13. The Michfest Scandal Caused Feminists To Confront Trans People
The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, also known as “Michfest”, was a female-only event that went on for decades, and ladies from all over the country would travel there to make new friends and share their common philosophy. In 1991, a transgender woman named Nancy Burkholder showed up to Michfest to have a good time, but the cisgendered women were angry that she showed up. Burkholder was surrounded by festival-goers, and they demanded to know if she was transgender, or cisgender.
Nancy Burkholder felt so intimidated by the angry crowd of women, that she left. The transgender community was outraged to hear this story, and a group of people in support of the LGBTQ community started a group called “Camp Trans”. Advocates in the gay community began to speak out against Michfest for their decision to ban trans women. Attending Michfest became synonymous with transphobia, so the attendance slowly died down over the years as people became more and more educated on the issue. The last festival was in 2015, and they had to shut down, because ticket sales were so low. There are ongoing discussions if the organizers would be willing to reopen Michfest and start accepting transgender women to join them.
In 1991, after the Nancy Burkholder scandal, a group of trans women came together to have their own festival, called “Camp Trans”. Their motto was: “Camp Trans. For Humyn-Born Humyns.” Basically, the point was that we are all human beings, no matter what gender we are biologically born into, and what gender we mentally identify with. The group continued to have all-inclusive events.