Division and Tension: Second Wave Feminism and Transgender Women: 1990-2015 – Russo

Narrative Exhibit

A 2015 banner from MichFest's website, which celebrates the festival's 40th year and states the date it will be held: August 4th - 9th, 2015
Banner art for Michfest’s 40th year. https://www.michfest.com/

Division and Tension in the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival

As we find ourselves in a time of backlash against civil rights, especially the rights of transgender people, it is beneficial to learn and understand past struggles for equality and inclusion. By doing so, an individual can discover how to effectively advocate for civil rights and defend against attempts to disrupt civil rights movements. And within my case study of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and its decades-long exclusion of trans women, there is a lesson about how a community predicated on social justice and gender equality can be undermined from within. MichFest’s story gives insight on the origins of trans-exclusionary radical feminism; how a social movement can divide itself; and the parallels in transphobic rhetoric between contemporary politics and past politics.

Historiography

MichFest and its history of excluding trans women is an obscure topic. A significant amount of media about the festival and its history is found within blog posts, forum discussions, news publications, and ‘zines (self-published work). Some of these sources are no longer accessible, as blogs shut down, websites are abandoned, and links “die.” In spite of this, there are still several noteworthy sources from authors like Elizabeth Currans and Emi Koyama.

In Elizabeth Currans’ article “Transgender Women Belong Here: Contested Feminist Visions at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival,” the festival is looked at beyond its infamous policy of excluding trans women. Currans claims that “transgression of gender norms was both embraced and rejected at MichFest, but contemporary narratives about it stress its exclusionary practices.[1] Instead of looking at just the negatives of the festival, Currans chooses to look at a more complex picture of the festival, by exploring the stories surrounding it; the various expressions of gender and sexuality there; and the groups involved in it. She claims that “developing less plausible narratives about MichFest can help us better understand our recent feminist past and, hopefully, support more inclusive, empathetic feminist futures.” [2] Her article serves a dual purpose of giving an in-depth look at MichFest and showing that the festival’s attendees had a diverse set of viewpoints about including trans women. She especially shows that not all attendees were supportive of the festival’s exclusion of trans women and presents groups like Trans Women Belong Here (TWBH).

Emi Koyama discusses the festival and its controversy in her article titled “Whose feminism is it anyway? The unspoken racism of the trans inclusion debate.” Koyama makes the case that Michfest and the white feminists that run it were not only intolerant of trans women, but were also refusing to take responsibility for racist behavior. She recounts how white feminists, including Alix Dobkin (an influential figure at the festival), were waxing nostalgic about 70s feminism during a 2001 panel presentation. [3] Koyama notes that a woman of color criticized the group during the presentation, stating that she did not feel welcome in the lesbian-separatist movement, and that her criticism mostly went unacknowledged. [4]. Throughout the article, she links this ill treatment of women of color by white feminists to the exclusion of trans women at Michfest. “Speaking from the perspective and the tradition of lesbians of colour, most if not all rationales for excluding transsexual women is not only transphobic, but also racist. To argue that transsexual women should not enter the Land because their experiences are different would have to assume that all other women’s experiences are the same, and this is a
racist assumption.” [5]

Establishment of MichFest

In 1976, the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MichFest) was founded by the We Want the Music Collective (WWTMC). A group that consisted of Lisa Vogel, her sister Kristie Vogel, and their friend Mary Kindig. The three women were proponents of lesbian-feminist separatism,[6] a new line of feminist thought in the 1970s, which called for spaces and culture by and for women only. MichFest’s creation was informed by their commitment to this idea; and as such, the festival’s two goals were to form a women’s only space and bring a spotlight to women musicians.[7] Although the festival became particularly well-known for its separatism, it fulfilled both of its goals and became one of the largest women’s music festivals in the U.S.

