--------------------------------------- Open Letter to the Michfest Community --------------------------------------- A month ago, I sent an open letter to Lisa Vogel, Kate Kendell of NCLR, and Emily Dievendorf of Equality Michigan on moving toward an end to the boycotts and counterboycotts, and a landmark Michfest 40 implementing the inclusive words of the August 18 statement. Before providing a link, I'll promise that this letter will be shorter. ----------------------------------------- 1. Let's Get Our Words and Facts Straight ----------------------------------------- Today our Michfest community faces a simple question: Does the August 18 statement really mean what most reasonable womyn reading it would take it to mean? It's easy to read what one wants to read, as opposed to what is actually written. But what is actually and undeniably there? To find out, let's try a quick reading comprehension test. Say there's been some conflict about whether Jews -- I use this example because I'm an Ashkenazi Jew -- are welcome at a given festival, sporting event, annual conference, or whatever. And the organization in question puts out a statement including the following words: The truth is, Jews attend the Festival, blog about their experiences, and work on crew. [...] We are widely known as a predominantly Lutheran community. This does not mean that Catholics, Anabaptists or those who do not share this identity are not present or welcome. But for a week, we collectively experience a Lutheran-centered world; we experience what it feels like to be in a community defined by Lutheran culture. There are Jews who attend and work at the Festival who participate in our community in this same spirit - as supporters of, rather than detractors from, our Christian-focused culture. The reading comprehension test is in two parts. First, fairly reading these words -- what's there in plain sight -- is it fair for a Jewish womon to conclude that she would be welcome at this Festival, assuming that she respects the Christian-focused and Lutheran-centered intent? And is it fair for her allies to conclude likewise? The second question, I hope, is purely hypothetical. Suppose this same organization either released another public statement before its next gathering, or spread the word more quietly, that the real intention remains one of a "Christian only" event? Is there any reasonable way of taking those two positions as consistent, or is it more like saying that 2 + 2 = 5? Frankly, if a community thought it acceptable to tell Jews and their allies that they could come as "supporters of, rather than detractors from" this Festival, and then tell them some weeks or months later that their attendance is still unwelcome and less than respectful to the "intention" of the gathering, that is sending a powerful message. The message is that, whatever the merits of the policy questions involved, the community thinks that Jews, or trans womyn are "less than" -- because they deserve less than an honest and consistent statement of where this Festival community is really at. And people might quite justifiably boycott this gathering precisely because of that inconsistency. -------------------------------- 2. Let's Get Real, and Get Along -------------------------------- The most important truth about the intention, and this whole controversy, is boldly stated in the Michfest letter of May 9, 2014: "Trans womyn and transmen have always attended this gathering." In other words, calls for a "WBF-only intention" or "female only space" are calls for a Fest that never was. It is a denial of reality, but an invitation to continued conflict, anger, and division among sisters. The intention is almost like a Defense of Michfest Act (DOMA). Not recognizing trans womyn at Fest -- including those of us who identify as Lesbian feminists and sometimes have been doing so for the last 40 years or more -- doesn't protect anyone's "safety" or dignity. It doesn't prevent trans womyn from attending. But like the other kind of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, it certainly succeeds in robbing trans womyn and any Lesbian partners, friends, and allies of their dignity. Getting real means recognizing each other, as the August 18 statement goes far toward doing, and respectfully negotiating boundaries that make Fest a safer space and a more healing space for us all. And there are many ways to communicate clearly and directly the vital things that the intention can and does mean, before or after the August 18 statement. We can say that Festival is intended for Women Born Female (WBF), womyn who were deemed female at birth, raised as girls, and continue to live and identify as womyn; and for all other feminist womyn who honor the WBF focus and Lesbian-centered culture of Fest, and are ready for one week each year to share in the issues and concerns common to all womyn. And we can say that this intention means that the focus is not on trans issues, except in spaces or workshops within Fest created for this purpose. Likewise, the