As part of the Pink Singers Eastern Europe project, our choir has been collaborating with other LGBT+ choirs in Warsaw (Voces Gaudii) and St. Petersburg (Obochina) to explore what being LGBT+ is like in each of our home countries.
Last year, our first “LGBT+ Lives In” seminar focused on Russia, with a second seminar presented by Voces Gaudii on Poland. The last of our talks, presented by the Pink Singers, is one of our Pride Month 2021 events, and focuses on what life is like in the UK.
We polled members of our choir to identify where they thought the current challenges lay and put together a conversation around three key areas: legal equality and the mainstreaming of LGBT+ identity, intersectionality, and minority voices within the LGBT+ umbrella, with members of the choir talking about their day to day lives in the UK. Though these interactions we hope that members of all three choirs develop an understanding of the similarities and differences which exist between the communities in all three countries, create a sense of solidarity and make friendships before we actually meet in person to sing together.
Check out our Eastern Europe Project page for more details on our project mission and our past blogs on LGBT+ lives.