Donald Satz, "too much information," and Kevin Sutton, "don't give a flip," write about the non-importance an artist's orientation. Ok, I'll give this a try. It's not a matter of too much information, but more a problem of too *little* information. Remember that a 1st-World, industrial, and arguably sophisticated nation took great pains to hide the fact that their most famous composer, Tchaikovsky, was gay. (I reviewed Disney's Educational Tchaikovsky video and in it, the frustrated composer dashes out the first lines of his Piano Concerto, looking at a picture of a beautiful woman on the wall. She comes in, closes the lid, and they kiss...) Growing up gay is difficult and isolating enough without discovering that all historical precedent has been effectively erased--especially considering the towering intellectual and artistic achievements of gay people in our past. This information should at least be as readily available as the vilifying commentary that one hears spouted from playgrounds to the workplace. Does being gay automatically make one a good composer or a great intellectual? Of course not, but armed with the knowledge that there *is* a legacy out there of tremendous riches can be very empowering to people like me. It means that one can make their way in the world after all. Beethoven wrote while deaf and blind, Tchaikovsky while wrestling with his homosexuality, and Vaughan Williams whilst sipping tea. When people sit on their couches, CD remote in hand, demanding that the god's muses entertain them, it's important to remember that some, (not all), of the gifts that they are enjoying are the delightful, (or poignantly moving), results of different people looking at things in a different way. John Smyth