Michigan Womyn's Music Festival 
Aug. 8 - 13, 2000 

FESTIVAL AFFIRMS WOMYN-BORN WOMYN SPACE

distributed August 8, 2000

Welcome to our 25th Anniversary Festival! For one week a year, the 
Festival provides a space for us to gather as womyn who were born as, 
and have lived our entire life experience as womyn. This is a rare and 
precious community that we share for this week, and as Festival 
organizers we feel that one of the important ingredients in this 
community is that we have shared our entire life experience - however 
varied that may be - as womyn. The hallmark of Michigan has been its 
creation of separate, self-defined and honored womyn's space. 

We recognize that there is great diversity of opinions and feelings on 
this issue. Ours is a community built upon feminist principles; we 
believe that we are big enough to hold our diversity of opinion with 
respect and love. The Worker Community has been in discussion during 
the weeks prior to the Festival opening, acknowledging the diversity 
of opinion that exists on this issue while maintaining our passionate 
commitment to open communication, respectful dialogue and unity as a 
womyn's community. To maintain the focus of our Festival week, we 
offer the following guidelines to the community as we move into a 
positive and powerful celebration of womyn's space at our 25th 
Festival. 

1.	The Festival is womon-born womon space. That means it is an event 
intended for womyn who were born and who have lived their entire life 
experience as female - and who currently identify as a womon. 

2.	We ask the transsexual community to respect and support this 
intention. 

3.	We ask all Festival-goers and staff to honor our commitment that 
no womon's gender will be questioned on the land. Michigan must remain 
a space that recognizes and celebrates the full range of what it means 
to be a womon-born womon. Butch/gender-ambiguous womyn should be able 
to move about our community with confidence that their right to be 
here will not be questioned. 

4.	We also have a commitment to run the Festival in a way that keeps 
faith with the womyn-born womyn policy, which may mean denying 
admission to individuals who self-declare as male-to-female 
transsexuals or female-to-male transsexuals now living as men (or 
asking them to leave if they enter). 

5.	We ask that womyn attending the Festival trust the worker 
community to be the ones to follow up on the bottom line issues 
outlined here. We further emphatically ask you to not question any 
womon's sex on this land. Last year some butch and gender-ambiguous 
womyn had their right to be here as womyn questioned - that is not 
acceptable on this land. We understand how the CampTrans action in '99 
provoked this response - we also know as a community we cannot afford 
to go there again this year. Please trust that everyone who is on this 
land is a womon-born womon. 

6.	Just as we call upon the transsexual community to support womyn-
born womyn space, we encourage support and respect for the transsexual 
community. As a community, we in Michigan are committed to fighting 
prejudice and ignorance of all kinds; we do not want to see 
transphobia fostered here or anywhere. Claiming one week a year as 
womyn-born womyn space is not in contradiction to being trans-positive 
and trans-allies. In the year 2000, the queer community enjoys such 
rich diversity. We believe there is room for all affinity groups to 
enjoy separate and supportive space, and also to come together in 
broader alliances to fight prejudice that affects all of us. We are 
strong enough to hold our incredible diversity in mutual respect and 
support. 

Thank you for your good open hearts and minds. Let's have a great 
Festival!