Into the Woods With TERFs All Enraged

Protesters at MichFest

Some time in the early nineties when I was living a stealth female life and exploring my true gender with my late wife, and with other middle age middle class couples in which the husband was transgender, I became aware of a controversy that was occurring in the summer wilds and woods of Michigan. The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, has occurred every August since 1976 near Hart Michigan, in a small wooded area in northern Oceana County known as Whiskey Creek. The event is completely built, staffed, run and attended by women. But not all women are welcome, only those women who were arbitrarily assigned female at birth can attend and are deemed to be real women! Transwomen are not welcome!

After Nancy Burkholder, a trans festival goer was asked to leave the festival in 1991, a protest movement against the “womyn-born-womyn” (WBW) intention developed. The festival’s term for its intended attendees is (WBW): women who were assigned female at birth, raised as girls, and currently identify as women. Opponents contend that the intention constitutes discrimination against transgender people, many of whom they say identify as women, are legally female, and have to cope with the same effects of sexism and misogyny in their daily lives in addition to the discrimination of being transgender in our society.

To be honest, my first reaction was… what kind of a real woman would want to run around in the insect ridden wilds of Michigan? Are you kidding? This is something you really want to do? Honestly, camping in the woods, bonding with nature and among our “own,” it sounded like a “guy” thing is what these “womyn” really want to do. Okay, I take it back, they advertise ”3 vegetarian meals a day.”

But this summer a lot of LGBT people, people truly interested in equality and aware of the damage of sexism and discrimination in our society have taken notice and spoken up, and I too, have given the whole thing a second look and a little thought, and it is worth exposing these exclusionary “womyn” for what they are.

This year a number of LGBTQ organizations (including Equality Michigan, National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Human Rights Campaign among others) have asserted that the MichFest believes transgender womyn are “less than” other womyn, and that the Festival’s intention is the equivalent of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

The Michfest founder Lisa Vogel responded to the call for the boycott by issuing a statement on their Facebook page.

Their sisterly spirit is a bit contrived and painful to read so I will repost just a bit of their conclusionary bullet points with a brief remark in italics:

• We believe all humans suffer under patriarchy; ( OK that seems reasonable)
• We believe that transgendered womyn are womyn; (Yes, we are womyn, but we are transgender womyn, not “transgendered” as the erudite Fox News mavens call us on a good day)
• We believe that females experience a unique, historical, and debilitating oppression as a class under patriarchy; (OK that sounds reasonable)
• We believe that the subjugation of females is an international phenomenon, experienced across time, culture, nation, class, ethnicity, ability and race;(OK, perhaps I might add organized religion to that list)
• MWMF has, since its inception in 1976, formed itself as a space for womyn-born-female as a means to resist and survive the debilitation of female subjugation; ( Here is where we have a problem in that it strongly implies that some womyn, i.e. trans womyn contribute to the debilitation of female subjugation … where did this come from?)
• We believe that support for womyn-born-female space is not at odds with standing with and for the transgender community;( oops … see the previous statement and explain why this is not pure manure!)
• We believe that the statements calling for the boycott of the MWMF neither speak for all transgender womyn nor include all of their voices, many of whom are silenced or ignored with regard to their support of the Festival’s intention of womyn-born-female space, for example, the New Narratives Conference held in Portland, Oregon this Spring. (Certainly not ALL transgender women agree on everything and I’m overly unimpressed that they found a handful-plus of confused or self-hating or down trodden people from a class of people who experience the highest percentage of societal discrimination and lack of self esteem. Was that the best they could do?)

Emily Dievendorf, executive director of Equality Michigan said it best:

“Discrimination is at its ugliest when we know it exists and we choose to create a sacred space within in it – to wrap ourselves with it – because everything else, the?privilege and validation that it may be woven into, can feel so damn good. This year we are declaring that we have had enough of Michfest’s double talk and can see through it. If Michfest is to be trans inclusive then it must change the “intention” to illustrate a wide open door and a safe space for transwomen. In the meantime, while Michfest leaders continue to dig their heels into the excuses and allegiances of yesteryear, Equality Michigan will continue to ask citizens of our state to be clear in their position of inclusion and to invest in the women’s festivals that leave no?woman behind.”

So, who are these so called “feminists” who appear to double talk and seem so intent on actively “excluding” transgender women and feminists?

My personal experience with “feminists” who have really made a positive difference for women/womyn has been nothing but positive, especially as a trans activist. Certainly my late wife, my best friend, whose support and love was so strong that I was able to be honest about myself and helped me not only to survive, but thrive and develop as a strong, responsible woman. As a feminist and a teacher she successfully took a lead on the late sixties so that the female teachers in New Jersey’s second largest school system were no longer forced to wear skirts or dresses.

As a transgender activist, it was clear that the early support of NJ NOW and individuals who had been leaders in that organization played a key part in some of our legislative successes in New Jersey.

Today I’m in a long term relationship with a “feminist.” A leader, former President of NY-NOW who marched, got on the pulpits and TV, and later as an executive, was a role model and raised the glass ceiling for a whole industry of women.

Doer’s are those “feminists” who embrace and include transgender women.

Then there are the TERFs: Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism, or TERF, has been described as a loosely-organized collective with a message of hate and exclusion against transgender women in particular, and transgender people as a whole. They have attached themselves to radical feminism as a means to attempt to deny trans women basic access to health care, women’s groups, restroom facilities, and anywhere that may be considered women’s space.
I suppose that in every group of people who have been downtrodden and experienced discrimination, there is a tendency to seek out those others who they can put down and discriminate against to make themselves appear higher on a social totem pole or ladder. Rather than do things to empower themselves, apparently they find it easier to trash someone perceived to be on a lower rung who may be more vulnerable and less able to fight back. One may call it pathetic and perverted behavior , but unfortunately it’s not uncommon.

Janice Raymond

Janice Raymond, author of The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male authored a paper in the early 1980s that the Health and Human Services branch of the U.S. Government used to deny trans men and women trans-related medical care, for example. Since then, they have continued to use anti-transgender rhetoric, as blogger Cristan Williams suggests “using the banner of feminism much in the same way that Westboro Baptist Church uses Christianity.” They use rhetoric suggesting that trans women are would-be rapists, that we are “men invading women’s spaces” — (Cathy Brennan, head of Gender Identity Watch and are “forcing penises on lesbians” — Justin Norwood, Gender Identity Watch). They and radical right wing homophobic religious organizations such as the AFA use the same ugly language to frame their transphobia. For transpeople they are two peas in a pod…. Amazing!

Their words can cause actual harm. The group Gender Identity Watch (GIW) worked with the right-wing anti-gay group, Pacific Justice Institute, to help prevent a Colorado teen from being able to use the women’s restroom. It was reported that Cathy Brennan, the GIW leader used social media and outed the teen, who was already being bullied, and she was subsequently put on suicide watch. Their actions often incite others to denigrate or discriminate a minority — which is the definition of a hate group.

Brennan, an attorney by profession, is also alleged last year to make a four figure donation to a Maryland State Senator to derail that State’s transgender non-discrimination legislation.

Of course we cannot overlook Lisa Vogel.

What drives these TERFs? Perhaps it is something very basic, insecurity, jealousy, maybe even penis envy? I do not know, I do not get it, I don’t understand why some people expend so much energy to destroy the lives of others. But beware … they are few, but they are there and they hurt us.

Tags: featured, Identity, Janice Raymond, MichFest, MWMF, TERFs, Transgender, Transsexual

Category: Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics