I'd like to start out by saying I am in no way trying to be divisive. This is an honest question as a musician in the LGBT community. My partner and I live and both have family in "blue states" (only mentioning this because we are privileged to live in a state that has certain protections for us). I'm looking to take an audition in a red state but I can't help but feel like this isn't fair to my partner who has stable work where we live now. I don't fear conservative people nor do I assume everybody in "red states" is a bigot or anything of the sort. I know there are thriving LGBT communities all over the country, but in a pragmatic sense I and my family will have more rights where we live now in a state that has protections for us in place should the supreme court drop another decision on us. What are people's opinions on this? Should I just go for it and have an backup plan if certain policies be put in place? Lots of maybes here I know. Please I'm intending to be as respectful as possible and I hope the replies will be as well. Thank you!
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Thank you for your reply!
Hi there, I relate to your situation a lot. For the sake of preserving my anonymity I’ll just say that I am a young, very liberal LGBTQ musician in a full time orchestra that is in an overwhelmingly red state.
Everyone’s situation is different, but for me, I’m very grateful that there are many other young LGBTQ musicians that I find community with in the orchestra as well. I believe you’ll find other young liberally-minded people in pretty much any orchestra in the US or Canada, no matter what the surrounding area is like. But one of the biggest lessons I learned in joining this orchestra is that you can’t assume that everyone (especially older musicians) are aligned the same as you morally or socially, whichever way you look at it, like you could while in school. Most orchestras today encompass people spanning three (sometimes four) different generations, and people (especially older) who have been in the orchestra for a long time are most likely not going to adjust their thoughts or morals to make you more comfortable. I’ve luckily never been offended or made uncomfortable by anything that’s been said here, but I do know that there are some people that I work closely with who have different moral alignments from my own.
Career-wise, I am very grateful and happy to have the job that I do and be where I am now. However, I am most definitely taking other auditions that make sense for me to take in more blue-leaning states. Marriage is not the most important thing to me, and I’m not that interested in adopting or having kids either, but long-term, I see myself settling down in a much more liberal place in the US, Canada, or even Europe. For auditions in general, I’ve always approached them with the mindset of taking as many that I can or that make sense for me (especially if you don’t have a job yet, the audition experience is vital), then figuring out/making decisions about them if I’m fortunate enough to win the job.
Luckily, most full-time or close to full-time orchestras are within very blue cities, whether they are in red states or not. I’d recommend taking the audition and seeing what happens if it’s not a huge financial burden for you - going to the city itself for the audition will also give you a good sense on whether it’s somewhere that you can envision you or your family living. Hope this helps, and best of luck!