Excerpt from:

At the Michigan Womyn's Music Fest
by Bonnie J. Morris
September/October 2003
Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide
10(5):16-18

[...]

One heartache is the growing number of thoughtless fans and
trans-activist protesters who sneak in each year, chowing down on
carefully budgeted food and entertainment without giving anything back.
For Michigan to stay out of the red and continue bringing top
production values to its three stages, music supporters will need to
increase their ticket donations on the sliding scale, returning festies
will have to bring along more first-time, full-paying pals--and educate
the folks back home about the twin evils of Michigan-bashing and
fence-hopping.

Regrettably, threats to Michigan's survival now come from some radical
LGBT activists as well as from right-wing religious groups. State
family-values group continue to probe the festival and its
bulletin-board Internet communications for any proof of "child welfare
endangerment" (casual public sex of illegal drug use on the land), so
today's festigoers are warned not to create conditions under which
conservative infiltrators--who do exist!--could move in swiftly and
shut things down forever. This concern has placed limits on some of the
more provocative workshops on sexuality, but it has also re-opened
serious dialogue about what public behaviors are appropriate when so
many children and adolescents are present with their moms.

Since 1994, when "Camp Trans" activists set up a presence at the
festival's front gates to challenge the woman-born-only policy, it has
become fashionable for younger LGBT activists to bash Michigan in the
name of progressive trans-friendliness. In recent years, activists have
been observed fashioning fake admission wristbands in order to come in
and disrupt "the system." Other women, including well-known performers
and craftswomen, have helped their friends sneak in, despite the
festival's existing options of financial assistance and work exchange
for genuinely needy fans interested in attending. The big topic in
Workerville 2002, as the festival began running out of food, was clear:
what's the deal with these lesbians who rip off lesbians? How did
scamming Michigan become the new radicalism?

Long hours of discussion yielded few conclusions on this trend. Perhaps
it comes from the more destructive wing of the anti-globalism street
anarchist movement, or the sheer ease with which anyone can knock down
an existing institution's ideals and glass windows. Perhaps time has
granted the festival sufficient status and notoriety to make it seem an
established Goliath against which restless, younger dyke Davids
consider taking aim. Yet such sport fails to take into account
Michigan's ongoing revolutionary aims: the collective work ethic; the
extraordinary dedication to unlearning racism; the safe space for
toddlers and adolescent girls; the opening ceremonies honoring Native
land; the entirely ASL-interpreted stage program and the
wheelchair-accessible forest; plus the 24-hour sober support, full
medical care for workers and festigoers, recycling, and vegan meals. No
other institution in the _world_ offers this range of services on such
a large scale for a primarily (but not exclusively) lesbian consumer
base. The festival is certainly not some well-financed behemoth like
the IMF or Wal-Mart. Whatever one's view on the transgender issue,
Michigan ain't "the Establishment." The performers are risk-taking,
mostly lesbian artists whose stands on race, sex, and class limit their
ability to get mainstream bookings and to have financial security.

[...]