Founded by Jon Reed Sims in 1978 in response to Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign in the late 1970s, the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps was the first openly-gay musical group in the world. Sims went on to create the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and numerous other ensembles, while the Marching Band and Twirling Corps evolved into the celebratory San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band. This patriotic program celebrates an inclusive vision of America with Independence Day standards (Sousa, of course) and a salute to that great American institution, Broadway.