In 2014, the William Way Community Center, a nonprofit organization aimed at supporting LGBTQ+ communities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, set about organizing a jazz festival to highlight LGBTQ+ musicians who were active throughout the United States. The event would span four days and include interactive panels, concerts, and individual interviews, which took place in different venues around the city. Organizers christened the festival OutBeat, seemingly a tip of the hat to the popular jazz publication DownBeat. The title of the event, however, would later seem secondary to its bold subtitle: “America's First Queer Jazz Festival.” After the reveal of OutBeat's subtitle in July 2014, pianist Fred Hersch wrote an open letter to Jazz Times, remarking:
I do not play “gay jazz”—if there were such a thing. And I certainly do not self-identify as “queer”—I also would have preferred that I been consulted in this key marketing decision as it...
