Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 16:29:34 EDT Subject: FESTIVAL EVICTS "MICHIGAN 8" OVER "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" From: owner-action@gpac.org GenderPAC 212-645-2686 gpac@gpac.org www.gpac.org Action@GPAC Special Online Edition: August 14, 2000 ====================================== TAKE ACTION! TAKE ACTION! TAKE ACTION! ====================================== 'MICHIGAN EIGHT' EVICTED OVER FESTIVAL'S NEW 'DON'T ASK DON'T TELL' GENDER POLICY Struggle Shifts from Transwomen to Young Activists [HART, MI : 12 Aug 00] EIGHT YOUNG LESBIAN attendees were evicted from the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MWMF) this Saturday evening after they refused to meet the Festival's "womyn-born womyn only" policy. The eight were members of an ad-hoc Chicago group called the "Camp Trans Planning Committee" and the Boston and Chicago chapters of the Lesbian Avengers. More than 60 gender activists from these groups plus members of Transexual Menace, supportive attendees, and renowned activist Dana Rivers gathered across the road from the Festival this year to do outreach and education on what they viewed as a discriminatory policy being unfairly applied. Said one, "Half the women in there are butch, boy, or, or FTM identified and wouldn't be able to say they were 'womyn-born womyn' if asked." Past evictions had focused narrowly on transgender women and the eight's expulsion marks the first time the "womyn-born womyn only" policy has been used against young lesbians, Avengers and gender-variant women. It was widely viewed by most observers as turning a new page in the escalating conflict over the policy's application. As thousands of attendees looked on during dinner in the Festival's huge dining area, the young activists held aloft signs declaring themselves a variety of identities, including "boy," "FTM," "intersex", "drag queen," and "transwoman." When they called for diners to join them in a public show of support, more than three hundred stepped forward to stand with them for almost an hour before Festival Security arrived to evict them. Security escorted the eight to the Main Gate, cut off their attendance wristbands, refused their request for refunds, and expelled them from the grounds. Their action was a direct challenge to Festival owner Lisa Vogel's latest attempt to clarify the policy widely criticized as vague and misleading: a flier handed out at the entrance which threatened that any attendee who "self-declared" as an FTM or MTF transexual or otherwise not being "a womyn-born womyn" would be refused a ticket and face involuntary expulsion. The new statement was viewed by many as amounting to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and indeed, at noon on Friday as four police officers apparently summoned by the Festival watched on amid scores of attendees, one transgender women who openly identified herself was denied entrance while several others who did not identify themselves were allowed to buy tickets and enter. By prior agreement, none were among those who held signs and risked eviction. But all were from among sixty mostly-young gender activists with names like Casey, Gunner, Butch and Jack who variously identified as boyz, andros, trannie boys, lesbian, bi, FTM, girlz, boychick, femme, stone-butch, or simply "queer" who held a series of workshops and discussion groups on the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" gender policy. This year's "Camp Trans" culminated in a live music show with lights, sound, and stage set up by Chicago-based "Camp Trans Planning Committee" coordinator Simon Fisher and his crew. The Festival's first expulsion occurred in 1991 when attendee Nancy Burkholder and a friend were both forcibly evicted after she identified herself in a workshop as a transgender woman. Since then, in 1993, '94, and '99 gender activists, Avengers and members of Transexual Menace have camped out on public property across from the Festival's Main Gate to hold "Camp Trans," this year more inclusively also called "GenderCamp 2000." Said one activist, "Vogel's policy towards transgenders is now the same as the US military's towards homosexuals. But 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' only works when the target group collaborates by remaining silent. Well, we aren't silent. We don't identify as 'womyn-born womyn' -- we don't know what it even means or why it should be used against our trannie friends." Stated GenderPAC Executive Director, Riki Wilchins, "Young dykes and gender-ambiguous lesbians are exploding 'woman' into rich, messy, complex identities that their mothers -- who began this Festival 25 years ago -- never imagined. They have become the new cutting edge of gender in the queer movement." --------------------------------- Contact the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Tell them what you think of their explusion of young lesbian activists, Avengers, and genderqueer women under their new "Don't Ask Don't Tell" gender policy. Write or call: Ms. Lisa Vogel WWTMC PO Box 22 Walhalla, MI 49458 (231) 757-4766 *==============================================* Action@GPAC is GenderPAC's call to action. GenderPAC's action alerts are sent out to everyone on our e-mailing list on a regular basis. 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