Location of MichFest

For the vast majority of its 40-year lifespan,[8] MichFest was hosted in an undeveloped, forested area of 650 acres near Hart Township in Oceania County, Michigan. Referred to as “The Land” by MichFest’s organizers and attendees,[9] the area is forever known and treasured for its relation to the festival. Every year the festival was hosted, The Land would become a site of construction and clean-up for months before and after the one week of its hosting.[10] Much like the festival itself was women-only, this process was carried out by groups of female workers, most of whom volunteered.[11] And despite the festival’s discontinuation in 2015, its former grounds are still maintained and used as a space for the “empowerment, liberation, and healing of women and girls on The Land.”[12]

Festival Organization

Following its ideal of separatism from men, MichFest was organized from top to bottom by women in almost every case. From the construction of the festival itself to its vendors, kitchen crews, childcare providers, security, clean-up, etc.; the festival’s operations were all carried out by women.[13] These operations were also the responsibility of attendees: “[f]estival attendees were asked to complete several work shifts, which helped support the infrastructure of the festival (e.g., child-care, trash and recycling, cooking, security, and transportation).”[14] In this way, MichFest effectively functioned as a temporary community of women alongside being a music venue. The festival was even promoted as an experiment in the creation of feminist community. [15]

MichFest’s “Womyn-Born Womyn Only” Policy and Nancy Burkholder’s Expulsion

While it was stated in 1979 by Lisa Vogel that MichFest was meant for “womyn-born womyn only,”[16] this was not enforced as a policy until much later. In 1991, Nancy Burkholder, a trans woman, was expelled from MichFest on account of her being transgender. Although she had been to the festival one year prior to her expulsion and none of the festival’s literature had any mention of the “womyn-born womyn only” policy, festival organizers stood firm on the unwritten policy and forced Burkholder to leave.[17] Her expulsion in 1991 led to the beginning of multiple protest movements against MichFest’s exclusion of trans women. One of the first of those protest movements was Camp Trans in 1994.

Protests and Establishment of Camp Trans

Although Camp Trans was not formally established until 1994, MichFest’s anti-trans women policy was protested every year after Burkholder’s expulsion in 1991. In 1992 and 1993, a group of trans women, along with the help of cis women friends, organized various methods of protest against the festival. Noteworthy people in the group included Davina Anne Gabriel, Nancy Burkholder (who joined the group for the 1993 protest), Wendi Kaiser, Rica Ashby, and Janis Walworth.[18] All of the aforementioned women were transgender, with the exception of Walworth. The group’s goals of protesting were to educate festival attendees, raise awareness, and hopefully get the festival to rescind their policy. [19] To achieve these goals, the group set up a table within Michfest, where various reading materials as well as a survey were given out. [20] They would also conduct workshops on transgender topics within the festival, up until their expulsions. The group was not expelled the first time in 1992, but they were expelled upon the second time in 1993.

The expulsion in 1993 came after a confrontation with Michfest’s security team, which both stated that the group must leave due to the “womyn-born womyn only” policy, and that some festival goers were threatening to remove the group themselves if security did not do so. [21] While no violence occurred during these events, the group was still compelled into leaving over concerns for their safety. According to Gabriel, the security team claimed that they could not guarantee their safety in spite of a festival policy that said “violence against womyn in any form [is] not acceptable in this community, on this land.” [22] This even applied to cis women at the festival, as Gabriel also mentions in her report on the event that “one woman … later informed us that security had told her that they really can’t guarantee anybody’s safety on the land…” [23] While the group left the festival as they were ordered to, they did not leave the area entirely.

After exiting MichFest, they established their own camp right next to its entrance. Knowing that their expulsion was very likely while conducting these protests, the group planned for it and found that they could camp nearby on national forest land. Due to it being their legal right to camp on land managed by the National Park Service (NPS), the festival was powerless to stop them. [24] The trans women’s camp would later become known as Camp Trans, which would be re-formed in 1994, and then again from 1999 through to 2011. [25] Regardless of the festival and anonymous festival attendees’ attempts to scare off trans women, the protests continued throughout the festival’s life. Since the trans-exclusionary policy of the festival was not unanimously agreed upon by festival attendees, and the protests received support from many of them, trans women were encouraged to keep fighting for their inclusion.

