(To celebrate lesbian visibility week I asked Lauren Levey and Marian Rutigliano to write about the pioneering lesbian music festival. Enjoy!) The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival: Legacies Have you been on the land? If you have experienced late night drum circles, porta-janes, granola, and naked women in body paint, then Welcome Home, Sister.
That women were not left in peace in that ONCE A YEAR space is appalling. I can’t believe that the bekind crowd think this destruction was defensible. I am astonished that I only learned about this last year.
That was a great read, thanks Lauren and Marian. I had no idea Michfest started so long ago. Many original 'alternative' festivals (e.g. Glasto') have amicably become part of the establishment & in it for the money. But Michfest wouldn't play along so men shut it down.
Men erasing women, forcing themselves into women’s spaces, hunting down and murdering lesbian couples and their children is beyond appalling. The Men-Who-Think-They’re-Women that harassed/picketed/invaded/committed violence against and ended the Michigan Women’s Festival committed Violence Against Women and are terrorists.
I think the Indigenous Peoples are very much more aware of how important women are, of how we need special spaces amongst each other, whilst also appreciating men in their spaces. Very sad that The Usual Crew of Predators turned up, probably desperate to ogle half naked/naked women, I'd imagine, not an ounce of Spiritual Understanding amongt these men, nor an ounce of respect for women either. Makes you shudder that really, since the inception of the internet, it seems that women are no longer allowed to be alone, all their spaces taken over by such males who all connect up via the internet to cause as much stress to women as they can now, globally. Send in The Indigenous Grandmothers to teach these men respect for women.... https://www.grandmotherscouncil.org/
Thank you for sharing this, Dana rivers murdering a lesbian couple and their son in their own home should have made big news, but it was only a blip on the radar when it happened.
I got annual membership just so I could share this post (and support Graham!)
"The story of my first brush with trans activism and what I learned."
It goes over the machinations and womanhating that sought to destroy michfest and anyone even tangentially related to it, as understandably the authors of this wonderful piece didn't want to go there.
Sincerely sounds like a magical utopia to me. Thanks so much for sharing this.
That women were not left in peace in that ONCE A YEAR space is appalling. I can’t believe that the bekind crowd think this destruction was defensible. I am astonished that I only learned about this last year.
That was a great read, thanks Lauren and Marian. I had no idea Michfest started so long ago. Many original 'alternative' festivals (e.g. Glasto') have amicably become part of the establishment & in it for the money. But Michfest wouldn't play along so men shut it down.
Men erasing women, forcing themselves into women’s spaces, hunting down and murdering lesbian couples and their children is beyond appalling. The Men-Who-Think-They’re-Women that harassed/picketed/invaded/committed violence against and ended the Michigan Women’s Festival committed Violence Against Women and are terrorists.
It's a regret of my life that I never got there, and that I can't picture something like that ever happening that I could get to.
I think the Indigenous Peoples are very much more aware of how important women are, of how we need special spaces amongst each other, whilst also appreciating men in their spaces. Very sad that The Usual Crew of Predators turned up, probably desperate to ogle half naked/naked women, I'd imagine, not an ounce of Spiritual Understanding amongt these men, nor an ounce of respect for women either. Makes you shudder that really, since the inception of the internet, it seems that women are no longer allowed to be alone, all their spaces taken over by such males who all connect up via the internet to cause as much stress to women as they can now, globally. Send in The Indigenous Grandmothers to teach these men respect for women.... https://www.grandmotherscouncil.org/
Thank you for sharing this, Dana rivers murdering a lesbian couple and their son in their own home should have made big news, but it was only a blip on the radar when it happened.
I got annual membership just so I could share this post (and support Graham!)
"The story of my first brush with trans activism and what I learned."
It goes over the machinations and womanhating that sought to destroy michfest and anyone even tangentially related to it, as understandably the authors of this wonderful piece didn't want to go there.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180816005523/https://medium.com/@JonnnyBest/the-story-of-my-first-brush-with-trans-activism-and-what-i-learned-3ef13e31fd37