Queer Equality Revolution: We Don't Believe We Deserve Equality

May 27, 2009

We Don't Believe We Deserve Equality

First posted on October 15, 2008

This sounds cruel, but sometimes I wish there were more LGBT citizens who have EXPERIENCED some of the devastation that can happen due to marriage inequality. Couples are routinely married (spiritually) 30 years, then lose their partner's pension once widowed. Or one party loses his or her home after death or divorce, and then relatives interfere in matters that SHOULD be between the 2 individuals who were married. Often it sends more previously-tax-contributors into the tax-funded GAY DIVORCE WELFARE PROGRAM.

If even 1/2 of my fellow LGBT community had ANY idea of the REALITY, not just the "idea" or theory, but the REALITY of the legal inequities our families are "supposed" to live with, we'd ALL be much more aggressive, organized, and demanding. And we'd also (perhaps) ACTUALLY BELIEVE we deserve the equality we've fantasized about, because I'm not convinced that all of the people protesting with signs and marches and donating money to propositions truly believe they are ENTITLED to the civil rights they are asking for in the first place. If they did, they wouldn't be so "nice" and "cautious" about demanding what they are already due IN THE FIRST PLACE -

Full Equality.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

Or as I posted earlier - We Don't Know Any Better

Music and Me

I started playing the piano around age 6; finished "Teaching Little Fingers To Play" with a teacher, then was self-taught using the U.S. School of Music Home Study Course until I studied at the University of Michigan, where I was fortunate to be on scholarship. At age 10 I volunteered as the church organist for weekday Mass. My first paying gig was at 13 as the organist for Sunday Mass at St. Julian Catholic Church. My brother gave me his electric bass and amp at 13 after I played it for a few days; by 14 I was gigging in a band.

I taught music in some form (piano, theory, bass guitar) from age 20-43. During that time I was extraordinarily passionate about Piano Pedagogy, Music Learning Theory, and Early Childhood Music & Movement, and used to consider teaching young children music through the piano to be an awesome responsibility, privilege, and joy.

I earned a BM in Piano Performance in '93 from U of M, where I was OBSESSED with 20th century music. My biggest accomplishment at Michigan was performing Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata from memory; it's not virtuostic per se, but it's extraordinarily 'complex' music. At 20 I taught bass at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and performed with the W.C.C. Jazz Orchestra and Afromusicology Ensemble. I owe my ENTIRE musical life to Dr. Morris J. Lawrence, Jr., Lynne Bartholomew, and Arthur Greene.

Professional highlights include performing for President Reagan, opening for Dizzy Gillespie, and playing in the Montreux-Detroit International Jazz Festival. In 2002 I presented my one-man show "Wild About Rhythm" at local elementary schools, and owned and operated a Piano Studio from my home in Kirkland, WA between 1996-2004. I briefly had 24 piano students in 2008, until my P.T.S.D. was severely triggered on 11.05.08. In my lifetime I have performed at over 200 weddings and/or wedding receptions, but I have had to stop because the irony is LITERALLY killing me.