“Son of Camp Trans,” Yellow Armbands, Trans Women Belong Here

In the wake of Camp Trans’ establishment and Michfest’s continued intransigence over the years, multiple other forms of protest took place both within and outside of the festival. The first of those was the “Son of Camp Trans” protest of 1999, which diverged from the intentions of the original Camp Trans group. “Son of Camp Trans” was subsequently disavowed by members such as Gabriel. [26] Its disavowal was a result of the original Camp Trans’ caveat to their demand for inclusion of trans women at Michfest. Their caveat being that the festival should include trans women who had undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS) only. And that trans women who were either “pre-op,” or never planned to have the surgery, would remain excluded.[27]

“Son of Camp Trans” was organized by Riki Anne Wilchins, whose goal was to bring inclusion of all trans people, even trans men, to Michfest. According to Wilchins herself, “[i]n the first Camp Trans, the argument wasn’t just between us and the festival telling us we weren’t really women. It was also between the post-ops in camp telling the pre-ops they weren’t real women!” [28] Camp Trans’ own website states that “Son of Camp Trans,” and the controversy that occurred surrounding it, led to just a small portion of trans women gaining entry to the festival. That group of trans women being those who had SRS, although the agreement reached with the festival was still short-lived as the website claims. Camp Trans itself would later re-unify in 2003, under a goal of inclusion for all trans women, despite the earlier years’ factionalism. [29].

By 2003, another protest group formed called the Yellow Armbands. It was formed by Lorraine Donaldson, a trans woman herself, and argued for the inclusion of trans women from within the festival. Through the use of yellow armbands, the group signified their support of trans women and commitment to their inclusion. [30] In 2006, Donaldson was able to attend Michfest, even as an out trans woman, and in spite of a confrontation when she was in the process of buying a ticket. [31] Seeing this, Camp Trans made an announcement that the festival was rescinding the “womyn-born womyn only” policy, only to be corrected by Lisa Vogel herself in a press release. In her response to Camp Trans, Vogel made it clear that while trans women would not be prevented from purchasing a ticket, the festival still expected them to exclude themselves. “If a transwoman purchased a ticket, it represents nothing more than that womon [sic] choosing to disrespect the stated intention of this Festival.” [32].

Camp Trans continued to protest MichFest until 2011 when, as Michfest organizers claim, the camp had their permit to camp on national forest land revoked by the NPS. [33] In the aftermath of its disappearance, the group Trans Women Belong Here (TWBH) would continue advocating for trans women at MichFest. According to Currans, TWBH formed in the “second round” of Camp Trans’ protests, and was organized by cisgender festival-goers and workers, alongside trans women.[34] The group originally formed in 2008 and intended on officially opening the festival to trans women. [35] Coming from a place of love for MichFest and wanting to bring trans women into the fold, TWBH focused on persuasion within the festival, as opposed to taking on actions such as a boycott. [36] TWBH’s activities, as stated by Currans, included the creation, distribution, and wearing of t-shirts, buttons, and flags; hosting workshops; a “chill tent” for both trans women and allies; creation and distribution of ‘zines; raising money to buy trans women their tickets; and making a camp area titled “Zone for all ♀.” [37] Ultimately, the activities of all these protest groups over the years would not change the festival organizers’ minds. By 2015, MichFest would be hosted one last time, without having ever included trans women officially.

Surveys and the Opinion of Festival Attendees

Over the course of the protests against MichFest’s exclusion of trans women, protesters, followed by researchers, did surveys of festival goers to see how the community actually felt on the topic. The first survey done on the topic was the one given by the protesters in 1992, which found that the majority of respondents were for inclusion of trans women, at 73% versus 22% against their inclusion.[38] The remaining responses were either unsure, or did not answer the question according to Janis Walworth.[39] In another survey of festival goers from 2013, researchers had found that “[m]any participants passionately supported the inclusion of trans women at Michfest,” and that “[o]ne participant wrote, ‘Trans womyn belong. No bones about it… We are not whole without our trans sisters.'”[40] Even regardless of their support for trans women, participants of this survey in 2013 still saw a need for the festival to change their position on trans women. [41] If for no other reason than to increase attendance, as the festival was experiencing a decline in attendees in the 2010s. Some of which was a result of people boycotting the festival for its anti-trans policy. [42] From the surveys done on the subject, there was no universal agreement by festival attendees on including trans women. But nonetheless, the surveys suggest a majority supported inclusion.

