Donors have given the Greenville Gay Men's Chorus $43,260 since the South Carolina Arts Commission board voted 5-3 to deny its operating grant. Here is how the vote went.

The Greenville Gay Men’s Chorus has raised $43,260 from 484 donations to replace a state arts grant it was denied. The total on the chorus’s GoFundMe appeal passed its $40,000 goal this week.

The South Carolina Arts Commission’s board voted 5-3 on Oct. 1 to deny the chorus operating support. The board’s minutes of the Oct. 1 meeting record the roll call. There was no discussion before the vote, and the minutes give no reason.

The same board denied Proud Mary Theatre Company in Spartanburg, about 30 miles northeast, by the same 5-3 vote minutes later.

How the board voted

The commission is the state’s arts agency. Its board took the roll-call vote over Zoom.

Commissioner Vote on the chorus’s grant
Heidi Carey Yes
David Hodges Yes
Barbara Nwokike Yes
Rip Parks No
Jessica Rourke No
Linda Stern No
Danielle Thompson No
Bhavna Vasudeva No, by proxy held by the chair, Flavia Harton

Before the vote, the board met in executive session for legal advice from its counsel. Harton reported that no action was taken there, according to the minutes.

How it got here

The chorus said in its appeal that the commission’s grant review panel had recommended it for operating support this summer, along with more than 170 other arts organizations.

The board pulled the chorus and Proud Mary out of that package at its Aug. 20 meeting. The minutes of the Aug. 20 meeting record Parks saying:

“The General Assembly holds this commission accountable for maintaining community standards, and the Commission has concerns about two programs that were presented. The Gay Men’s Chorus and Proud Mary Theatre Group. What we question is the artistic merit of these two programs.”

The board voted 6-2 to hold both grants until October. Carey and Hodges voted against holding them. The rest of the Arts Industry Operating Support grants, $1,027,469 in all, were then approved.

Commission staff asked both groups two follow-up questions. At the Oct. 1 meeting, Ashley Brown of the commission staff reported the chorus’s answers:

  • 100% of the budget in its application was for operating costs.
  • It does not hold “programming or activities in school.”

The ACLU of South Carolina had already written to the commission on Aug. 12. It urged the board to judge applications on artistic merit and said funding decisions based on anti-LGBTQ viewpoints would violate the First Amendment.

What the money replaces

The chorus said in its appeal that losing the grant leaves it about $13,000 short a year for three years, close to $40,000 in all. It called the board’s treatment of the two groups unfair, discriminatory and illegal.

The chorus opened the appeal Aug. 22, two days after the first vote. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so gifts are tax-deductible, according to the chorus’s website.

What it means for you

  • The chorus’s season goes ahead. Tickets for the 2026 GGMC Holiday Show are on sale through the chorus’s website.
  • The appeal is still open. Gifts go to the chorus’s season and its longer-term finances, the chorus said.
  • The Arts Commission board meets in public, and its agendas and minutes are posted on the commission’s website.

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