For the first 10 years, The Derivative Duo performed regularly in concerts with The Seattle Women’s Ensemble and other local choral groups, as well as at fundraisers, rallies, festivals and community events in the Seattle area.
Over time, the Duo’s persona developed into rather wacky, over-the-top opera divas with gaudy plastic gemstones, outdated prom dresses, gloves and always their trademark matching high top sneakers. They were thus dressed both as the extreme opera diva and the absolute antithesis of the 1980’s lesbian. This dichotomy allowed them to be “stealth activists” in bringing LGBTQ content to the classical music community and opera to the very serious and folk-centered lesbian world.
The Derivative Duo's trademark costume: matching socks, gloves and high-top sneakers
The Duo continued to represent the lives and issues of the LGBTQ community as the years progressed: first AIDS, then gays in the military, then gay marriage, then the lesbian cruise scene, RVing Women and retired lesbians, gays and lesbians having children together and making alternative families, and always issues faced by queer youth and their families.
Ode to Grethe Cammermeyer with Chicago Gay Men's Chorus
The Duo poked fun at our sexist society and at the oddities of being a woman across the lifespan. PMS, mammograms, pelvic exams, menopause and sex in mid-life were explored with all due drama.
Mamm'ries.. "We used to sport them--Now we support them"
Meanwhile, the ladies attending the opera matinee are going on strike for more toilets; Carmen plans to get her doctorate and come back to organize the factory workers; a roving tomcat has an identity crisis after his exploits are cut short at the hands of the veterinarian; and Barbie has become a junior executive but says that she always has “a couple of Kens-cool and debonair, with their plastic hair.”
By profession, both Susan and Barb were psychiatric nurses and that perspective infused their lyrics.
Rather than love songs, they wrote about people’s everyday lives and dilemmas. In “Greeting Card”, a mother is delighted with her decision to send her gay son to therapy. The cowgirl in “Yodel Lady Tune”, has an unfortunate yodeling habit that interferes with her love life. In “Eine Kleine Visit from Mama”, a lesbian couple frantically tries to “de-dyke” the house before Mother arrives for an unexpected visit.
Perhaps the Duo’s most poignant song is “It’s Not Who You Love (It’s Who You Are)”, which was dedicated to Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. In this simple song, a mother reassures her young lesbian daughter that she will always love her but that she expects her to
“Choose your loves the way you choose your friendships,
Bring them home to meet the family.
Honor love by honoring each other.
You can live and love with dignity.”