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1973 was early days for organized queer communities in Baltimore: The city wouldn't celebrate its first pride for two more years and the GLCCB, for decades the center of queer support and publications in the city, wouldn't be founded for another four. For Hopkins seniors graduating that spring, the Stonewall Riots happened just as they were transitioning from highschool to college.
But it was the spring of 1973 that the band debuted a bombastic new halftime show: “A JHU Band Tribute to Gay Liberation.”
After an intro that included a mocking playing of “Yankee Doodle” on mouthpieces standing in “sputnik formation,” the band performed the first of three main songs for the show, for which we hope the connection is obvious: “Queen City.”
Next, the band transitioned into the symbol of venus, which the plan helpfully instructs the performers to create by forming a “chastity cross” in the “below-the-belt region of the circle.” There, they played the 1966 tune “Georgy Girl,” which pits constrained femininity against feminine liberation.
From there, the cross is converted into an arrow, or “phallic appendage” as the guide refers to it, and moved into “approximate anatomical position” to form the symbol of mars. In that position, the band played “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from 1970’s Jesus Christ Superstar, a meaningful message when attached to the gay, masculine perspective of the choreography.
Finally, and most audaciously of all, the symbol of mars split in two, wrapping around to form a gigantic “69” on the field while the band plays “Varsity Drag.” The final instruction on the plan reads to “Beat hell off the field playing ‘J.H. (C.R.?) on to Penitentiary,’” a twist on our school standard, “Johnny Hopkins on to Victory”.
We have found direct evidence of it being performed at least twice, once at a game in early April at Cornell, performed in its entirety in front of a reportedly shocked President of the University. The second instance was quite a special event: the second annual Spring Fair, at a game against Virginia that took place after a special Administration versus Student Council softball game. Though the band had been made to cut the provocative “69” from the show that time, it reportedly still threw the Chairman of the Board of Trustees into a daze.
The JHU Pep Band takes pride in our queer bandmates, both past and present, and we wish everyone a happy Pride Month.
Write-up by Jaekeb Harper.