Hi Lisa Vogel, Perhaps you know of me. My name is Autumn Sandeen. I've written about MichFest quite a few times over the past seven or eight years. Have you noticed that the beloved LGBT inclusivity community the past few days has been directing its ire at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the LGBTQ Task Force, as well as their executive directors Kate Kendall and Rea Carey? Have you noticed that the trans community is directing… Read more.

I remember the first time I encountered Transgender Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) transmisogyny face to face. It was years ago in 2011 when I attended the 33rd Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MWMF or MichFest) in stealth. If you're not on the up and up on what the MWMF is, this page will briefly catch you up to speed. At the time, I was a little naive as many of you reading this may be. Back then, I was unaware… Read more.

This is a long-form article on MichFest's co-founder and current producer Lisa Vogel. The article contains extensive text of what Vogel has stated regarding trans people over several decades, as well as analysis and commentary on her carefully evolved language, but unevolved perspective, that trans women are males. Lisa Vogel, a co-founder and the producer of the Michigan Women's Music Festival (known more commonly as MichFest and by the acronym MWMF), has consistently defined trans women as both… Read more.

As Cristan Williams pointed out in her recent Transadvocate piece Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, segregation against trans women has been occurring at that festival for a very, very long time. Over the years, many intra-LGBT community allies of trans women have spoken out against the policy -- including the Lesbians for Justice in 1992, the Lesbian Resource Center of Seattle in 1999, and the Lesbian Avengers of Boston in 2000 -- and yet words alone haven't moved the Michigan Womyn’s… Read more.

I recently had a discussion with a person with cisgender privledge about Michfest. I thought feminist/POC theory taught rather early on that a person who isn't in the oppressed category doesn't get to define if they are in fact, an ally. If you support Michfest, you're NOT a Trans ally. This is what I said: "No, we don't share similar viewpoints on Michfest. I wouldn't go to Hammerfest, no matter how 'good' or how much of a "safe space" it… Read more.

Todays Guest Transadvocate is Dr. Joelle Ruby Ryan. Ryan describes herself as a "transgender, Feminist, Queer, Fat+, Activist, Educator, Writer, Speaker and Firebrand". She is also the author of Gender Quake: Poems and the co-producer of three autobiographical films. This weekend, there was a conference at the University of New Hampshire entitled “Pornography as Sexual Violence.” I was asked by the key organizer to co-present a panel with David Jacobsen at the conference. I titled the session Pornography and LGBT… Read more.