Reply-To: Nancy Jean Burkholder From: Nancy Jean Burkholder Please distribute this to any interested forums, newsgroups, mailing lists. PRESS RELEASE -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Transsexual Womyn Expelled From Michigan Womyn's Music Festival WALHALLA, MI -- Four postoperative male-to-female transsexual lesbians were expelled from the 18th annual Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MWMF) by festival security staff on the third day of the event. The four womyn, who had undergone sex change surgery from 2 to 14 years earlier, and a nontranssexual supporter attended the festival to raise consciousness among participants about the festival's policy of excluding transsexual womyn, the unclear and contradictory statement of policy in the festival literature, and issues of gender in general. Womyn opposed to transsexuals at MWMF attempted to silence them by destroying their educational materials. The five womyn arrived at the festival on Monday, August 9, and none encountered any difficulty gaining admittance to the festival. One of the transsexual womyn was Nancy Burkholder of New Hampshire, who had been expelled from the festival in 1991; she purchased her ticket at the front gate without incident. The other transsexual womyn were Davina Gabriel of Missouri, Wendi Kaiser of Maine, and Rica Fredrickson of Pennsylvania. The next day, the five womyn set up a table at which they distributed literature and buttons and asked womyn who opposed the exclusionary policy to sign a petition seeking its repeal. The four transsexual womyn freely discussed their experiences as transsexuals with festival participants who approached the table. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the five womyn did workshifts in the kitchen, at the medical and emotional support areas, and at the Sober Support tent. Transsexual womyn provided medical care, including taking a hemorrhaging womon to an area hospital in the middle of the night, extended a helping hand to those in need of friendly support, and prepared food. They also attended concerts, ate meals, took showers, and shopped in the crafts bazaar with other festival participants, without incident. At approximately 4:30 pm on Thursday, Janis Walworth of Massachusetts, the nontranssexual member of the party, and Kaiser, who were staffing the literature table, were approached by two womyn, one of whom identified herself as MWMF security coordinator. She told Walworth that the transsexual womyn were in violation of the festival's "womyn-born womyn" only policy, and that they must therefore leave the festival. Walworth replied that it was not clear that the transsexual womyn were in violation of the policy as stated, since they all identify as womyn-born womyn. The security coordinator went on to say that some festival participants had complained about the presence of transsexual womyn at the festival, asking security to remove the transsexual womyn from the land and vowing to take matters into their own hands if security did not do so. Security felt, therefore, that it could no longer guarantee the safety of the transsexual womyn. In addition, the security womyn were reluctant to assure Walworth that she would continue to be safe at the festival, since she had been seen staffing the literature table and associating with the transsexual womyn. The festival catalogue calls upon womyn who attend the festival to dialogue and listen to one another and explicitly states that "violence against womyn in any form is not acceptable in this community, on this land." However, no apparent action was taken against the womyn who threatened Walworth and the transsexual womyn. The security coordinator pointed out that members of the party had been openly discussing their transsexuality at the literature table, thus alerting many womyn to the fact that there were transsexuals on the land. She implied that if they had not revealed their transsexuality to anyone, they would not have been asked to leave--in effect, "don't ask, don't tell." The four transsexual womyn returned to their campsite and packed up their belongings. However, they were delayed in leaving the festival grounds until approximately 11:00 pm because so many womyn stopped them on their way out to express support. A contingent of leatherwomyn offered to guarantee the safety of the transsexual womyn at their campsite for the duration of the festival and strongly attempted to dissuade them from leaving. However, the transsexual womyn collectively decided to honor their agreement to cooperate with security and declined the offer. Upon leaving the festival site, the transsexual womyn set up camp across the road on National Forest land. The following morning, they set up another literature table, along with neon pink banners proclaiming "Transsexual Womyn Expelled From Festival" and "Too Out To Be In!" A steady stream of womyn came out from the festival to spend time with the transsexual womyn and to express their support; they brought vegetables, soda, hamburgers, fried chicken, flowers, and encouragement. Throughout the remainder of the festival, the transsexual womyn continued to distribute literature and buttons and to talk with womyn about gender issues and the exclusionary policy. Festival participants who visited the transsexual womyn reported that sentiment inside the festival was overwhelmingly supportive of their participation in MWMF, and there was outrage at their expulsion. Inside the festival, nontranssexual womyn helped staff the inside literature table, and Walworth conducted two sessions of a workshop entitled "Confronting Transphobia," as well as a workshop on gender and shamanism which had been scheduled to be presented by Gabriel. On Friday evening, the transsexual womyn were joined by a fifth transsexual womon, Riki Anne Wilchins of New York City, who flew in to present her workshop, "21 Things You Don't Say to a Transsexual." Although Wilchins had originally planned to enter the festival, she chose to remain outside with the four expelled transsexual womyn. Womyn inside the festival who wanted to attend Wilchins' workshop unanimously agreed to move the location to the area outside the front gate. Approximately 75 womyn walked the mile to attend the two workshop sessions. Saturday morning, when the literature table inside the festival was left unattended for a short time, all literature, buttons, display racks, signed petitions, and completed survey forms, as well as a donation can and personal property, were stolen by undetermined individuals. A womon reported seeing some of the buttons deposited in a portable toilet, which Walworth reported to MWMF security in hopes of avoiding damage to sewage pumps. Also on Saturday, Walworth and Laura Ervin of Massachusetts, who had traveled to the festival with Burkholder in 1991, met with feminist author Kay Leigh Hagan, who was acting as an official representative of the festival producers, and the security coordinator. At that meeting, Hagan disclosed that the festival producers, Barbara Price and Lisa Vogel, are the sole determiners of festival policy and that she did not anticipate that they would change the antitranssexual policy in the near future. * * * * * * * * * Contacts: For more information, interviews with the womyn involved, copies of literature distributed at the festival, and photographs, contact: Davina Anne Gabriel (816) 753-7816 or Janis Walworth (508) 386-7737. Available on disk. -- Nancy nancy@hoyden.mv.com "Good people are always so sure they're right." --Barbara Graham's last words Executed June 3, 1955 at San Quentin