n the fall of 1979, a group of people realized they had some important things in common. They were gay, they loved music and they wanted a space to play while being open about their sexual orientation. Their creation, the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps, is still making noise.

"In the '70s, it was not normal for people to be out," said Eric Rouda, one of the founding members that still play in the band. "[Gay] people interested in playing music had no place to go."

Some of the founding members were accomplished musicians; others, amateurs. "We sounded pathetic," Rouda, a perfume salesman, said. "We have gotten so much better from those early days."

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"The Thunderer," by John Philip Sousa, was the only piece they could play in their first appearance in November 1979, when they marched along Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.

Today the group includes piccolos, clarinets, alto and baritone saxophones, trumpets, mellophones, baritones, trombones and percussion instruments. The Corps has 60 members who play in the marching band, the concert band or both. The marching band alone has a repertoire of over 250 tunes.

n March 2, 2003, when the Corps marched in Sunnyside, Queens, in the only St. Patrick's Day Parade that allows gay organizations, a small group of people opposing their participation showed up with signs that called those marching "Sodomites." (To see a slide show, click on "Parade Day".) Rouda said that this kind of demonstrations have diminished over the years.

"At the Gay Pride parade each year there used to be hundreds of them," Rouda said. "Now there are a few. They really don't bother us any more."

The Corps set an example of their own. Sara Julian, the artistic director of the marching band, said, "We don't discriminate in the membership of the group. We have a husband and wife in the marching band."

The group, started as the Gay Community Marching Band, was groundbreaking in many senses. It was only the third gay band in the country (see "Pioneers".) And it was, Rouda said, one of the first places where gay men and women would meet in New York City.

"Gay and lesbian people were in very separate communities," Rouda said. "Boys and girls did not know how to deal with each other." One way they found to ease the relationship during those formative years was to name both a man and a woman to each of the top positions of their organization.

ince their creation, the Big Apple Corps has been there for some of the happiest and saddest moments of New York's gay community. The musicians played in the funeral for two men killed in a shooting outside the Ramrod bar in 1980. They also played in front of City Hall the day in 1986 when discriminating against gay people became illegal in the city. And, of course, they are a regular fixture at several annual Gay Pride parades.

"It is more than just about making music," said James Babcock, 35, a trombone player and a library technical services supervisor. "I count some of my closest friends now among members of the band, even though I've only been in it for four years. Some players have made friends, and lovers, for life."

On the band's first picture taken in 1979, Eric Rouda is on the far right, holding his baritone sax just above a banner with the original name of the group.

He only could find one other person in the image that is still with the band: Bob Imlah, a clarinetist, who is shown holding the banner with his face turned to the right.
PHOTO:
Big Apple Corps

Every year, the marching season for the Corps starts with the first rehearsals in May, according to Julian. The band marches every weekend in June, the Pride parade season, at different locations.

And it keeps marching regularly until August. Fall and winter is the time for the concert band, which rehearses every week.

he Corps has played in such places as Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Vermont, Boston and Montreal. "Each year we receive numerous requests for performances," Babcock said. "Some outside the scope of 'come march in our pride parade.'"

The band is approaching its 25th anniversary, which will be celebrated with a composition competition, new uniforms and a banquet and concert with all the former members that can be reached. Filmmakers Leslie Becker and Sandra Gonzalez will produce a documentary about the Corps. They also did a film in 1999 called "The Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps: We Are the Marching Band Your Mother Warned You About."

Very few of the founding members are still in the Corps.

"Unfortunately," Rouda said, "a bunch of the people are dead." But the Big Apple Corps has stayed through bad and good times.

"I'm almost 50, I spent basically my whole adult life in the band," Rouda said, "Most of my friends are current or former members.

"The best thing that I ever did was joining this band."