Hearing Interpreters as the Face of ASL

[Betty Colonomos]

Dear Colleagues,

I received this post on 11/19/14 and I felt compelled to respond.  It occurred to me after reading Aaron Brace's piece on Street Leverage that this may be a topic we want to put our there.  What follows is the original post and my response. Please read the blog that is linked in her letter so you will have all the details and my response may make more sense.  Comments are welcome.

Hello Petition Supporters, 

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

Here is the email for feedback: Kmrob...@gmail.com

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Hello,

I read with interest your letter to fans.  I am a native hearing signer (coda) who is very active in the interpreting community. You may view my credentials on www.visitbmc.com. I am involved on the national level with the interpreting field and have been a "cultural broker" between the interpreting and Deaf Communities for over 35 years.

First, let me commend you for the actions you have taken. It must have been difficult, especially since the original signer has been with the group for some time.  I do not have enough specific information about the issues leading to the letter to offer my feedback about the actions and stance you have taken.  However, I can offer my insights from a lifetime of living between two worlds.

I am passionate about the issues of oppression, power and privilege, and the development/support of Deaf Interpreters (CDIs). Because of recent trends, community forums, conferences, and the like, I would offer the feedback that the Deaf native signer be on the stage with the hearing interpreter cueing and feeding.  Deaf people have been denied access to entertainment all their lives and now with the help of federal legislation like the ADA, they deserve to get the full benefit of art forms and because art is extremely challenging to interpret into any other language/culture, it really requires a native signer who also works in theater.  Howie Seago fits that bill, as do others.

Finally, continuing to use the uncertified interpreter in the regular performance schedule also creates problems. Kevin Gallagher has been benefiting and profiting from the language of the Deaf Community for a long time without ever mastering ASL. It's time to pay it forward and contribute to the maximum access and enjoyment of Deaf audiences by only working with a CDI on stage.  I assume Mr. Gallagher is a performer and I encourage him to express his artistry in different ways so that he not perpetuate the oppression of Deaf people.

If you would like to discuss this further, I am happy to be available.

Sincerely,


Betty M. Colonomos
Director
Bilingual Mediation Center, Inc.
Web:www.visitbmc.com
Email: visi...@verizon.net

[Betty Colonomos]

Hello Again,

Apologize for the error...Billy Seago, not Howie Seago.  I'm just gettin' old  :)

[Aaron Brace]

Sorry if this already went out... I didn't receive it back through the list, so I wasn't sure.
********************************************
Hi Betty and all,

When I read the full letter sent out by Flying House Productions I did notice that they said they "hoped" Kevin Gallagher would return; it appears that has yet to be determined. Small comfort.

But I was dumbfounded by this:

"We believe that it is possible to meet the needs of the Deaf community by providing certified access at some performances, and to our larger audience by continuing to have artistic non-certified interpretation at other performances."

Actually, I'm not entirely dumbfounded. It's a monster that I and other hearing interpreters have had a hand in creating. Read Mr. Gallagher's bio at the bottom of that linked page; how different does it sound from what many of us might come up with for ourselves? What, if any, checkpoints did he have to go through along the way? Hearing people just take us at our word that we are what we say, and no matter how loudly Deaf people protest to the contrary, we not only get believed, we get "special recognition".

Dan Parvaz, if you're reading this, I think it relates to the points you raised in response to my Street Leverage essay.  Hearing people don't see the difference between what's real and what's not, and as long as they're entertained by what's not, they'll put it on stage, give it a standing ovation and throw roses at its feet.

It seems that what SMC has been hearing from the community has focused heavily on certified vs. non-certified. That's another monster we've created, since we know that 'certified' so often doesn't mean 'qualified'. They seem to dismiss Mr. Gallagher's unsuitability as his having not jumped through some annoying politically correct hoops- not as the offense that his apparent (I've never seen his work, but I'm trusting the Seattle community) mockery of ASL continues to cause Deaf people.

I don't know what more can be done in this case, besides getting the Deaf community to strongly support the properly interpreted performances. It makes me, personally, take that much more seriously the responsibility I talked about on SL. We hearing interpreters have created the circumstances that create the Kevin Gallaghers of the world.

Best,
Aaron

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[Betty Colonomos]

Aaron and all,

Thank you for your comments; it is courageous to take a stand that will not only be controversial, but unpopular among many people in our field. I am wondering what comments will come from interpreters who primarily work on the stage.  I suspect that one of the reactions will be that there aren't enough Deaf interpreters to meet the need/demand. As we know, much of the "demand" has been created by interpreters themselves.  While we support and encourage Deaf interpreters to do this work, the Deaf Community should be asked to supply names of interpreters who they deem appropriate; hopefully, interpreters who are trusted by Deaf consumers will insist that ASL Sign Masters be involved as much as possible.

This is a tough pill to swallow.  Interpreters will take a closer look at their own motivations...is it more about service and access or is it primarily to fill the need to be a performer on stage getting attention and adoration from hearing people who have no idea about the back story.

There is nothing wrong with getting attention.  Enjoying being viewed by large audiences is not a bad thing. I have had those experiences of feeling like a performer, but it always feels better when Deaf audience members are showing approval and enjoyment.

We will see where this discussion takes us. It will take a great deal of self-reflection and somewhat painful honesty to join the discussion with an open mind and heart.

Thanks to your unselfish disclosures, you have made a crack in the wall of silence.

