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