Michfest

Hi, I was surprised to read your comments. I have attended michfest for the last 11 years and I think you may have gotten bad information.

I know bitch and animal from fest and would be surprised to hear they were performing anywhere since they havent worked together for sometime.

I would encourage you to attend festival to know what it is rather than make a judgement that is based on information that may not be accurate.

Susan Ryan
Detroit, MI
www.myspace.com/suryan207

I have attended fest for many years and am genderqueer and do not at all experience michfest to be transphobic at all. Go to fest and see for yourself.

Fest info:In an effort to build further understanding of the Festival?s perspective, answers are provided to questions raised by the recent Camp Trans press release (which contains misinformation):

Why would the Festival sell a ticket to an individual who is not a womon-born womon if the Festival is intended as a space created by and for womyn-born womyn? From its inception the Festival has been home to womyn who could be considered gender outlaws, either because of their sexual orientation (lesbian, bisexual, polyamorous, etc.) or their gender presentation (butch, bearded, androgynous, femme ? and everything in between). Many womyn producing and attending the Michigan Festival are gender variant womyn. Many of the younger womyn consider themselves differently gendered, many of the older womyn consider themselves butch womyn, and the dialogue is alive and well on the Land as our generational mix continues to inform our ongoing understanding about gender identity and the range of what it means to be female. Michigan provides one of the safest places on the planet for womyn who live and present themselves to the world in the broadest range of gender expression. As Festival organizers, we refuse to question anyone?s gender. We instead ask that womon-born womon be respected as a valid gender identity, and that the broad queer and gender-diverse communities respect our commitment to one week each year for womyn-born womyn to gather.

Did the Festival previously refuse to sell tickets to transwomen? The Festival has consistently communicated our intention about who the Festival is created by and for. In 1999, Camp Trans protesters caused extensive disruption of the Festival, in which a male from Camp Trans publicly displayed male genitals in a common shower area and widespread disrespect of women?s space was voiced. The following year, our 25th anniversary, we issued a statement that we would not sell tickets to those entering for the purpose of disrupting the Festival. While this is widely pointed to by Camp Trans supporters as a "policy," it was a situational response to the heated circumstances of 1999, intended to reassure the womyn who have attended for years that the Festival remained ? as it does today ? intended for womyn who were born as and have lived their entire life experience as womyn, despite the disrespect and intentional disruption Camp Trans initiated.

Is the Festival transphobic? We strongly assert there is nothing transphobic with choosing to spend one week with womyn who were born as, and have lived their lives as, womyn. It is a powerful, uncommon experience that womyn enjoy during this one week of living in the company of other womyn-born womyn. There are many opportunities in the world to share space with the entire queer community, and other spaces that welcome all who define themselves as female. Within the rich diversity now represented by the broader queer community, we believe there is room for all affinity groups to enjoy separate, self-determined, supportive space if they choose. Supporting womyn-born womyn space is no more inherently transphobic than supporting womyn of color space is racist. We believe that womyn-born womyn have a right to gather separately from the greater womyn?s community. We refuse to be forced into false dichotomies that equate being pro-womyn-born womyn space with being anti-trans; indeed, many of the womyn essential to the Michigan Festival are leaders and supporters of trans-solidarity work. The Michigan Womyn?s Music Festival respects the transsexual community as integral members of the greater queer community. We call upon the transsexual community in turn to respect and support womyn-born womyn space and to recognize that a need for a separate womyn-born womyn space does not stand at odds with recognizing transwomen as part of the larger diversity of the womyn?s community.

What is Camp Trans? Camp Trans was first created in 1994 as a protest to the Festival as womyn-born womyn space. Camp Trans re-emerged in 1999 and has been held across the road from the Festival every year since. A small gathering of people who camp and hold workshops and a few performances on Forest Service land across the road, Camp Trans attempts to educate womyn who are attending the Festival about their point of view regarding trans inclusion at the Festival. At times they have advocated for the Festival to welcome anyone who, for whatever period of time, defines themselves as female, regardless of the sex they were born into. At other times, Camp Trans activists have advocated opening the Festival to all sexes and genders.

