Camp Trans

Camp Trans was an annual demonstration and event held outside the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MWMF or MichFest) by trans women and their allies to protest the Festival's policy of excluding trans women from attending the event.

The MWMF had its roots in lesbian-feminist and lesbian-separatist analysis of patriarchy, and intended to provide a week-long safe space for attendees to enjoy music created exclusively by women, to immerse themselves in woman's culture and to celebrate their womanhood in a environment free from domination, oppression or interference by men. However, its primary organizers argued that only people born and raised in female bodies were women, and therefore excluded trans women from attending.

Camp Trans was sparked by a 1991 incident in which Nancy Burkholder was ejected from the festival after another woman asked her whether she was trans and she refused to answer. The MWMF maintained a women-born-women policy since its inception, as evidenced by posters from the first festival in 1975. Each year afterwards a group of women, both transgender and cisgender, protested the exclusion of trans women from the event. Initially these protests were small and sometimes carried on inside of the camp.

A more organized group of trans women and their allies began camping and holding demonstrations outside the gate. After a five-year hiatus, Camp Trans returned in 1999, led by transgender activists Riki Ann Wilchins and Leslie Feinberg, as well as many members of the Boston and Chicago Lesbian Avengers The events of this year drew attention and controversy, culminating in tensions as a small group of transgender activists were admitted into the festival to exchange dialogue with organizers and to negotiate a short-lived compromise allowing only post-operative trans women on the festival land.

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