From: "Clare Howell" Subject: IYF-Camp Trans 99 at MWMF Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 18:20:22 -0700 MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Editor: Clare Howell, clare@gpac.org 'NO PENISES ON THE LAND': MICHIGAN WOMYN'S MUSIC FESTIVAL EXPANDS POLICY ========================================= [Hart, MI: 18 Aug 99] IN FOUR DAYS OF INTENSE confrontation, dialog, and negotiation, a dozen gender activists from Transexual Menace, the Lesbian Avengers, and Transgender Officers Protect & Serve (TOPS) last weekend successfully challenged the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's (MWMF) exclusionary entrance policy of 'womyn-born-womyn-only.' MWMF, the nation's largest festival of its kind and the second oldest, adopted the policy in 1991 to exclude transexual women. It was first used to eject Nancy Jean Burkholder eight years ago. The first Camp Trans was held in 1995 as an educational event across the road from the festival's main entrance to protest the policy. Thirty activists staged two dozen workshops for festival-goers, hundreds of whom came out to hear speakers including Leslie Feinberg, Jamison Green, and Minnie Bruce Pratt. At this year's event, 4 openly trans-identified activists approached the main gate Friday morning, identified themselves, and asked to enter. All were sold tickets, and 3 MTFs and one FTM entered the festival. Faced with pre- operative transexuals and at least one post-op FTM, festival coordinators enhanced their vague "womyn-born-womyn only" policy to include "no penises on the land," and the FTM and MTF voluntarily left. To the festival's credit, owner Lisa Vogel put out a statement saying that there would be no "panty checks" to enforce the policy, and encouraged attendees not to question any woman's right to be there. But the stars of Camp Trans this year were the Chicago Lesbian Avengers who, in support of an inclusive MWMF, went toe-to-toe with angry lesbian-separatists intent on harassing the trans-contingent out of the festival grounds. The Avengers provided moral and physical support of the activists, escorting them through the grounds and engaging in group shouting matches with indignant separatists. Said Camp Trans organizer and attendee Riki Wilchins, "The big change was that five years ago at the original Camp Trans it was transexuals struggling with the Festival. But this year it was young, radical lesbians struggling with other lesbians. After one shouting match, I thanked one of them for her outspoken support, and she responded, 'I wasn't supporting you. If you're not welcome, I'm not safe here either. This is my issue, too.'" Her sentiment was echoed by a growing chorus of women who took up the cause as their own. There were no fewer than four different interactions. The first, an intense, spontaneous 3-hour confrontation in the packed food service area Friday at supper-time began with the Avengers surrounded by angry separatists and ended well after dark. This was followed by a meeting of festival staff and gender activists at Camp Trans Saturday morning, an impromptu workshop Saturday noon, scheduled on-the-fly, which drew over 200 women, and finally a workshop held in Camp Trans by the popular lesbian punk-rock group Tribe-8, whose members are renowned for cutting up dildos and openly identifying onstage as gender-queer . In a show of support, over four dozen festival attendees donned black Transexual Menace tee-shirts, wearing them all over the festival. Many were verbally harassed by separatists who assumed they were transexuals. On the last day, three young festival employees were fired by manage- ment for wearing their Menace Ts while on duty at the main gate. For an in-depth interview with Ms. Wilchins on Camp Trans and this year's event, see www.CampTrans.com ### Subscriptions. Please contact: Subscribe@Gpac.org For prior releases, check the GenderPAC website at: http://www.gpac.org (c) 1999 InYourFace GenderPAC's independent online news-only service for gender activism. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of GenderPAC's Board, Officers, or membership.