Cheers erupt for San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Saturday night from part of the capacity crowd at Redding’s Cascade Theatre San Francisco Chronicle photo by Lacy Adams

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performed this weekend to capacity crowds in both Redding and Chico, California. Redding. Chico.

Those are two small cities at the northern tip of California’s Central Valley. And they’re deeply conservative strongholds. Like most of their Central Valley neighbors to the south, voters in Redding and Chico strongly favored Proposition 8 in 2008. Seventy percent of voters in Shasta County, which includes Redding, voted for Prop. 8. In Butte County, where Chico is located, 56.7 percent of voters favored the measure.

And that’s why the San Francisco chorus was there.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist CW Nevius explains:

Make no mistake, this isn’t a tour. It’s a groundbreaking political action. In the upcoming months, they’ll visit Bakersfield, Fresno, and Tracy, all strongholds for Prop. 8, the measure that banned same-sex marriage. They hope their music will help personalize the fight for gays to marry.

It is more than a small gamble. They could face protests, fights or even worse - complete indifference.

But none of those things happened on the first two stops on what the chorus calls its Freedom Tour. Instead the chorus met its full tour attendance goals during the first two stops, Chico Enterprise Record reports:

SF gay chorus takes its ‘Freedom Tour’ message to red-state California [contd.]

Teddy Witherington, the chorus's executive director, said the goal for the five-city 2010 California Freedom Tour was to reach 1,500 people.

“We’re doing that in Redding and Chico alone,” he said.

The touring group, consisting of about 90 singers from the 225-man chorus, played to sold-out crowds at Redding’s 1,000-seat Cascade Theatre on Saturday and the 450-seat Harlen Adams Theatre in Chico on Sunday.

Redding native Bud Dillon, is now a member of the chorus. A week prior to the concert, Dillon told his hometown newspaper, the Redding Record Searchlight, that the chorus would bring to Redding a “message of hope.”

After the concert, Dillon told the Chronicle’s Nevius that he so choked up during one part of the concert that he could only mouth the words.

“I didn’t know what gay was when I was in high school,” Dillon said. “I had a horse, a western saddle, and cowboy boots. I just knew I was different. I didn’t come out until I was 30.”

Nearly 100 people came to support him. He admits many don’t support his lifestyle. His grandfather was a Seventh-day Adventist minister, and he says “90 percent of my relatives are Christians ... right-wing Christians. But they are still good people.”

Record Searchlight reporter Damon Arthur talked to local residents about the show before last week’s concert.

“We’re all the same. It may not be the same in the bedroom, but we’re all the same,” said Scott Lewis of Redding, who raised money to bring the chorus to town.

But will it change minds? Lewis thinks Redding is more open-minded than in the past.

“I think Redding has changed a lot in the last 20 years,” Lewis said.

The chorus isn't going to change Martha Grimmer’s mind.

“Redding is the wrong place, because Redding is a stronghold of Christians,” said Grimmer, a mall walker at the Mt. Shasta Mall in Redding.

“Why would people change their mind for something they don’t believe in?” she said.

Bob Nelson of Redding, who supported Proposition 8, said he welcomed the chorus coming to town, but said he doubted it would make a difference in how people feel about gay marriage.

“I don’t think it’s going to change people's fundamental outlook,” Nelson said.

The show might not have changed minds, but for the thousand people who were willing to attend the concert it at least offered a view of gay men that was quite different than the image presented in 2008 during the Prop 8 campaign. For them at least, it put 90 human faces to a policy.

Witherington, the chorus ED, told the Chico Enterprise Record, “We’re here to create a little harmony.” He, no doubt, meant more than just literal musical harmony. A priest from a Redding Episcopal church said Saturday that he still firmly believes marriage should be restricted for male-female couples, but he added to Nevius, “I struggle with it a little bit.”

As for the area’s small, quiet gay community, they seemed blown away. Bill McPhetridge, a gay man in his late 60s, moved to the area in 1988. Was he surprised at the turnout?

Try “astounded.”

“Redding really does have a lot of rednecks,” he said.

When the guys put on their glitter-trimmed pink Stetsons and hoedowned to “If You Were Gay”, let’s just say the Redding Rodeo may never again have quite the same vibe.

The night brought political statements, dead-perfect harmonies, standout soloists and a rip-roaring gospel version of “Oh Happy Day” - featuring choir-robed Sanford Smith - that lifted the crowd right out of their seats.

The performance also brought a sucker punch of emotion for just about everyone.

A stranger threw her arms around baritone Brian Jung.

“Until now,” she said, “we felt like the only parents in Shasta County with a gay child.”

The tour will continue later this year after the chorus’s annual spring concert series in San Francisco.