The Third Gender: Transsexualism in Women-Oriented Atmospheres

The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, also known as “Wombfest” or simply “Michigan,” has been held annually in early August in a northern Michigan forest since 1976 (“General… Information”).The festival’s central goal has been to create a woman-centered atmosphere where women can celebrate being women in an area free of male presence and patriarchy (“Out and About“). Although Michigan is not the first festival to celebrate women (“A… History“) , it is the longest running, looking to celebrate its thirty-second anniversary in August 2008 (“Rebuttal… Straight”).

Tickets for MichFest range from $60 for single-day admittance to $450 for the weeklong, all-inclusive experience. The festival provides three completely vegetarian meals each day, and upwards of forty musical performances throughout the week. Children ages three through sixteen are also welcome, and the festival provides several different childcare areas.

The last seventeen years of their run, however, has served to diminish their previously scintillating image- at least for transsexuals and their allies (Tea). “The festival… has become the site of many political struggles in the lesbian community, from the controversy over sadomasochism in the 1980s to recent debates over transgender identity.” This quote by Deborah Lewis confirms that the one-time utopia for women is now a political battleground for transsexual and transgender rights (Morris).

The issue of transinclusion in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) community has been gaining force over the last two decades (Tea). In addition to facing exclusion among much of the straight and gay communities, transsexuals are facing increasing discrimination in spaces that have been created solely for women (Morris).

Transsexuals are people who choose to physically become a member of the opposite sex through hormone therapy and gender-reassignment surgeries. The transsexual person feels that their physical gender is not who they truly are. In contrast, a transgender person identifies with the opposite gender through such channels as emotions and thoughts, and the term usually refers to transsexuals before gender-reassignment surgeries (Marinucci).

Some people, rather than identify with either the male, female, or transgender identity, have chosen to term themselves “genderqueer,” and in doing so, enter the territory of what can be called the “third” gender (Tea). Although the third gender typically refers to intersex people-- those people who are born as both male and female (Aitken)-- it can also be used to describe any person who does not comply with the customary order of the male or female gender identity (“Plight of the Third Gender“). Genderqueer people may refer to themselves as being both male and female or as being neither, and the genderqueer identity is quickly gaining force in the LGBTQ community. The celebration of this third gender could be considered responsible for the conflict between the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and Camp Trans (Tea).

Since the early nineties, no matter their gender association, a person could not hear about the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival without also hearing talk of their “womyn-born-womyn” policy (Tea).

“I had talked to people, and their opinion was: if you think of yourself as a woman, you’re welcome.” However, this was not the case for one woman. In 1991, male-to-female transsexual woman Nancy Jean Burkholder was evicted from the festival on the basis that she was violating the festival’s “womyn-born-womyn” policy (Tea). This trans-exclusionary policy clearly states that the only festival-goers welcome at “MichFest” are those who had been born as women and had lived their entire lives as such-- transsexual men and women, as well as masculine genderqueers, were not allowed to attend. (“Rebuttal…Straight“).

Burkholder was escorted from the festival grounds and she returned to her home in New Hampshire. She later contacted Gay Community News and told her story. Her expulsion from what was once considered a completely woman-inclusive festival sparked a heated controversy that still steals the spotlight seventeen years later (Tea).

Lisa Vogel, Michigan’s leading lady and founding woman, was quoted after the Burkholder incident outlining Michigan’s strictly interpreted “womyn-born-womyn” policy in a press release that stated:
Since 1976, the Michigan Womyn's Music Fest
ival has been created by and for womyn- born-womyn, that is, womyn who were born as and have lived their entire life experience as womyn. Despite claims to the contrary by Camp Trans organizers, the Festival remains a rare and precious space intended for womyn-born-womyn. (“Rebuttal…Straight“)

Out of the controversy, Twenty-four Gender Myths was born from a survey conducted on Michigan attendees. Only 23% of festival goers did not want transsexuals to attend. The reasons they were not wanted to attend ranged from the idea that transsexuality is unnatural to the feeling that transsexual men only become male because they reject their womanhood. As one Michigan attendee stated in a 2003 publication aimed at making peace with Camp Trans campers, “You gotta understand, you are my sister, but you don’t have that experience. And taking my experience [of growing up as a woman] and saying it is yours don’t make it yours, makes it stolen.” In short, this Wombfest devotee didn’t see transsexual women as real women because they were not born female (Tea).

