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16a – Carol Lynn Pearson
“Carol Lynn reports that “the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus became his home” and in 1980 Gerald Pearson became co-chairman of the choir, mainly responsible for fundraising and scheduling concert halls. The chorus soon began preparations for its first national tour in June 1981. The chorus became Gerald’s “mission, his hope, his gift to the world….It would build bridges, Gerald was certain. It would help destroy prejudice.” Despite bomb threats and strikes by the teamsters who refused to deliver the programs for the performances, “reviews were glowing, opinions were changing, families were being reunited.” Fourteen choruses were immediately formed across the country as a result. In 1982, thirteen Gay men in Utah formed the Salt Lake Men’s Choir, which is now comprised of fifty singers and has gained a wonderful reputation and become a staple in the musical landscape of the intermountain west. Tragically, 42 year old Gerald Pearson died from AIDS in his ex-wife’s arms in 1984. Carol Lynn Pearson’s 1986 publication about her husband’s life and death in Goodbye I Love You is perhaps the single most important event in the history of homosexuality and Mormonism. Her account finally softened the hearts and opened the minds of so many Mormons that its significance cannot be underrated.…” (Connell O’Donovan, “’The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature’: A Revised History of Homosexuality & Mormonism, 1840-1980,” 2004)