With utmost respect and support,

Betty

[Theresa B. Smith]

The back-story in this discussion: it is not about hearing vs. deaf – it is about Seattle Men’s Chorus (SMC) vs. the Deaf Community.

Kevin Gallagher is not respected by by deaf Community members, or by interpreters. He is a person who likes being on stage, is Gay and has had a long relationship with the SMC. This issue “the Kevin issue” or the “SMC issue” is long-standing. Read on.

The Deaf/deaf people who are members of the Seattle Deaf (gay/straight but primarily gay) Community have been trying to get SMC to provide a ‘real interpreter’ for their performances since the late 1980s when Kevin was first doing his arm-dancing on stage. I personally was in a social situation around that time in which leaders in the Deaf artistic Community in Seattle approached a gay-hearing Board member of SMC who had just attended a ply written and performed by deaf people. He was confronted about Kevin. His response was that “deaf people don’t understand art, and artistic performance” and must be educated. I wonder where he got that perspective? He had just attended work by Deaf artists, he was talking to Deaf artists! OMG. At that time the Deaf Community sent a petition to the Board of SMC asking them to replace Kevin with a ‘real interpreter’ but their response was basically blah, blah… “go away”.

That attitude has persisted at SMC for over 30 years. You should also understand that SMC is not just a small group of people performing for fun and their own community (sic) but a major presence in Seattle. They are on local public television and they fill the  Seattle Symphony music hall for their Christmas season. They have major financial backing from businesses like Microsoft!

Last year the initiative was taken up again by a new (younger) group of deaf people (led by a Deaf Gay woman) who not only petitioned SMC but organized a demonstration in front of the hall in which SMC was performing. This group of Deaf people has been somewhat more successful although it is largely seen as an attack of “political correctness” against a Seattle institution of already oppressed (Gay) people and they persist in calling Kevin an “interpreter”.  Hearing Gay allies on the Board have resigned in protest. All to no avail. Finally, this year, we see some concession – but they “LOVE” Kevin for some reason, they insist he is 'an interpreter' and he will not go away.

My most recent conversation about this was yesterday with a Deaf straight man who supports having a Deaf certified interpreter for SMC. He emphasized ‘certified’ - his position is that  — we have fought long and hard to get recognition for the importance of certification as the minimum and cannot make concessions just because someone is deaf.  There are currently 6 certified deaf interpreters in Seattle and his position is that one of them should be chosen. Are any of them performance interpreters? Well, no. Are there Deaf artists/performers who are not certified? Yes – but they are not interpreters. 

The discussion continues. Who gets to decide who is qualified? [Seattle interpreters all support the Deaf Community in their fight to have a say in this choice – none of us is arguing that the reason Kevin is unqualified is that he is not certified. He is simply not qualified by any standard (other than that set by non-deaf, non-signing audience members). 

The issue is who decides – SMC or the Deaf Community? SMC argues that “some deaf people like Kevin” but these deaf? people  remain nameless and invisible in Deaf Community group discussions so…

As I say, the discussion continues.

Theresa 

[Betty Colonomos]

Hi Theresa,

Thanks so much for filling in the history. It's much worse that I imagined!   My letter would have been much stronger had I known about all this.  Sorry I didn't contact you earlier...should have known you could help.

Keep up the good fight Seattle!

Betty

[Dan Parvaz]

Aaron, Betty, et al.

The situation with the SMC sounds like just the sort of horror story for which I've yet to hear a polite solution. Even better is when the hiring institution takes ad hominem pot-shots rather than solve the problem:

When I've complained about a particular interpreter working a very public trial (the community were packed into the courtroom), I was met with "well, Mr. Parvaz, no-one wants *you* to be the interpreter either" (stupid and irrelevant -- my opinions on the case were too strong for me to even think about it). Or when a Deaf person approached a Dean of -- I dunno, paper-shuffling (aren't they all?) -- about the university's habit of getting ITP students to volunteer to interpret graduate classes, they complaint was summarily brushed off, since the Deaf student "obviously wanted to find employment for [their] friends." Only the threat of legal action worked in these cases. Is something similar possible with the SMC without causing major damage to community relations?

-Dan.

[Sandra Bartiromo]

Do we have to name the individual in a global way. Can't we identify the situation without the mass media effect. State the situation and we can get involved. I don't want to be involved if you place a name to the event thank you. 

Sandra Bartiromo 

[Theresa B. Smith]

Hi Sandra -

I appreciate the sentiment and respectfully (in this case) disagree. Just as the University of Virginia is in the news today regarding their long-standing disregard for the rape culture on campus minimized and swept under the rug by the higher administration, so too SMC and its long-standing disregard for the rights of Deaf people – including the minimizing and choice to ignore the petitions etc. of the Deaf Community and as Kevin Gallagher has personally blogged about why he feels picked on and maligned (I.e. Not wishing to eschew the limelight) - calling individuals out seems appropriate.

Where I agree with you is in instances where there is a one-time offense or a large group practice. Other theater groups in Seattle however, have listened to the Deaf Community when approached while SMC continues to resist.

Theresa

From: 'Sandra Bartiromo' via National Interpreter Discussion Group <NI...@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: <NI...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, November 24, 2014 at 9:22 AM
To: "NI...@googlegroups.com" <NI...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [NIDG] Re: Hearing Interpreters as the Face of ASL

Do