photo by Andrea Alseri
According to Mira: “this was an action at Michfest this year during which hundreds of women wearing shirts that read “trans women belong here” flooded the stage, and many many others stood in solidarity as well.”
Supporters on stage
Next post: Trans Women at Michfest Belong Here
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Apparently the person who took the photo is Andrea Alseri
This is so beautiful , I am a trans woman and it's good to see this !
My sister in law is a trans woman. And I was the guy that made the shirts for them at cost. I am glad they were used for a good cause.
About time.
Gennee
Wow!! That is a totally inspirational photo! Thanks all who showed the courage to speak with your heart and go on stage or just stand in solidarity in the audience.
And thank you "Pirate Dave"!!! Those t-shirts gave many womyn the opportunity to share their voice when they didn't feel comfortable speaking in any other way.
Next year there will also be a a new festival in the area. It will be called White MichFest . Where we , white women , will celebrate and exclude anyone that isnt a white woman . We feel that this is the proper way to celebrate Michfest , with other women that share our unique experience of being a white woman .
Thanks for the shirt wearing … there was a bunch of immature people that went against the consensus of CT. It's a shame that other gender variant people only know anger destructive violence to show there well understood pain.
Sad and I am sorry that Ct people acted out…
I am working on getting the PR more cohesive next year…
I don't mind collecting complaints that happen to the festival …
dgales777@gmail.com
Hey, to the trans-o-phobes posting on here, this site isn't really for you. There are plenty of sympathetic ears on the MWMF forums. Check 'em out.
My sister was one of the many people who swarmed the stage in support of this action. I got a little choked up over it all when she told me about it. She told me that some of her friends came up to her after to tell her that they’d changed their minds about inclusion and were now for it. Sia now has my undying respect for participating in this.
I love Fest. I’ve gone several times. I would love it far more if my trans sisters were included, because we all need it. The letter to “Second-Wave ‘Feminists’” makes me feel sick, as does hearing that transwomyn were threatened outside of the gates during their vigil.
To some extent, I think that there is a generational divide when it comes to Fest-goers over inclusion. I think that Fest must change its policy in order to continue to thrive or it will just plain become obsolete. It just has to happen if it is to endure.
Also, MarleneBloomer, I completely agree with your point that when Fest allows- and welcomes- FtMs there is some serious hypocrisy at play.
transwomen = women, that's why
This is awesome to see. If this stuff keeps up I might some day consider going to Fest again.
With momentum of this year, I imagine things will continue in a more positive inclusive direction.
So fantastic! Much love and respect to those folks who know "changing things from the inside" means ACTION.
Whatever your views on trans-inclusion at MWMF, it would be disingenuous to accept the statement "hundreds of women … flooded the stage, and many many others stood …” uncritically. The picture above is of the catwalk, a space not nearly large enough to hold all of the women claimed. The number was closer to 30 (from someone who was close to the catwalk and actually counted). There may have been women standing "in solidarity" in the audience, but, honestly, I didn't notice a united stand for trans-inclusion.
(continued from above)
I'll also fill in some history in that the idea for this action came approximately two hours before Sia's performance. The number of women standing at that moment, were the number of women who were able to be told about the action in 2 hours, starting from a group of about 20 that was at the meeting where the idea was first suggested.
>I didn't notice a united stand for trans-inclusion.
I also agree with you on this. There is no "united" stand for trans-inclusion. The MichFest community is in conflict with itself. But, there is a large and visible part of the community that does support trans women being a part of MichFest. (And of the four transwomen who I personally know have attended, the amount of support at fest overall has been high enough that they had incredible, powerful, wonderful experiences.)
>The number was closer to 30 (from someone who was close to the catwalk and actually counted).
I have to agree with you- it wasn't probably "hundreds" and it wasn't fully "the stage"– you're right people only got to get onto the catwalk. But, just looking at that picture, I can count 15 down the side and 4 or 5 across the front– meaning probably (conservatively) 4×15 or 5×15 people- 60-75 women were on the catwalk. And from my viewpoint, it looked like there were about the same number (or maybe even 1.5 times are many) standing near the catwalk, but could not get up on stage due to space constraints. And at least this one person can't be counted as part of that group standing near stage because I was working night stage security and couldn't leave my post– so I wouldn't take the number of people standing to equal the number of women who support all women to come to fest.
To clarify, the idea for this action came about on Thursday when we had our meeting about how to welcome transsexual women to the land. We tried to get the word out to people over the two days between Thursday and Saturday night when the action happened. And I agree – saying there were hundreds on the stage is probably an overstatement – but it was a lot more than 30 – and could have been at least 100. It was very crowded up there – and on the ground in front of the catwalk. People seemed to keep coming up when it seemed like there wasn't any more room. So it felt like lots.
Hmmm– memory is a tricky thing; maybe my recollection (or understanding) is wrong. I can see for sure in the program that Sia performed on Friday, not Sat. And I thought the idea was suggested by her (Sia) during the "Welcoming Transexual Women to the Land" organizing meeting that happened @ 6pm on Friday (Bevin has a picture of the flyer in her blog post, also linked from this site). But, maybe I misunderstood what happened during the meeting.
I know I was frantically running around at the beginning of my workshift, telling everyone I knew about the action. Maybe it was just me that only had 2 hours to spread the word.
This is the sort of thing that will start making it possible to heal the wound of abandonment trans women have felt over the years of perceived silence around this policy and this place. This is the sort of thing that will save Michfest. Next year, see if 1000 shirts can be made and worn. 1 out of 5. That will rock the boat in the most loving and present of ways.
The person apparently responsible for the alleged vandalism was also a problem for people at CT and did not represent anyone except themselves and a few other angry jerks who are responsible for a split there.
Some people simply don't want Fest to exist and clearly those people are working to destroy it (and Camp Trans in the process) rather than to fight for trans women's inclusion in Fest. The difference in tactics should be pretty obvious, since the same people worked to intimidate trans women who do support Fest's existence and who opposed vandalism.
As far as I know, this action had nothing to do with CT. Trans women and supporters inside held a discussion that Sia herself attended, and that is why she invited people onto stage. Not every trans woman nor everyone who supports inclusion is a part of CT.
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