Update: Kevin Gallagher to return to SMC in 2015

RantWoman is reprinting this item verbatim from email update about ASL interpretation for Seattle Men's Chorus performances.

Kevin Gallagher is returning in 2015.  As for now, SMC will hire
qualified/certified interpreters from now to provide access.  However,
they are keeping Kevin. He will continue to provide his "interpretation"
for separate shows. He will return to "performing" in the Spring.
We, as of the SMC team, are still processing this information and we need
your input. Please email me directly at kmroberts75@gmail to share your
thoughts and input.

We need to hear from you. We want to know how you feel. We want to know
how you feel we should respond.

Here is the link to the blog  so you may read the full text of the letter
Flying House Productions sent out to their fans.
http://openlettertosmc.blogspot.com/2014/11/update-kevin-gallagher-will-return.html

RantWoman offers the following observations:
--RantWoman is glad from the links  that Seattle Men's Chorus at last recognizes that they have a problem.

--RantWoman says "At last" because RantWoman remembers Ferrener Husband's first and only attendance at an SMC performance. Ferrener Husband is Deaf, from a Deaf family and another country. He became Husband partly because he was willing to stand up as firmly as RantWoman does about some issues important to us. But Ferrener Husband a number of years ago came home from an SMC concert so disgusted by the interpreting that he could barely speak; he also said other deaf people had been trying for years to make improvements without success. So RantWoman is grateful for progress however modest.

--RantWoman is familiar with the whole genre of non-native speakers of one or another language making audio that encapsulates multiple kinds of mistakes that can creep into language: pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax. RantWoman suggests that people welcome Mr. Gallagher warmly but video tape his performances and then provide captioning of how song texts go awry in his arms. RantWoman suggests that this be done as affectionately as possible, in a spirit of honest effort to find fun in the situation. RantWoman does NOT mean to minimize continuing concerns but instead to grab them and keep shining light in their direction.

--RantWoman is reprinting this announcement verbatim, without succumbing to temptation to make small edits, to make the point that ASL is a separate language from English with different syntax. RantWoman is not in a position to evaluate whether the points she might edit to standard english reflect artifacts of writing ASL but is leaving them in the document to promote readers' awareness about the possibility.