In 1992, a booth was set up within Wombfest that shared information on transsexuality and Michigan’s exclusionary policy. In 1993, Burkholder and several other transsexual women attempted to attend the festival again, only to be escorted from the grounds (“Short… Trans“).

In answer to the growing controversy, Camp Trans was born. First held in 1994 (“A… History“), Camp Trans is an annual protest against the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival’s as well as the nation’s transphobic standards, touting that “for trans women who are consistently refused help… this is a matter of life and death.” The Campers hold protests and marches, and hold workshops that celebrate transsexuality and other third gender identities (Tea).

Although Camp Trans was established to fight the injustice faced by transsexual women in the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, it‘s influences paled in the mid-nineties, when the focus in the lesbian community switched to transsexual men over transsexual women (Tea).

“Everyone is gleeful, happy to be smashing the gender binary, , to be partying down for a cause, to be part of a revolution…“ The controversy between Camp Trans and Wombfest has drawn a new wave of activists to the battlegrounds in northern Michigan. Attendance at Camp Trans has increased greatly in the last decade. Due to the increase, Camp Trans is no longer held directly across the road from MichFest, as it was in the early nineties. Now, Campers head down the road to pitch their tents between the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and a local nudist camp. The new location has caused problems with the Camp’s activist agenda. Part of Camp Trans’ effectiveness in the early years was because of its location: directly across the road from MichFest’s main gates. (Tea).

The issue of transinclusion is gaining force in today’s society, particularly in women-centered atmospheres such as the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. As a result, Camp Trans and their festival kin have sprung up across the United States to battle the raging storm (“A… History“).

SOURCES

Aitken, Paul. “Intersex-the Third Gender.”3 Dec 2006. AltPenis.com. 18 Mar 2008. http://www.altpenis.com/penis_news/intersex.shtml.

“A Chronology of U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History.” Stein, Marc et al, ed. LGBT Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History. Cleveland: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004. xxxvii-xliv.

“General Festival Information.” Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. 2007. Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. 23 Feb. 2008 http://www.michfest.com/festival/index.htm

Marinucci, Mimi. “GLBT (and Sometimes Q).” The F-Word eZine. 15 Mar 2008. http://www.thef-wordzine.com/lgbt_terms505.html.

Morris, Bonnie J. “At the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (2003).” Shneer, David and Caryn Aviv, eds. American Queer, Now and Then. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2006. 76.

“Out and About.“ Shneer, David and Caryn Aviv, eds. American Queer, Now and Then. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2006. 55.

“Plight of the Third Gender.” StraitsTimes. 1 Jul 2002. Transgender Crossroads. 25 Mar 2008. http://www.tgcrossroads.org/news/archive.asp?aid=330

“Rebuttal: Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival Sets the Record ‘Straight.’” 22 Aug 2006. The Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance (INTRAA). 10 Mar 2008. http://www.intraa.org/story/mwmfpolicyrebuttal.

“Short History of trans-inclusion in women's/lesbian Music and Camp Trans.” Camp Trans 2006. 2005. Camp Trans. 1 Mar. 2008. http://www.camp-trans.org/short-history-of-camp-trans/

Tea, Michelle. “Transmissions from Camp Trans.” Kaufman, Allen, ed. The Outlaw Bible of American Essays. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006. 227-264.

“2008 Ticket Information.“ Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. 2007. Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. 23 Feb. 2008 http://www.michfest.com/festival/index.htm