Natalie S. Would

Your Candidate for Queen of NYCGMC

My goals for the Chorus:

Continue in the footsteps of the royals before me, learning from them and building upon their great work

Increase the amount of events to include social justice and advocacy, volunteer work, and an even larger variety of social outings, to ensure that everyone can find something that speaks to their needs

Cultivate community within the Chorus

Actively involve members and work from their feedback

For more about me, my experience, and my mission, scroll down!

Chorus and Broad Experience

Boy Natalie, better known as David Warner, joined the Chorus for the Spring concert in 2022 and has become increasingly more involved as time has gone on. Outside of regular performances, David has also been very involved in the Chorus through:

  • Outreach events, participating in nearly all of the Spring/Summer events of 2022 and 2023, including performing at the Brooklyn Cyclones game, and Pride events, including the March

  • DEI&B, acting as a member of the group to better cultivate a space where people feel supported, including having a hand in creating the Sharing Our Stories series, co-moderating the first session and creating moderator guidelines for subsequent iterations

  • Fundraisers, including the Fall fundraiser of 2023, where he came in 16th in the Chorus for donations raised, 2024, where he came in 11th, and acted as the New Member Team Captain, and the AIDS Walk, which he co-chaired, and Harmony, where he worked behind the scenes and at the event first as a talent handler and then as the Volunteer Captain the following year

  • Has been the Co-liaison for NYCGMC of GALA 2024, organizing and acting as a conduit to the Chorus

  • Proved his commitment to advocacy when he spearheaded the creation of a new award at Harmony, the Community Call to Action Award, and nominated Dr. Scott Hadland for his incredible contributions to the LGBTQ+ community, in particular, his work to fight the “Don’t Say Gay” bill of Florida, and similar bills in other state legislatures

  • Created and hosted the first of a new series, “Speak Now (NYCGMC’s Version), a celebration of the spoken word to benefit the Chorus

  • Social events, regularly attending gatherings outside of the Chorus, and about as frequent an attendee of post-rehearsal drinks as the bar staff themselves

Some of David’s leadership, volunteerism, and activism experience to date:

  • Co-chaired the LGBT+ Perspectives Group at Trinity Life Sciences, including sponsoring hugely popular company-wide Pride events, a company Instagram takeover which highlighted LGBTQ+ heroes of the life sciences, and spearheaded a very successful initiative to include pronouns in email signatures

  • Member of the DEI committee and the patient perspectives committee at Trinity LIfe Sciences, tasked with creating internal initiatives to better understand disparities in health outcomes based on diversity considerations

  • Took over the New Gay Friends in New York City Meetup group, and changed the name to New LGBTQ friends in New York City to be more inclusive, planning a variety of events for the 3,700+ members during three years of leading

  • Volunteered in numerous political campaigns and outreaches, including being a member of Senator Warren’s small business council during her 2020 bid for the Presidency, advising her team on the needs of small businesses and especially LGBTQ owned businesses

  • Was elected the Treasurer and then the President of the ACLU at New England Law, where has also a twice elected student senator, planning events for his anxiety-ridden classmates and fighting for their voices to be heard in student council

  • Was elected the Treasurer and then the President of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Denton, the largest active student group of the University of North Texas’ campus of over 40,000 students

  • Fought the school board (and won) to include the LGBT+ community in the student handbook as a protected class from physical and verbal harassment and intimidation

  • Founded his small, conservative, Connecticut town’s high school’s first Diversity Group, highlighting diversity issues in race, ethnicity, gender diversity, and sexual orientation, which later gave way to the first gay/straight alliance

  • Has volunteered for and donates to a variety of activist organizations, including Let California Ring, which helped bring same sex marriage to California, as well as RAINN, the ACLU, HRC, GLAAD, Global Citizen’s Festival, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Lewy Body Dementia Association, Susan G Komen, Cure Chron’s and Colitis, the Ali Forney Center, the AIDS walk, The Broad Street Ministry, and, of course, BAPA/The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus

More about Nat

Natalie Shirley Would, was born out of a love for old Hollywood, fashion, music, drag, performance, and comedy. She can be best described as if you took elements from the top leading ladies of Hollywood in 50s and 60s and dropped them into the hands of a stylist today and she said, “Give me a modern look, but not TOO modern!” She is a celebration of camp, class, comedy, queerness, and performance, but most importantly, she is very much a work in progress.

Natalie is seeking the crown in an effort to give more back to the Chorus that Natalie and David love so much. She stands on the shoulders of giants (which has to be pretty uncomfortable for them in these shoes), and wants to build on the incredible work of these current and past royals. She hopes to “put the activism back into social,” planning charity outreach events with local LGBTQ+ and other organizations to give back to the community and spread the word of our organization. This is, of course, in addition to the usual fun, and she can throw one hell of a party! This is about you, so she encourages you to voice your thoughts and ideas!

See Nat in action.