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One of our goals is to make visible the support that already exists within MichFest for the inclusion of our trans-sisters. At Fest 2010, we circulated a bright pink greeting card of welcome. Here are the messages from the card. If you attend MichFest, add your own message of love and welcome. |
-Sisterhood should be inclusive - Missing your spirit - Working with you for new spaces as we grow and challenge our own limitations. Sisterhood is Powerful. Jane, Proud to be your sister in struggle
-Welcome! We've missed you. Heart, Marla
-I am so excited to greet you at MichFest. You are a part of this.
We are working hard to stop oppression. Heart & Strength, D
-Welcome beautiful women - We love you! Mary Alice
-You are sexy and brave., Come here, and prepare to be showered in all sorts of love (especially you lesbians). ALL sorts. -Katie
-Come and visit me at my booth next year. The P-Style booth is always a fun place to hang out. Heart, Krista
-We have so much love for you here. We have been working for your celebration. Come and be loved. - Marjorie
-I'm committed to continuing to develop solidarity with my trans
sisters at Michigan next year. See you in August, lovers! XO, Greta
-I'm optimistic about the future of this festival. You can camp in
The Zone anytime! We Heart You! Heart, Marcy
-You belong. -Gigi XO
-Come on in! I'll have cold beer! - Anne
-Heart, Katy hall
- I am SO ready to hang out with you here at Michigan. I really want
you to feel welcome - I'm trying to change things here! - Alusa
-Look forward to seeing you on the land! - Scout
-I hope you come. I hope you trust us to create a loving community
inclusive of all womyn. Please come and bring your whole gorgeous
self! Heart, Bevin
-One day this land will truly welcome all womyn! I look forward to it
and will continue to work for it. With all love, Kris AKA Justin
Credible
-I'm excited for the day when we can all be here on the land
together. OPENLY. LOVINGLY. Love, Virge
-Heart, Molly
-I want you here. Love, Anna
-I want you here to better complete the community! This is your space
of healing and safety, too! Peace, Tina
-I work here for you. -K. Wahoo
-Trans allies are everywhere. Yes. Even on "The Land"! Keep on
keeping on! In Solidarity, [name I can't read] (on stage with Sia!
Woo!)
-Sisters. I love this festival with half my life of memories (been
coming since age 14) and I am committed to the evolution and growth I
know can happen here. I will do anything I can to support you and
make it work. With love and hope and excitement, Tara
-This is your home as much as mine. We are not, have not been, and
will never be enemies. We are all one. Heart, Justin
-From the other end of the trans spectrum I wish you were here.
[illegible name]
-You! are my lovers my friends my community! Heart, Aubrey
-We love you! You deserve safe magical space too ! XO, JP
-This land is as much yours as it is mine or any of the other womyn
here, I welcome you and soon everybody else will follow. Peace and
lover, Taelor
-My heart is not whole without you, and I will work with all of my
love to welcome you.
heart, Rayna
-We miss you here. You are important to women's community and fun.
Heart, Silky
-You are always welcome. Heart, [illegible name]
-I continue to be impressed by how many Mich Fest goers openly support
transwomen being at festival. You have support here. Welcome. Lena
-Waiting for the day that NO women will be excluded from this space.
Welcome, Alex and Amber
I think you are doing a disservice to the trans-women you are openly inviting to Festivalunless you clearly explain:
ReplyDelete1. Festival is filled with women who support the WBW intention of fest and others who will be very obvious and frank in their disapproval.
2. that chances are high that a transwoman might not get a warm and welcoming reception in the general festival, at dinner, in the showers, at day stage, in the community center or workshops.
3. That many of the womyn at fest are supportive of the wbw policy and she might very well encounter some resistance. and no promise that this resistance will not be hurtful to her.
Ah... good of you to threaten, *cough* er, um, warn these women about potential violence.
ReplyDeleteThere will be no violence. However, there will be no silent disapproval this year. Visual and verbal restatements of support of the fest intention will happen and I suggest that transwomen who intend to come realize that their feelings may be hurt. Nothing else will be.
ReplyDeleteHi W2M,
ReplyDeleteIf you read other portions of this site, there are definitely acknowledgments of the hurdles trans women still face at Fest - no one is trying to whitewash that at all.
What TWBH is doing (or trying to do) is create support and resources, and to make that support more visible and stronger. I believe that the voices against inclusion are a vocal minority, and the way to combat that is to be visible and engage in dialog. The very fact that it can and probably will be difficult/challenging is part of why we wanted to offer scholarships.
Just because there will be opposition is no reason to be silent. If you support inclusion, I hope you will be a part of that support network.
Forgive me for noting once again a good litmus test of an ally: Allies will frequently type trans womyn as two words, as trans, like latino, or working-class or bisexual, are adjectives. Trans-misogynysts on the other hand, will always write trans womyn as one word, so that they can avoid implicitly acknowledging our womonhood. It becomes some pseudo parody portmaneu. People like that were so much more entertaining when they were proud enough to be overt about their blatant disrespect in anti-trans-misogynist space.
ReplyDelete“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.” — Audre Lorde
ReplyDelete“To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that’s political, in its most profound way.” —June Jordan