Shape Divider - Style triangle

Experience the Power of Anthems

• 1978 > Singing for Our Lives

• 1969 > We Shall Overcome

• 2022 > YOU ARE INVITED

• 4

• 5

• 6

• 7

• 8

• 9

• 10

• 11

• 12

• 13

• 14

• 15

• 16

• 17

• 18

• 19

• 20

• 21

• 22

• 23

• 24

• 25

• 26

• 27

• 28

• 29

• 30

• Singing for Our Lives

  ​Songwriter/Singer/Activist Holly Near's song "Singing For Our Lives" was composed by Holly immediately upon hearing of the 1978 assassination of San Francisco community leader and City Supervisor Harvey Milk. It was first sung the evening of Harvey Milk's assassination with the crowds gathering at San Francisco City Hall.
  

  The song quickly began to spread beyond San Francisco to become an anthem for the LGBTQ PRIDE movement and has been carried throughout the world, sung by hundreds of thousands of people.

  Original Lyrics

  We are a gentle, angry people
  And we are singing, singing for our lives
  We are a justice-seeking people
  And we are singing, singing for our lives
  We are young and old together
  And we are singing, singing for our lives​
  

  We are a land of many colors
  And we are singing, singing for our lives
  We are gay and straight together
  And we are singing, singing for our lives
  We are a gentle, loving people
  And we are singing, singing for our lives
• We Shall Overcome

  For generations, across continents, anthems have been at the heart of social movements.

  ​MCC Founder Rev. Troy Perry led the earliest gay rights marches on the streets of Los Angeles borrowing from the powerful anthem "We Shall Overcome," born out of the black community's struggle for civil rights.
  
  Troy transformed protest marches by birthing the first Pride parade in 1970 and filling those same streets of Los Angeles with songs of both struggle and celebration.

  WATCH: Rev. Troy Perry leads the march
  with "We Shall Overcome" and a new chant is coined...
  ​"WE'RE GAY AND WE'RE PROUD"
• YOU ARE INVITED

  The international Charter for Compassion, Holly Near, Rev. Troy Perry and the 220 MCC churches in 37 countries invite YOU and people of ALL faiths - or none at all - to join this global music project created to elevate significant LGBTQIA+ community issues.

  A 90-Day global music project to elevate LGBTQIA+ issues with the empowering, historic anthem of the PRIDE movement.

Shape Divider - Style triangle

Loading Videos...