The Michigan Women's Music Festival and Transsexual Women: A Statement by Transsexual Women As the Michigan Women's Music Festival approaches its 25th anniversary, two women once again appear determined to engage in actions that are inconsistent with the wishes of the majority of Festival attendees: festival organizer Lisa Vogel and gender activist Riki Anne Wilchins. Ms. Vogel shows no signs of relenting from her long-standing position that post-operative male-to-female transsexual women are not welcome to celebrate women's lives and bodies at the Festival alongside other women. Vogel's womyn- born womyn policy also prevents non-transsexual festigoers from sharing that celebration with the transsexual women who are their friends, lovers, and allies. Ms. Vogel is clearly out of step with most Festival attendees. In a survey conducted inside the 1992 festival, respondents indicated by almost a 3- to-1 majority (73%) that they had no objection to including transsexual women, as long as they had undergone sex reassignment surgery. In the last eight years, pro-inclusion attitudes appear, if anything, to have increased. For her part, Ms. Wilchins appears ready to advance her long-standing belief that the Festival should welcome any persons who "live as women" - regardless of the length of time they have done so, the extent of their commitment to a female identity, or the appearance of their genitals. Last year, Wilchins and her allies brought a pre- operative transsexual woman and a post-phalloplasty female-to-male transsexual man into the festival, in a misguided protest against Vogel's policy. In doing so, Wilchins deliberately violated the wishes of most festigoers, that the Festival be women's space and a "penis- free" zone. Her confrontational tactics denied festigoers their right to assemble on their own terms, on private land, in a safe space. She appears poised to employ those damaging tactics again this year. We, the undersigned transsexual women, find both Vogel's and Wilchins' positions to be untenable, anti-feminist, and ultimately oppressive of women, both transsexual and non-transsexual. We urge Ms. Vogel, Ms. Wilchins, and their allies, to reconsider their positions, to refrain from physical confrontation, and to respect what appears to be the consensus of the festigoers regarding transsexual women's inclusion in the Festival. We believe it is time for the Festival to welcome transsexual women on the same basis as any other women. We also believe it is inappropriate for transsexual women who have not undergone sex reassignment surgery, or for male- bodied/male-identified persons, to enter or request to enter the Festival. Women, transsexual and non-transsexual, deserve the opportunity to gather together in a safe space, free of male genitals. Bodies do matter. Male genitals can be so emblematic of male power and sexual dominance that their presence at a festival designed to provide safe women's space is inappropriate. People with male genitals who enter the Festival risk offending and oppressing other attendees; we urge them not to do so. We acknowledge that a post-op only/no-penis policy is not perfect and will not please everybody. While support among Festigoers for such a policy is overwhelming, it is not unanimous. Moreover, this policy cannot address issues of race and class: specifically, the exclusion of women, especially women of color, who are not able to afford sex reassignment surgery. This is simply the best and fairest policy possible, one that balances inclusion of transsexual women with legitimate concerns for the integrity of women's culture and safe women's space. It is important to affirm that womanhood is a matter of more than anatomy alone. The Festival has proven this over the years, and so have the lives of transsexual women committed to women's culture and community. Confrontational tactics dishonor our sisterhood and have no place here. We agree with Ms. Wilchins that freedom of gender expression for all people is important. But, as feminists, we also believe it is important to acknowledge the reality of sex differences and of how they structure human society in critical ways. The Festival is a feminist event that celebrates femaleness, and the love and creativity of the sisterhood of women. We resent anyone attempting to co-opt it for a competing purpose. We resent anyone confronting our sisters in a disrespectful way, or suggesting we share Ms. Wilchins adversarial relationship to the women's community. She should find a different party to crash. SIGNATORIES: Beth Elliott Davina Anne Gabriel Anne Lawrence Gwendolyn Ann Smith Jessica Xavier