Submitted by Julian Lander

Erin Frawley began playing percussion in fourth grade and went on to play in marching band in high school. During her senior year, she performed in the Tournament of Roses Parade as one of nine snare drummers in a 224-piece band from the Douglas County High School in Castle Rock, Colorado. Clearly that experience marching in parades was only the beginning!

Erin’s first LGBA band was the Mile High Freedom Band of Denver, where she was a member from 1987 to 1995. She began as a band aide, driving a flat-bed truck in the 1987 Denver Pride Parade. She soon returned to playing percussion and conducting, and conducted in a concert in the spring of 1993. Erin held many offices in the band, and was its conductor for the year 1994-5.

Erin also began attending LGBA events around 1990. She participated in the 1993 March on Washington, performing in both the “Americans We” concert and the march itself. She also participated in the Gay Games in June, 1994, in New York, playing quad-toms with the band in Yankee Stadium. And Erin was a delegate at the LGBA conference at Fort Lauderdale in the fall of 1994.

In 1995, Erin moved to Massachusetts and joined the Freedom Trail Band of Boston. She became the assistant conductor and then took on conducting duties. That not being enough for her, Erin was also the band’s vice-president for equipment. She has been president of the Freedom Trail Band since 2007 and has also been conductor and marching director for many years, as well as the delegate to LGBA conferences for 14 of 16 years.

Not wanting to limit herself, Erin has joined several other LGBA bands at their events. She joined both New York City’s Big Apple Corps and Rochester’s Flower City Pride band for parades for at least ten years.

Erin has also performed with the Desert Winds Freedom Band in Palm Springs, the North Carolina Pride Band, and the Triangle Pride Band of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Starting in 2004, Erin again became active with LGBA and the Federation of Gay Games. She was on the LGBA Board from 2005-11 and was the LGBA delegate to the Federation of Gay Games for the last four years of that period. In her delegate role, Erin was able to see that some problems that arose at Gay Games VII in Chicago in 2006 were not repeated in 2010 in Cologne. Erin provided everyone with an LGBA memory they will never forget at the Ft Lauderdale conference in 2004. Just bring up Erin, Alfred Reed, and a timpani mallet, and you will be in for a great story.

In Gay Games VII in Chicago, Erin was the bass-drum captain for the field performance at the opening ceremonies, played tympani (her favorite instrument to play) at the LGBA concert, and the quad-toms at the closing performance. She also worked with a small LGBA team to manage equipment transportation at that event. For Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Erin worked in advance on arrangement for the cultural components as a delegate, and captained the percussion section at the Gay Games themselves. During the LGBA concert at the Gay Games IX in Cleveland, Erin was presented with the “Outstanding Cultural Participant” Legacy Award by the Federation of Gay Games.

Erin marched with LGBA for the presidential inaugural parades in 2009 and 2013, serving as Cymbal Captain the latter.

In July, 2012, Erin was percussion captain for the HIV/AIDS-related “Keep the Promise” march in Washington, DC.

In short, Erin has been a dedicated musician and leader in several LGBA bands, in LGBA itself, and as an LGBA delegate to the Federation of Gay Games.