fact that Palestinian Arab and Jewish womyn are welcome doesn't mean that Fest should become a week-long seminar or sociodrama on the Middle East conflict -- although workshops on that topic for womyn so inclined might be highly rewarding. -------------------------------------------------------- 3. Hear Eve Ensler and Sophia Wallace: Let Fest Be Fest! -------------------------------------------------------- The August 18 statement raises a concern that needs to be squarely addressed: welcoming of trans womyn need not and must not in any way dilute or erase Fest's joyous celebration of female sexuality, in which trans womyn also share in our own ways, but different ways than WBF. Known surgical procedures for transsexual womyn can create neither internal female reproductive organs nor the incredible intricacies of the clitoral complex as documented by Dr. Helen O'Connell and her colleagues. Yet differences between womyn need not mean erasure on any side. As Eve Ensler, whose Vagina Monologues brings together the wisdom of many sisters and survivors of the patriarchy, stated in the film Beautiful Daughters: "I don't think I saw how many profound connections women across all these lines -- trans, straight, bi, gay women -- have with each other, and I think that's how patriarchy triumphs. And I think the way we're going to get liberated is when we start going, `Oh, I'll show up for you and you show up for me,' and that's when we're going to win. Because there is a global sisterhood that is so deep and so powerful, we're going to win. And the world's going to change." Another Amazon sister celebrating rather than erasing female and Lesbian sexuality is Sophia Wallace, whose installation Cliteracy: 100 Natural Laws, addresses "the problem of global ILLCLITERACY" as it affects womyn's bodies and lives, either WBF or trans. She has also focused specifically on the issues, including corrective rape and murder, faced by Butch Lesbians, in her documentary Girls Will Be Bois. In short, one womon's respectful presence and welcome at Fest need not mean the erasure of another womon or her sexuality. That would be like saying that the arrival and naturalization of my Jewish grandmother from Minsk meant that people in the U.S.A. could no longer celebrate Christmas or Easter, and that our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Supreme Court would have to be replaced by the Torah, Talmud, and Sanhedrin. Such arguments against welcoming feminist, and often Lesbian-identified, trans womyn serve one interest. As Eve Ensler tells us, "That's how patriarchy triumphs." ------------------------------------------------------- 4. Let's Learn From Herstory, and Move Forward Together ------------------------------------------------------- Above all, let's learn from established herstory. The May 9 letter tells us that trans womyn and trans men "have always attended this gathering." That means that trans womyn were there when Bitch and Animal introduced "Pussy Manifesto" as the unofficial anthem of Fest. Trans womyn have been there as Womyn-Born-of-Womyn, daughters born of our mothers, as Fest has for one week each year celebrated the whole WBF journey through life. We don't share all of it; but WBF and feminist trans womyn share more than enough in common to belong together at Festival. And Fest is space and time enough each year for WBF attendees, around whom the intention is focused, to draw boundaries for separate spaces or workshops or other events (like rituals led by Z Budapest intended only for womyn who menstruate, have, or will) which any feminist trans womon who belongs at Fest can and will respect and help defend. As for the ones who don't belong -- the intention does absolutely nothing to keep them out, although it will keep me out as someone who both understands that Fest happens on private land, and doesn't wish to support scapegoating and xenophobia in any form, including anti-trans xenophobia, one lesson of being a Jew. And please understand that if a policy of unwelcome leads me to take part in a continuing boycott, that is absolutely no judgment on the womyn, WBF and trans, for whom Fest is an accustomed home they are unwilling to give up. Trans womyn and allies who attend Fest and support each other in the face of some very unsisterly words and attitudes I've now experienced for myself are truly awesome Amazons and sisters. I wish that I had their courage. To sum up, the August 18 statement has brought us to a point of decision for Fest. The problem with going back to a "WBF-only" intention is that such a WBF-only event was never reality, and good policy should be reality-based. The alternative is for us to agree that the August 18 statement means what its relevant sentences about trans inclusion clearly say, and that we need to start talking, whether in Allies in Understanding or in other relevant forums, on how to make it happen at Michfest 40 in a way that does respect the traditional WBF-focus and Lesbian-centering of Fest. In love and sisterhood, Margo Schulter October 30, 2014