Michigan
2003-08-26, 9:30 a.m.

Well, okay. 20 days or so since my last real entry. I had a great time at Festival. Every woman should go to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Even the odd straight woman or two. ;) I went with a friend and basically just relaxed. They made all of the meals, so I never once had to think about cooking. How much of a housewife do I sound like now?

There were a lot of workshops you could go to ranging from Belly Dancing to Lesbian Polyamory but I didn't go to any. I wanted to go to Belly Dancing but I didn't get there. I took naps, though! And they had dancing of some sort almost every night. I really missed Penny during the dancing times. I love to dance with her. Our anniversary was while I was there which was weird. She wasn't able to come for the weekend, so that was sad.

Every night we saw great performers. There was:

Sweet Honey in the Rock, Bitch & Animal, Catie Curtis, Toshi Reagon and BETTY.

Bitch & Animal are amazing. Pussy Manifesto, Drag King Bar, Best Cock on the Block. All fun. See them live if they come near you ... they are best live. Really.

There were also comedians, though the only one I saw was Elvira Kurt.

I'm on an elist and just before I left I sent an email asking if anyone else was going to Michigan. Holy Dyke Drama, Batman! A conversation went on while I was gone that was amazing. In a bad way. 2 people wrote that they would "never go to Michigan" because of their anti-trans policy (the Festival is for "womyn-born-womyn".) And from there it spiraled downward into an all-out screaming match mostly aimed at one or two women who were just asking questions and not being hateful at all. I was thoroughly scandalized. When I got back and read all of that, I sent a "shame on you" email and, interestingly enough, no one responded to that at all. I was truly scandalized by the nastiness. Now, not at all at the concern that Michigan doesn't allow transwomen, but at the nastiness shown the women who asked questions. Crikey. Anyway, Bitch & Animal as well as Elvira Kurt mentioned the trans issue on stage to great applause. At least once the festival organizer was in the audience to hear. Other people were passing out postcards with information about why we should include transwomen. I think things are going to change but they never will if people don't go and speak up.

Then, I came home. That, my friends, is a story for another time. Maybe later today, maybe tomorrow. We'll see.