From the Michfest List: WBW Building Space for WBW

Re: WBW building safe space for WBW

Sister A., thank you for this: "And in defense of lesbian separatism, we have no other venue available to us any more. We can't even keep bio men out of our dyke marches, and I mean men, not MTF's. Why? Because some lesbians dont see a need to exclude men from a dyke march and we dont have lesbian solidarity anymore. Some lesbians dont choose womyn first."

That is so true A. The SF Dyke March is always crashed by every version of queer and men, including bisexual women including their boyfriends, to gay guys from the Castro feeling they HAVE A RIGHT to be in the March(after all Dolores Park is their cruising zone, and right down from the Castro). I wonder what would happen if we enforced those boundaries? And FTM's feel they too have 'a right' to be in the March. So it really dilutes the energy, and especially when the march organizers make statements that "past, present and future women" can march.....and takes away from the focus on us Dykes and Dyke rights! But then many Lesbians/Dykes don't put Dykes and women first and foremost! I ALWAYS have! Some surround them by a sea of gay men and become almost unapproachable, others by other versions of queer, and now there are so many microidentities as to be downright confusing..but then when you look at the pics, one thinks: "That's a bunch of dykes, under another name!" So many Butches/boi dykes/genderqueer don't even want the term 'female' or 'woman' applied to them, like it is some great shame(and I'm NOT talking FTM's here), that events and spaces are now being referred to as 'Queer', not even 'Queer Women' anymore, like the word 'woman' only refers to high femme, and that they are outside of even Female, which is barely tolerated, and yet insistent on saying 'female bodied'. It has all become so strange, divisive. And almost NONE have a concept of just how empowering it is to be in a week or close to a week in women only Dyke centered space, and see the amazing diversity of womonhood/femaleness Michfest represents!

Thank you also Grace for your statement above! The same goes with my Amazon and Dianic rituals. I WANT to ritual with those who are born, live and love as Female, and the connection we have beyond words because of it, whether it be the menstrual blood mysteries or the gynenergy we raise, goes beyond words, or the glue between Dykes and our Amazon herstories going back to ancient times carving out our space for OUR TRUTH, our born Female bodies, minds and spirits...and for those of us who are Butch and have been on that 'gender line' for ages, we are STILL PROUD TO BE FEMALE, and ARE FULLY FEMALE. We NEED our wbw space for our healing, for our Lesbian connections, for our blood connections, and for the mutual sacred energies we can raise together, hearing each other's voices.

To my dying day, I will protect our spaces and places, because ONLY in WBW space amongst likeminded womyn and Dykes, can I really and truly FEEL MY POWER, not just personally, but energetically and psychically in a way I can't in any other space because of the heaviness of the patriarchal imperative and heavy male energies. Whether they be from the formerly, present or future male. I don't care if this is 'politically correct' or not, but denying born females access to OUR OWN spaces is the height of misogyny, in a very real way. It does not need to be just 'one week out of the year', that would NOT be enough for me, but when and where we need it, without others' needs crowding out our voices or destroying what overall women's spaces(much less Lesbian spaces, which there are almost none)we have left!
-MasterAmazon

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I am committed to the Michigan community, as well as committed to maintaining this space with its original intention. - LV 8/2011