Additionally, as seen with groups like TWBH, there were still many cisgender women at MichFest who wished to see trans women included. All throughout the various protests of the festival, there were displays of support for trans women. Support was even shown in the first few years of Camp Trans. In Camp Trans’ 1993 protest, a number of cisgender women at the festival expressed support for the protesters and outrage at their treatment by festival security. [43] According to Gabriel, her group also received support from a group of leather womyn, despite turning them down; “[they] offered to guarantee our safety in their section of the festival site for the duration of the festival and strongly attempted to dissuade us from leaving.[44] With the various displays of support and activism by cisgender allies, the festival’s stance against trans women appears to be mostly the personal distaste of them by its organizers. And that distaste seems to especially originate from Lisa Vogel herself, who once signed onto a letter in 1977, expressing anger over the employment of a trans woman named Sandy Stone at Olivia Records.[45]

Gabriel and Skyclad Publishing Co., “TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism.” 13.

Gabriel and Skyclad Publishing Co., “TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism.” 14.

Conclusion

Over the course of MichFest’s existence, it contended with issues of inclusion, even outside of the controversy with trans women. In other points of the festival’s history, it was criticized for its lack of inclusion and/or respect of other minority groups, such as black women [46], or disabled women. [47] In such cases, the minority groups would be given their own space within the festival; either through the creation of tents meant specifically for one group only, or the designation of a special area of the festival grounds for them. [48] The only group that would never be allowed within the festival officially were trans women, all the way until the festival’s end. Although in an ironic sense, Camp Trans’ many years of operation would end up causing it to become “part” of MichFest, without actually ever being part of it. According to the Camp Trans site, “[i]n the years following 1999, Festival attendees increasingly came to view Camp Trans as a transgender annex of the festival, rather than a site of protest.” [49] Nonetheless, the divisions would cause tension for all groups that participated in the festival. Leading to infighting both among trans women and the festival community, which may have resulted in MichFest’s demise in 2015.

Timeline References

[1] Currans, Elizabeth. “Transgender Women Belong Here: Contested Feminist Visions at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.” Feminist Studies 46, no. 2 (May 2020): 463. doi:10.15767/feministstudies.46.2.0459.

[2] “Camp Trans History,” Camp Trans, accessed November 9, 2024, https://www.camp-trans.org/pages/ct-history.html

[3] Gabriel, Davina Anne,  and Skyclad Publishing Co.. “TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism No. 2 (Nov.-Dec. 1993).”  Periodical.  1993.  Digital Transgender Archive,  https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/b8515n434  (accessed November 9, 2024).

[4]  “Camp Trans,” Wikimedia Foundation, last modified September 24, 2024, 12:18 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Trans

 

