Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

There is a sensitive discussion around this event, http://www.michfest.org/. The festival's director Lisa Vogel states that it is to be open to womyn-born- womyn only, and not to any who identify as transgendered. A vote taken at the festival to determine ticket-buyer's opinion resulted in 3/4 support for letting transgensder people in. However, the popular vote in the United States didn't serve womyn's interest until 100 years after its founding, so to rely upon it as an accurate measure of "right" is irresponsible, whether the majority favored inclusion or not. The real issue is the point brought up at the festival's inception, whether or not to allow a transgendered womyn to perform, and the argument for her validity was anounced as

"the DOB newspaper Sisters walked out and offered this statement: "We are disgusted that any lesbian has the audacity to judge the sexuality of another sister. And so we resign." In Los Angeles, Jeanne Cordova wrote an editorial in the Lesbian Tide about this. She said, "Those who vote 'no' tonight vote with our oppressors, Those who vote 'yes' recognize that none of us is free unless all of us are free." http://camp-trans.org/pages/ct-history.html

Even boys as young as 5 are not allowed on the main festival grounds, spending their time at a special camp on site, Brother Sun. If their gender is the only reason for this- which is the only explanation I could find on the site- this is sad, because the festival is a chance to celebrate womyn and to teach the future generation of boys that womyn should be celebrated, not marginalized, or discounted, and that is true equality- a world where womyn feel safe and repected, and loved, everywhere.