The video begins with Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization For Marriage speaking out against our equality. We are then treated to a clip of right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, who proclaims, “I want DADT in all of society.” Then comes the most stinging rebuke of all: Margie Phelps of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church says gay people should all be put to death—and then the song begins.
“Noise” is a new gay anthem written and performed by Gavin Creel, a two-time Tony Award nominee. He’s also an out, proud gay man. Creel, who co-wrote the song with Robbie Roth, is pissed. However, it’s his own people who cause his brow to frown.
“Noise was born out of a frustration with the left,” Creel stated in an email to Windy City Times. “More specifically, I was angry with my gay community. I am angry with the intense complacency that overwhelms us, except when there is an election or a kid kills himself after being bullied or someone dies of a horrible disease. I wanted to write a song that fired us all up, that called out to everyone—gay, straight, bi, trans, lesbian, EVERYONE—to speak out for gay rights: for equal rights, for human rights, with no shame, with total pride. That’s how ‘Noise’ was born.”
“I see this song not as mine, but as all of ours,” Creel continued. “I want to find a way to get it into the hands of every young kid out there who doesn’t feel like the fight is worth it, who feels isolated and alone. I want the song to be on the iPods and computers of people who oppose gay rights, or who don’t know what to think. We are not going to stay quiet until the law protects each and every one of us equally.”
Creel walks the walk, using his talents as a musical-theater performer to help provide a safe haven for LGBT families. He’s a regular show-stopper aboard RFamily Cruises, which organizes vacation trips for lgbt families: “I’m proud to have been there on the very first RFamily Cruises. It was an event that changed my life completely. I was able to be with almost 2000 gay and lesbian families and watch them all just live and vacation in peace, as normal families can. It was something of complete beauty. It helped me to truly accept myself as a gay man and know that I am valid and perfect, just the way I am.” Creel has been back to RFamily Cruises a number of times.
Creel, who recently starred as Claude in the Broadway and West End revivals of Hair, is also a co-founder of Broadway Impact, an equality organization comprised of New York theater people: “Having a platform like Hair, which spoke so honestly onstage about acceptance and fighting injustice, made the offstage love riot we were beginning with Broadway Impact really possible.”
Creel said that Broadway Impact is co-producing Dustin Lance Black’s (Milk screenwriter) Proposition 8 play: “Someday, possibly soon, the US Supreme Court will hear this case and it could decide the future of full federal marriage protection for all citizens. Broadway Impact will not rest until that is a successful reality.”
To hear “Noise” and to see the video, visit www.GavinCreel.com. For more on his activism, visit www.BroadwayImpact.com.