Hundreds Turn Out for Wisconsin High Schoolers’ Performance of Banned LGBTQ Song

On Wednesday evening, high school students from Watertown, Wisconsin, performed a song that had been banned by the city’s conservative school board before an audience of hundreds of supportive community members.

The micropolitan city of over 23,000 people, which resides almost exactly between the two largest cities in the state, has made national headlines over the past several weeks due to the board’s decision to forbid the Watertown High School Wind Symphony from playing “A Mother of a Revolution,” an instrumental piece that honors transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, a famed participant in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 in New York City.

For several months, more than 30 students in the band rehearsed the piece. Because lessons on LGBTQ subject matter are included on the list of “controversial topics” outlined by the school board, the band’s director, Reid LaDew, sent a letter to parents in the fall about the plan to play the song.

“The purpose behind studying Mother of a Revolution is not to provoke controversy, but to deepen students’ understanding of how music reflects the diverse experiences of humanity,” LaDew’s letter stated.

Parents were given the choice to withdraw their children from playing the song, with only a few families deciding to do so. Nevertheless, just days before the spring concert was set to commence, the school board announced that it would hold a vote on whether to allow the piece to be performed.

The board members made dubious claims about the intention of the piece, with one member saying the music — which contains no lyrics whatsoever — “celebrated” political violence. Notably, the Stonewall Uprising was a response to years of violence from New York City police officers, who conducted frequent and violent raids of the Stonewall Inn, an LGBTQ club, in the late 1960s. Board members also claimed the piece sought to “indoctrinate” children, a common talking point among right-wing activists with transphobic views.

After the board voted 7-1 against allowing the song to be performed, students at the high school staged a walkout, with hundreds exiting their classes in protest of the decision earlier this month. Shortly after, students at the city’s middle school also staged a walkout.

As the issue persisted in the minds of several community members, organizers with Social Justice Watertown coordinated with Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church of Watertown to host a performance of the song in their building on Wednesday evening.

More than 500 people lined up on the narrow sidewalk outside of the church, just a few blocks off Main Street in Watertown, before the performance began. The church could only accommodate a few hundred people inside, but many people who could not enter remained outside the church beside open windows to hear the speakers and listen to the students play.

Perhaps to protect the educators and other staff in the school district, speakers at the event were quick to point out that no resources from the school were used for the performance, and that no teachers participated, only community members and the students themselves. Instruments were loaned to performers, and even the sheet music that was used was printed separately.

After hearing about the students’ actions, the song’s composer, Omar Thomas, had announced that he would personally attend the concert and act as conductor for the performance. He spoke to the large audience gathered before the show.

“I had to come, because I had to feel the energy that you all have generated by deciding that community is what matters. … Standing by community is what matters in these dark times,” Thomas said. He added:

This moment is really not about me at all. The reason that I am here is the reason that you all are here, which is to show your love and support to the Watertown Wind Symphony; it’s to show your love and support to the Watertown High School students, who saw their colleagues disrespected and bullied, and decided to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them and walk out that door; and also, very importantly, you’re here to celebrate yourselves, because being in community — it’s so easy to forget the power of that, because we all live our lives virtually. And that is no substitute for what’s happening in this room.

Composing pieces like “A Mother of a Revolution,” which showcase communities that aren’t traditionally represented in concert music, is important, Thomas explained, as it helps to bring people together. “All of our differences become places of fascination, rather than points of fear,” he said.

Students in the Watertown Wind Symphony also spoke at the event.

“‘A Mother of a Revolution,” at its core, is about empathy. And empathy is never something that we should try to hide or take away,” said a student named Charles. “While the situation [this concert] is born from is negative, the support I have witnessed firsthand is nothing short of spectacular.”

Sophia, another student performer, thanked the community for showing up, and for their support over the past few weeks.

“I know I can say that I put my trust in every single one of you tonight. Thank you,” she said.

Organizers for the event said it was important for the performance to be an uplifting one.

“We wanted people to know this is what Watertown is about, not what the board did,” one organizer with Social Justice Watertown told Truthout.