What is the Michigan Womyn?s Music Festival? It is the largest and longest running womyn?s festival in the United States. Since the first Festival in 1976, tens of thousands of womyn from all corners of the world have made the pilgrimage to this square mile of land in Northern Michigan. The essence of the Festival is that it is one week a year that is by, for and about the glorious diversity of womyn-born womyn and we continue to stand by our labor of love to create this space. Our focus has not changed in the 31 years of our celebration and it remains fixed on the goal of providing a celebratory space for a shared womyn-born-womyn experience.

Contact Lisa Vogel, 231-757-4766

I'm sure that the actual fest itself is surprisingly inclusive, but this is an ongoing, behind-the-scenes issue that has been floating for over a decade. I have read the Camp Trans and Michfest press releases, and have read many issued statements made by Lisa Vogel, as well as interviews. The issue rests with a small minority who do not feel welcome as womyn. This is the issue that I see. If you have read literature that is readily available both online and in print, you can see that the fest really isn't that transinclusive. "Womyn-born-womyn." Case and point. If you're a woman, you're a woman. It doesn't matter if you used to be a man, because a woman is what you truly are, inside if not physically. This is the issue that I have with Michfest. I would love to experience it firsthand, but I don't know if I can do so in good conscience until they make it open to all women, regardless of the sex they were born.

I know Bitch and Animal haven't worked together in a while, but the issue at hand is that they weren't welcome at Michfest.

I know many women who have had a positive experience at festival, but I have a serious issue with the womyn-born-womyn policy, which is what this blog centered on.

That policy is available word-for-word from Lisa Vogel on various websites. Check it out. What appears may not always be what's true. If you read the policies, they are very clearly trans-exclusionary, something I have a big issue with.

Kym

Thank you for responding to my comments.

What I needed to make clear was that Bitch and Animal have been a welcome and valued part of our festival community.
Animal performed with Bitch, had her opera version of Hothead Paisan (with special guest Ani DiFranco as Chicken) on main stage another year and worked on the massage crew in yet another year.
Bitch was there just last year with Ferron.

I do understand that your point was about trans inclusion not to be limited to the situation of these particular individuals. Let us be clear though, Animal has not been excluded for being gender queer.

I did want to understand your position better.I can also understand if that position is still being formed.

Are you against having womyn only space? Do you want f to m trans folks included or just m to f?

It may help you to understand my point of view when I say how valuable an experience it is for me to be in a gender aware space created by and for womyn.

Where possible we all share in the work to build a festival that celebrates our own work. We try not exploit minimum wage workers to cook our food, pick up our trash, or build the stages.

We have a core of workers that facilitate the work of the several thousand womyn that attend festival.

All fest goers are asked to work a minimum of one four hour shift. (If you come longer than the weekend we would like you to work a second four hour shift)It is that operation that runs festival. We intend to do whatever we can for ourselves and you can feel it.

Festival is what we make it. It is not a gender neutral space, it is a gender aware space.
Many of us having been working toward greater trans inclusion at festival.
Trans womyn are at festival and do support festival. They are a valued part of our community and should have greater visibility.

I think m to f trans folk are already coming to fest and should be more openly celebrated. It is a problem that we have wound up with this strange compromise between the generations.

I think boycotting festival is not an effective way to support trans inclusion at fest. We need womyn who support transinclusion to be part of our community.
Thank you for your patience. Thank you for reading my comments and taking the time to take a stand. I hope that you check the festival out and see for yourself the powerful community that we are building.

Yours in victory
Susan Ryan
Detroit, MI
suryan207@yahoo.com

Kym
Please forgive my forgetfulness, I wanted to say one other thing. Which is more important, the statements on the internet or the actual inclusiveness of the festival?

We, the womyn that attend festival, make it what it is.
much love and thanks again for this space to discuss such an important issue

Susan Ryan