Advocates Celebrate End of Policy Barring Ticket Sales to Transgender Women August 24, 2006
But Management of Michigan Womyn's Music Festival Insists Transwomen Should Choose Not to Attend
Washington, DC — After an openly transgender woman was allowed to purchase a ticket at this summer's Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Camp Trans organizers released a statement on August 21 celebrating the end of a 15-year old, anachronistic, divisive policy that served to police women's bodies and exclude transwomen from attending the Festival. Camp Trans is an annual gathering of people dedicated to promoting inclusion of all women at women-only events. However, the celebration of this news was short-lived as management of We Want The Music Company (WWTMC), a for-profit corporation that runs the festival, issued a press release the next day reaffirming their belief that transgender women should police themselves and not attend the Festival.
While the Festival box office will now sell tickets to transwomen, according to WWTMC's Lisa Vogel, the only people welcome are "womyn who were born as and have lived their entire life experience as womyn." Vogel's statement continues, "If a transwoman purchased a ticket, it represents nothing more than that womon choosing to disrespect the stated intention of this Festival."
While trying to cloak WWTMC's rhetoric in window dressing by calling transwomen "sisters in struggle," Vogel erroneously continued to assert that it is not transphobic to ask transgender women not to attend the long-running Festival. In a disturbing twist of logic, Vogel acknowledges that transgender women will now be able to purchase tickets, but she stands behind the spirit of company's recently retired policy, calling transwomen disrespectful if they choose to attend the Festival.
"All women should feel welcomed in women-only space," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "It's just sad to see this company continuing to police the validity women's identities and experiences. WWTMC's rhetoric echoes the language of other oppressors. We expect better of those who should know the pain of oppression. We'd like to see Vogel's company get up to speed with the attitudes of the feminist community and with the vast majority of festival workers and attendees."
While WWTMC has dug in its heels regarding which women it deems fit to welcome to the Festival, the attitudes of festival-goers and workers have definitely shifted since 1991 when a transwoman was forcibly ejected from the event. The feminist community overwhelmingly embraces the diversity of women's experiences, from butch lesbians to genderqueer dykes to transwomen.
Camp Trans organizers continue to educate WWTMC's management around the divisiveness of their position.
To learn more about Camp Trans, please visit: http://www.camp-trans.org To learn more about the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, please visit: http://www.michfest.com
National Center for Transgender Equality email: ncte at nctequality.org phone: 202-903-0112 web: http://www.nctequality.org
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