City Recital Hall’s CEO Elaine Chia has been inundated with messages of support following her open letter in response to homophobic comments on the venue’s Facebook page. The comments were attacking City Recital Hall’s decision to co-present Requiem Mass: A Queer Divine Rite, with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The work was created by American singer and composer Holcombe Waller, and will see the Sydney Chamber Choir join with the Mardi Gras Community Choir, conducted by Sam Allchurch, in what is billed as “radical re-imagination of the formal Latin Mass that adds Queer voices to the canon”.

Elaine Chia, City Recital HallElaine Chia, CEO of City Recital Hall. Photo © Keith Saunders

“In the last week, City Recital Hall’s Facebook page promoting our co-presentation with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Requiem Mass: A Queer Divine Rite has been targeted by people who say that it is blasphemous and offensive to their religion. There was more said – vicious, discriminatory and hurtful words, including threats,” Chia wrote. “I expected there would be some who were not in favour of this concert, and of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion,...