Hi Amy,

I am a graduating senior at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and I am in the process of writing my thesis which involves the third wave and gender rights (a.k.a. Transfeminism). I am specifically using the Michigan Women's Music Festival as my site of inquiry, and their trans-exuclusionary policy, or womyn-born-womyn only policy. I am interested in your opinion on the issue of including MTF's and FTM's onto the land. Is MWMF's anti-trans or discriminating? or Do you perceive MWMF's policy as legitimate in providing a bio-women only space, as there is value in separatist spaces?

I am particuarly interested in your perspective, given your nuanced work and audible voice on and in the third wave of feminsim. I look forward to hearing back from you and appreciate all of your work.

Kind Regards,

Sarah

Dear Sarah,

The entire trans-feminist movement has been a challenging one for me -- mostly because it means something different to everyone and it is often treated in the context of sexuality, which I don't feel is accurate nor is it fair to either issue; it leaves people assuming that it one is trans they are gay. In general, I welcome the inclusive of trans people in all spaces and think that we need to work toward making every space trans inclusive.

However, the confusion comes about what exactly it means to be trans -- for instance, transexual, a trans identity, etc... And within this I challenge those who promote a trans philosophy, while at the same time being dependent on very specific gender indentities -- i.e. MTFs who use high pitched voices and delicate mannerisms. While professing to be more evolved on gender it is actually a very limited interpretation on gender. What we need to clarify, I believe is gender and biology and leave seperate spaces for these. For instance, is MWMF a women's space in a biological sense or a gendered sense. In this instance, I actually believe it to be gendered and therefore think that it should be inclusive of MTF -- but if it were the opposite, a biologically determined space than it should be open to FTM. I think the confusion lies in the conflating on these two different things.

I hope this helps.

-- Amy