2006 Press Release Controversy and Resulting Organizational Changes
Following the 2006 festival, a small group of Camp Trans organizers issued a press release that stated that the MWMF had "ended its policy of exclusion." A disagreement ensued within the Camp Trans and Yellow Armbands organizations over whether or not this press release was ethical due to issues of transparency and consent.
Camp Trans argued that the press release was a deliberate and necessary tactic designed to bait Vogel into responding with a transphobic press release which would make the parameters of the "wbw-policy" officially known. Supporters of this tactic felt that because Vogel hadn't given the Camp Trans organization permission to republish the letter, nor was the policy (or what Vogel referred to as an "intention") available in writing on the MichFest website or elsewhere, that this was the only way that Camp Trans could ostensibly prove that the policy actually existed. Others felt that the motivation behind the press release was nebulous and not supportive or inclusive of Donaldson or others who were involved in the positive developments that occurred in the summer of 2006. They also believed that the press release caused unnecessary conflict between inclusion activists and the festival office and they preferred to focus on the larger community who were clearly supportive of trans women attending in 2006. Regardless, Vogel did in fact issue a response where she stated again that the festival is intended for women-born-women, and that they hope and expect trans women to respect that intention. Following the press release fallout, Donaldson resigned from Camp Trans and joined the Yellow Armbands as an organizer.
In 2007, the Yellow Armbands blog was frozen by an organizer who resigned from the activism due to lingering issues regarding lack of transparency in the inclusion movement. Other activists also resigned over concerns that Camp Trans was privileging the voices of trans men over trans women in their organization. The remaining inclusion activists at Yellow Armbands created a new online community and blog and renamed their organization Fest For All Womyn.
Donaldson returned to MWMF in 2007 with the newly renamed Fest For All Womyn/Yellow Armbands and camped in The Twilight Zone area of the festival along with other trans women and female assigned at birth inclusion supporters.
2007 was also a landmark year for Camp Trans, because for the first time in their 16-year history, they held elections for their organizational positions. Camp Trans organizers celebrated this as a positive step in the right direction when the majority of elected positions were filled by trans women.
Read more about this topic: Camp Trans
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