One of the longest surviving gay social and
service groups in the city, the Conductors are a group of men involved in
Nashville's gay community for 30 years.
We were established by a group of friends who
shared common interests in the spring of 1982. Nashville’s gay community,
although thriving, was still very small. Knowing that introducing leather
boots, vests, and chaps into the nightlife of Nashville's bar scene was
somewhat of a risk at the time, those men had the foresight to understand it
was vital for their acceptance and future to give something back to the
community.
At the time, AIDS was not on the forefront of
anyone's mind in Nashville, as it was just beginning to be seen in some of the
larger gay metropolises. For their first couple of years, the Conductors
supported various local charities such as the Second Harvest Food Bank and the
Angel Tree programs. They sponsored food drives at their first home bar,
The Crazy Cowboy, held regular club nights at their second home bar, The Chute
Complex, where they remained for 21 years, and continue the tradition at their
current home bar, Stirrup. We also host a variety of other fundraisers at
many of the local bars.
Around 1984, Nashville began to see its first
AIDS cases. It was at this time the first steps were being taken to
organize Nashville Cares. Coincidentally, or by luck, one of the members
of the Conductors at the time, the late Thom C, was also involved with
Nashville Cares. A representative from Cares soon made a presentation to
the Conductors at one of their regular business meetings asking for any type of
financial assistance to help Nashville Cares get established.
The Conductors, in an innovative move on their
part, came up with a form of support that is still being used between their
club and Nashville Cares today. It was their desire, due to the very
limited source of their income (which all comes from donations from members of
the community, and local businesses at their fund raisers), to establish a
direct-assistance program for Nashville Cares' clients who have an emergency
need. The requirements for Cares to follow are:
1) The need should be an emergency in
nature,
2) All other sources (grants, federal
and state programs, etc.) should be exhausted before making a request to the
Conductors and,
3) The client's name, gender, or race
should never be disclosed to the Conductors.
Through this fund, the group has paid for
prescriptions, eyeglasses, utility bills, home repair, rent, and among many
other things, has also made primary donations to support several Thanksgiving
meals sponsored by Nashville Cares to its clients.
We are very proud of the fact that during our 30
year history we have never had to deny funding request thanks to the generosity
of the Nashville community and our friends across the country.
The group, which currently has 14 full members,
was founded in 1982. Since then we have celebrated our anniversary every
year, generally, on the third weekend of March. The first anniversary
weekend was in 1983 and was dubbed "TRACK I".