'MICHIGAN EIGHT' EVICTED OVER FESTIVAL'S NEW 'DON'T ASK DON'T TELL' 
GENDER POLICY

MEDIA RELEASE: August 12, 2000
http://www.camptrans.com/press/postct00.html

Struggle Shifts from Transwomen to Young Activists

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[HART, MI : 12 Aug 00] EIGHT YOUNG ATTENDEES, variously identifying as 
trannie boys, boydyke, FTM, and lesbian were evicted from the Michigan 
Womyn's Music Festival (MWMF) this Saturday evening after they refused 
to meet the Festival's "womyn-born womyn only" policy. The eight were 
members of an ad-hoc Chicago group called the "Camp Trans Planning 
Committee" and the Boston and Chicago chapters of the Lesbian 
Avengers. 

More than 60 gender activists from these groups plus members of 
Transexual Menace, supportive attendees, and renowned activist Dana 
Rivers gathered across the road from the Festival this year to do 
outreach and education on what they viewed as a discriminatory policy 
being unfairly applied. 

Said one, "Half the women in there are butch, boy, or, or FTM 
identified and wouldn't be able to say they were 'womyn-born womyn' if 
asked." 

Past evictions had focused narrowly on transgender women and the 
eight's expulsion marks the first time the "womyn-born womyn only" 
policy has been used against trannie boys, boydykes, FTM's, Lesbian 
Avengers and young gender-variant women. It was widely viewed by most 
observers as turning a new page in the escalating conflict over the 
policy's application. 

As thousands of attendees looked on during dinner in the Festival's 
huge dining area, the young activists held aloft signs declaring 
themselves a variety of identities, including "boy," "FTM," 
"intersex", "drag queen," and "transwoman." When they called for 
diners to join them in a public show of support, more than three 
hundred stepped forward to stand with them for almost an hour before 
Festival Security arrived to evict them. 

Security escorted the eight to the Main Gate, cut off their attendance 
wristbands, refused their request for refunds, and expelled them from 
the grounds. 

Their action was a direct challenge to Festival owner Lisa Vogel's 
latest attempt to clarify the policy widely criticized as vague and 
misleading: a flier handed out at the entrance which threatened that 
any attendee who "self- declared" as an FTM or MTF transexual or 
otherwise not being "a womyn-born womyn" would be refused a ticket and 
face involuntary expulsion. 

The new statement was viewed by many as amounting to "Don't Ask, Don't 
Tell," and indeed, at noon on Friday as four police officers 
apparently summoned by the Festival watched on amid scores of 
attendees, one transgender women who openly identified herself was 
denied entrance while several others who did not identify themselves 
were allowed to buy tickets and enter. By prior agreement, none were 
among those who held signs and risked eviction. 

But all were from among sixty mostly-young gender activists with names 
like Casey, Gunner, and Jack who variously identified as boyz, andros, 
trannie boys, lesbian, bi, FTM, girlz, boychick, femme, stone-butch, 
or simply "queer" who held a series of workshops and discussion groups 
on the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" gender policy. This year's "Camp Trans" 
culminated in a live music show with lights, sound, and stage set up 
by Chicago-based "Camp Trans Planning Committee." 

The Festival's first expulsion occurred in 1991 when attendee Nancy 
Burkholder and a friend were both forcibly evicted after she 
identified herself in a workshop as a transgender woman. 

Since then, in 1993, '94, and '99 gender activists, Avengers and 
members of Transexual Menace have camped out on public property across 
from the Festival's Main Gate to hold "Camp Trans," this year more 
inclusively also called "GenderCamp 2000." 

Said one activist, "Vogel's policy towards transexuals is now the same 
as the US military's towards homosexuals. But 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' 
only works when the target group collaborates by remaining silent. 
Well, we aren't silent. We don't identify as 'womyn-born womyn' -- we 
don't know what it even means or why it should be used against us or 
our trannie friends."