7: Dress Rehearsals | When We All Get to Heaven

7: Dress Rehearsals | When We All Get to Heaven

From Outward: Slate's LGBTQ podcast by Slate Podcasts

November 19, 2025 · 47 min · Episode 7

About this episode

The episode recounts the poignant love story of Scott and Bruce, exploring themes of loss and community during the AIDS crisis.

Scott and Bruce were the hottest couple in church. Scott, a hula dancer, seemed destined for Bruce, the hunky “lumbersexual,” and the church delighted when they got together. Their brief love affair sparkled before Bruce got sick and died. Their story is one of multiple “dress rehearsals”– when friends, family and lovers went through AIDS with their loved ones wondering who would be next and sometimes knowing it might be you. You can see Scott perform in a 1992 InterPlay piece called “God, Sex and Power” here . He’s the one with the bandaids on his knees. Singing Positive is a two-part documentary film about the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC) and its experience with AIDS that spans 15 years. The first film, which featured Scott, was produced in 1992 and is hard to find online. The second film, produced in 2009, saw the filmmakers return to SFGMC to explore the impact of AIDS on the chorus over time. The 2009 film, with clips of Scott from the first film, is here . And you can watch some amazing SFGMC performances on their YouTube channel here . Scott was a member of Hālau Nā Kamalei o Līlīlehua ( here’s a recent video) under the direction of Kumu Hula Robert Uluwehi…

Topics covered

  • AIDS
  • love
  • loss
  • community
  • performance

Keywords

  • lumbersexual
  • San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
  • documentary
  • church
  • hula dancer

Mentioned in this episode

Products: InterPlay, Singing Positive

Books & works: God, Sex and Power, Singing Positive, Māhū, the Queer Histories of Hawai’i’s, When We All Get to Heaven, Spirit of the Living God, In the Garden, I Come to the Garden Alone, God Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary, Outward

Places: San Francisco, Hawai’i

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