater group held its fourth annual fundraiser featuring a drag show and silent auction.
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The board ended up not making any grant decisions in June, postponing them until Aug. 20, when Parks made the motion to pull the two groups’ grant requests for further consideration.
“The General Assembly holds this commission accountable for maintaining community standards, and the commission has concerns about two programs that were presented,” he said. “What we question is the artistic merit of these two programs.”
But the commission did not ask additional questions related to artistic merit.
Instead, it asked each group to submit a line-item breakdown of their budgets and the names of all employees and vendors paid with state grant funding.
They also asked if the grant funding would cover the cost of any programming in K-12 schools; the chorus and theater both said no. All questioning occurred through emails ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
The state Arts Commission is a frequent target of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, which attempts unsuccessfully during budget debates to cut the agency’s funding.
At a candidate forum ahead of June primaries, GOP Rep. April Cromer, a caucus member from Anderson, highlighted Arts Commission grants to the Gay Men’s Chorus and Upstate SC LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce as “appalling” examples of why she can’t support the budget.
Rep. Thomas Beach, another member of the uber-conservative caucus, applauded the board’s decision Thursday.
“There is no reason tax dollars should be spent on inappropriate art that is politically charged,” the Piedmont Republican told the SC Daily Gazette in an email after the meeting. “Further, too many South Carolinians are now struggling to make ends meet, facing economic crisis. It is the obligation of the government to the taxpayer to exercise fiscal restraint at this time.”
He did not elaborate on what he thought made these two groups’ productions inappropriate.
According to its application, the Proud Mary Theatre Company requested less than $4,000 to cover expenses related to its upcoming productions of “The Book of Merman,” a spoof on the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon;” and “Stage Frights,” a Halloween-themed Broadway revue featuring songs from “The Little Shop of Horrors,” “Phantom of the Opera” and “Beetlejuice.”
The Greenville Gay Men’s Chorus, which received a $4,750 grant last year, asked for about $13,000 for general operating expenditures, such as security for its shows, bookkeeping and storage.
Founded in 2011, the chorus represents LGBTQ+ individuals and strives to “build community, foster compassion, and inspire activism at home and around the world through our music and message,” according to its online mission statement.
Some of the group’s recent and upcoming shows include its annual Christmas concert, which in the past has featured songs from films such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and a show called “Raise Your Voice” featuring songs from popular artists, such as Lady Gaga, Billy Joel, N’Sync and Josh Groban.
Mary Adam, executive director of the Gay Men’s Chorus, said the decision left her “disappointed and stunned.”
The agency’s independent judges of grant applications gave the group 91 points out of 100 on artistic merit. When it tried to offer the governing board more documentation of its artistry, she said, the commission refused the additional materials.
The chorus answered all questions and met all criteria, she said. She believes the only reason the chorus didn’t get a grant is because the singers are gay.
The loss of funding does not mean the group won’t perform. The request amounted to 13% of the chorus’ overall budget, Adam said, and private donations have covered the gap.
But Adam said it’s more about fairness in the process, who the commission cut out and why.
She said the decision smacked of homophobia and “blatant bigotry.”
Butler said the decision will have a “larger chilling effect.” The commission is saying to South Carolina artists that “if you’re LGBTQ, keep moving,” he said.
John Fagan, a prominent local director in the Upstate, said the Warehouse Theater, where his organization puts on plays, received funding despite putting on some of the same productions as the Proud Mary Theatre, including “Kinky Boots,” a musical about a struggling show factory in England that avoids bankruptcy by selling sturdy stilettos to drag queens.
Fagan, a longtime director of the Upstate Shakespeare Festival, said the Arts Commission appeared to “change the rules at the very end” after all groups had already submitted applications. He said it sends a dangerous message to LGBTQ+ people “that your voice is not important; that your voice does not need to be heard.”
It also sets a precedent for the future, Fagan told the SC Daily Gazette.
The other “no” votes came from board members Danielle Thompson, of Sumter; and Linda Stern and Bhavna Vasudeva, both of Columbia.
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Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
