For almost four decades, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival has maintained a policy that their event is for "womyn born womyn". The leadership of the festival has systematically discriminated against transgender women. For an almost equal amount of time, transgender women and allies have politely asked, cajoled, argued, and demanded that the festival organizers to recognize that their actions constitute discrimination against transgender women, and to welcome transgender women to the festival. For at least a decade, transgender women and allies have been 100% clear that the only remaining solution is boycott the festival and those who support it. 

Recently, two major LGBT organizations and a small group of transgender leaders made a unilateral decision to remove themselves from the boycott and engage MichFest leaders in an "active and intentional dialogue". The decision was made without public discussion beforehand, and communicated in press releases that were deeply hurtful to the trans community and failed to adequately explain what they were trying to do. Now that their intentions are clear, we demand that these groups remain accountable to the communities they serve as they engage MichFest leaders. The fight to end transmisogyny at MichFest has been fought by thousands of transgender women and allies over several decades. Any solution must come first from transwomen and others who've suffered from MichFest's policies and from transmisgyny in feminist communities in general. The problem cannot be solved by a select group of leaders operating without accountability to the larger communities they serve.

Already, in what has been communicated publicly, there are troubling signs about the solutions these leaders are seeking to MichFest. They have stated "[Lisa Vogel] doesn’t have to change the change the womyn-born-womyn intention, she just needs to say 'Trans womyn who identify as womyn-born-womyn are welcome at MichFest.'" Perhaps this solution feels adequate to the few trans leaders engaging with MichFest. It doesn't feel adequate for many of us who feel womyn-born-womyn is an inherently transphobic term who history has been synonymous with excluding transwomen.

We're demanding a just and lasting solution to transwomen's exclusion at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. We demand that solution come from an open and transparent process that is accountable to the communities most affected. Decades of transphobia cannot be resolved unless there is justice for all women.

Tweet and share your ideas about what a just solution to MichFest and the broader issue of transmisogyny in feminist communities looks like at #justice4allwomen.