Is this a plausible suggestion?  Or is is absurd?  In any event, let us keep the conversation going so that the rancor of this year's gathering will not be replicated in the years to follow.

"I've been hearing bits and pieces about what happened this year at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and Camp Trans around continued organizing for inclusion of trans women on the land (see michfest.net for a short round-up, and links elsewhere). I've been saddened by the reports of violence, and heartened by the reports of resistance within the fest. But this post is the most illuminating I've read so far, and I'd encourage y'all to read it and follow the links there, too. I especially appreciate the analysis that gayge brings to thinking about strategy and, more importantly, the meaning of community for revolution and liberation. Such important, difficult and necessary conversations."

I want to thank you for writing this, gayge. Michfest and Camp Trans are not the front lines for the battles I've fought for inclusion of trans women in "women-only" spaces, for many complex reasons not worth enumerating here. However, every year, I re-engage these questions with the friends who go and the friends who won't/can't go to the fest. And every time the question of inclusion is raised in various other spaces, the spectre of Michigan enters the room. I want to tell you how important I think your work, and the work of your comrades, has been over the years. I can empathize with how exhausting that work is — and how terrifying, how frustrating, and occasionally glorious it is. And I appreciate you taking the time to write this account, and to tackle the larger issues of revolutionary/liberatory strategy and community accountability. I appreciate the clarity, and the yearning, of your analysis here. I appreciate the cost of this work, and that you do it anyway.

I hope that you and your folks will take the time to rest and recover and give yourselves space for re-entry into the world away from the land, that flashpoint hotspot of so many of these questions we hold so dear. I hope that these conversations can continue, and that Camp Trans can continue (though on more stable intentional footing), and that Michfest will someday soon come to its senses. But then again, I hope the world will come to its senses soon, too.

Yours in struggle,

Emily

Anatomical females are all peaceful and it’s those damned trans folks that cause all of the problems. Ever think that the transphobia and exclusion is the cause of the problems? If folks weren’t being excluded and screwed by other folks, there would be no need for retaliation at all. The fact that you are accusing others of being oppressors from a position of transphobic exclusion is laughable.

Your mentality is the same used by assimilationists and patriarchs who assume that if only queers would act more like straight people and women would know their place… then they could have some respect.

For example, the women who support the WBW policy are transphobes and haters. That doesn't mean that all cisgender women are transphobes and haters. Get it? Hope so.

xoxo

I feel the need to point out that what you've got there isn't womyn's space. You let in men. That they are trans men still makes them men. I respect their identity too much to let them assert their identity 51 weeks a year and then try to undermine it for access to fest the other.

One of the serious problems with the dynamic CT has are that the vast majority of the attendees are trans men, and most of them simply will never accept a womyn's festival, and will want to take advantage of the sanction your birth-assignment criteria provides to gain access. Camp Trans has long-since been hijacked from its original mission of a fest for all womyn. It's become yet another 'trans-inclusive' space that's dominated by men and has a basic interest in invalidating expressed gender for purposes of guaranteeing the access of men to womyn's space. For illustration, the trans womyn had an emergency caucus that had a majority of attendees there, do you know how many people those were?

Six.

I full well expect the typical response, that when my analysis violates your taxonomy, I will get a repeat of your taxonomy. When my life violates your taxonomy, I will be threatened and menaced and outed, while the taxonomy is repeated.

Michfest is not a womyn's festival, and you're attacking womyn, and yes, you're disproportionately bashing dykes, when you call it that.

Sincerely,

A trans dyke who keeps hoping that one year you'll come to your senses.

Friends,
I'm writing first and foremost to retract my statement that Gayge
snitched at camp trans. If that's all you want to read of this email
feel free to stop there!

For those interested in the slightly longer version read on:
I got a phone call last Thursday from my friend Ryan who was extremely
concerned when people he trusted told him that Gayge had threatened to
falsely turn him and others in to Michigan Women's Fest security for
illegal activities. Gayge had already left camp at this point (which
you can read about in her version of the story by following the URL at
the end of this email) and some aspects of fact checking at Camp Trans
were stalled by lack of communication for political and practical
reasons. Ryan asked me to help him and I immediately agreed to send
out the email I sent out. We acted so quickly because we were very
concerned that people would be turned in within a short period of
time, however I felt that I had many unanswered questions still and as
soon as I had sent the email began digging further into the situation.
I called Gayge, called a few other friends and started to piece
together another version of what happened, the version that now
appears to be true.

I can't represent that version as I don't fully understand it yet, I
don't want to tie in a bunch of names to this and still have a lot of
talking to do with involved people. What I'm coming to understand is
that yet again political differences were played out in a bad way and
this pulled in people who were trying to do the right thing and
protect each other from snitching and state repression. I hope that
there will be accountability for this and that all of us who were
involved can learn a lot from this, I know that Ryan and myself are
working to understand what happened and what, if anything, could go
better in the future. We all now know that there was no letter, no
attempt to snitch and no threat of snitching. No one has any
information to turn in and no one is seeking any.

The last thing I want to bring up is that I was in touch with Gayge
the whole time that this was going on and while Gayge and I have a lot
of political differences I feel that our contact was in general the
right thing to do. I know that calling a potential snitch to talk
isn't always the right choice, but in this case that communication was
a good place to work from and I appreciate the other people who
answered questions as honestly as they could and gave advice. I spent
a lot of time on the phone this week and generally people met me with
a lot of kindness and willingness to put aside differences to figure
this out.

If you want a lot more information about this please find it
here:http://truthoutsidehart.wordpress.com/

Hope you're all still well, and thank you again to those who got
involved. Please forward this or another update to those who you have
contacted.

Best,
Oliver

The logic of your actions leaves me wanting.

ha. Whatever.

I also don't feel it is appropriate or constructive to point the finger at the "misogynist, racist system of domination and oppression known as heterosexuality", while we have groups like Log Cabin Republicans proving to us that you don't need to be straight to be sexist, racist, queerphobic douchebonnets. If there is to be such a change, there needs to be a change in mindsets of both queer and straight folk and awareness of the various and many relationships that are of equal worth and importance — not a simple blame-game and an oppressive attack on certain desires, sexualities and relationships, however privileged they may be.

As a queer poc, I know the various issues within the institution , and yet I choose to care about this. Not because I want to assimilate and gain privilege, but because it means something to my partner and me.

Anyway, the movement needs to reposition its focus on other issues, such as ENDA, racism, womens, trans and intersex rights, gender equality, healthcare, etc etc.

-s.