  1. Elizabeth Currans, “Transgender Women Belong Here: Contested Feminist Visions at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival,” Feminist Studies 46, no. 2 (May 2020): 460, https://doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.46.2.0459. ↵
  2. Ibid., 460. ↵
  3. Emi Koyama, “Whose Feminism Is It Anyway? The Unspoken Racism of the trans Inclusion Debate,” Sociological Review 68, no. 4 (July 2020): 739, https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120934685. ↵
  4. Ibid., 739 ↵
  5. Ibid., 740. ↵
  6. Currans, “Transgender Women Belong Here: Contested Feminist Visions at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.”, 464. ↵
  7. Ibid., 463. ↵
  8. Ibid., 468. ↵
  9. We Want The Land Coalition, “About Us,” We Want The Land Coalition, accessed November 16, 2024, https://wwtlc.org/learn/. ↵
  10. Kath Browne, “Lesbian Separatist at Michigan’s Music Festival,” Feminism & Psychology 21, no. 2 (May 2011): 250, https://doi.org/doi:10.1177/0959353510370185. ↵
  11. Ibid., 250. ↵
  12. We Want The Land Coalition, “About Us.” ↵
  13. Kath Browne, “Womyn’s Separatist Spaces: Rethinking of Difference and Exclusion,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 34, no. 4 (October 2009): 544, https://doi.org/doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00361.x. ↵
  14. Elizabeth A. McConnell et al., “Trans Women and Michfest: An Ethnophenomenology of Attendees’ Experiences.,” Journal of Lesbian Studies 20, no. 1 (March 2016): 10, https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2015.1076234. ↵
  15. Browne, “Womyn’s Separatist Spaces: Rethinking of Difference and Exclusion.” 543. ↵
  16. Currans, “Transgender Women Belong Here: Contested Feminist Visions at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.” 468. ↵
  17. Nancy Jean Burkholder, “A Kinder, Gentler Festival?,” Skyclad Publishing Co., no. 2 (December 1993): 4–5. ↵
  18. Davina Ann Gabriel and Skyclad Publishing Co., “TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism,” Digital Transgender Archive, no. 2 (December 1993): 19, https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/b8515n434.19. ↵
  19. Ibid., 8. ↵
  20. Ibid., 9. ↵
  21. Ibid., 19-20. ↵
  22. Ibid., 19-20. ↵
  23. Ibid., 20. ↵
  24. Ibid., 20 ↵
  25. “Camp Trans History,” Camp Trans, n.d., https://www.camp-trans.org/pages/ct-history.html. ↵
  26. Emi Koyama, “Whose Feminism Is It Anyway? The Unspoken Racism of the trans Inclusion Debate,” Sociological Review 68, no. 4 (July 2020): 736, https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120934685. ↵
  27. Ibid., 736. ↵
  28. Ibid., 736. ↵
  29. “Camp Trans History,” Camp Trans, n.d., https://www.camp-trans.org/pages/ct-history.html. ↵
  30. Ibid. ↵
  31. Ibid. ↵
  32. “Womyn’s Fest Tells Transgender Women to Ban Themselves,” National Center for Transgender Equality, August 24, 2006, https://www.eminism.org/michigan/20060824-ncte.txt. ↵
  33. Elizabeth Currans, “Transgender Women Belong Here: Contested Feminist Visions at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival,” Feminist Studies 46, no. 2 (May 2020): 480, https://doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.46.2.0459. ↵
  34. Ibid., 480. ↵
  35. Ibid., 480 ↵
  36. Ibid., 481. ↵
  37. Ibid., 481. ↵
  38. Gabriel and Skyclad Publishing Co., “TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism.” 13. ↵
  39. Ibid., 13. ↵
  40. Elizabeth A. McConnell et al., “Trans Women and Michfest: An Ethnophenomenology of Attendees’ Experiences.,” Journal of Lesbian Studies 20, no. 1 (March 2016): 15, https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2015.1076234. ↵
  41. Ibid. 16-17. ↵
  42. Ibid. 16-17. ↵
  43. Gabriel and Skyclad Publishing Co., “TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism.” 19-20. ↵
  44. Ibid., 20 ↵
  45. D.A. “011ie” Oliveira et al., “Sister, June 1977 Issue,” June 1977, https://www.eminism.org/michigan/1977-lettertooliviarecords.pdf. ↵
  46. Elizabeth A. McConnell et al., “Complicating Counterspaces: Intersectionality and the Michigan’s Music Festival,” American Journal of Community Psychology 57 (May 2016): 10-11, https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12051. ↵
  47. Ibid., 11. ↵
  48. Ibid., 11. ↵
  49. “Camp Trans History,” Camp Trans, n.d., https://www.camp-trans.org/pages/ct-history.html. ↵

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