The same year, Gabriel disclosed that she was transsexual to a group of approximately twenty women who were participating in a workshop at MichFest. One of the survey’s questions was “Do you think male-to-female transsexuals should be welcome at Michigan?” 73.1% said yes. Out of the 1,500 attendees of the festival, 633 participated. In 1992, Davina Anne Gabriel - a transsexual lesbian woman and editor of the transfeminist publication TransSisters - and her non-trans friend, Janis Walworth, conducted a survey within the festival and published the results in Issue #2 of TransSisters. Retrieved from Digital Transgender ArchiveĮven before 1994 MichFest, many of the festival attendees were deeply supportive of allowing trans attendees inside. ![]() Less commonly discussed is the rich history of affinity and solidarity between trans and non-trans lesbians, epitomized by the coalition of the two groups at the 1994 Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Many of the dominating narratives, including the story of Burkholder’s removal from MichFest, fixate on the divide between trans and non-trans lesbians. The Festival is well-known for its 1991 expulsion of Nancy Burkholder - a transsexual* lesbian woman - for violating the Festival’s trans-exclusionary “womyn-born womyn” only policy. The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MWMF or MichFest) was a largely lesbian, “women only” space that began in 1976 and ran annually until 2015. In 1994, a troop of non-trans lesbians escorted a group of trans people as they marched into the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, an important instance in which trans folks were visibly supported by lesbians.
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