Women Born Transsexual

From The Advocate: http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/07/29/equality-michigan-petitions-michfest-end-exclusionary-policy

A perennial source of controversy, Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival’s ‘womyn born womyn’ intention comes under fire from one of the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organizations.

BY Parker Marie Molloy
July 29 2014

Equality Michigan launched a petition urging organizers of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival to put an end to their ‘Womyn Born Womyn’ intention on Monday. The rule, which festival organizers insist is not an official policy, has been described by many as transphobic.

“[W]e reject the premise that transgender women are lesser than, we reject that this belief is a tenant of feminism, and we will no longer respect the ‘intention’ or that ‘leaving the onus on each individual to choose whether or how to respect it’ equates to inclusion,” Equality Michigan wrote in a blog post. “To us, this sounds like the arguments we heard around ‘don’t ask, don’t tell‘ — and like that policy, this one just doesn’t work for us.”

Later, the organization calls upon lesbian, gay, and bisexual people to “stand up, even if it is to our own, and make it clear that transgender women deserve to be treated as women in all settings,” and adding, “The time has come, we are drawing a line in the sand, this ‘intention’ can no longer stand.”

The petition calls for an end to the “womyn born womyn” intention, for festival cofounder Lisa Vogel to meet with leaders in the transgender community, for vendors and workshop leaders to publicly voice support for an end to the policy, and for artists and attendees to boycott the festival and instead perform at and support trans-inclusive women’s events. Additionally, the petition calls on performers already committed to this year’s festival to denounce the current policy from the stage, and commit to not participating in future years.

Michfest performer Crystal Bowersox told The Advocate in May that the she believes “in equality for everyone, and I do hope that in the future the Womyn’s Fest will choose to include transgender women. In your heart, in your mind, in your lifestyle, in your body — if you’re a woman, you’re a woman. That’s that.”

Bowersox continued, saying that she remains torn on the issue, and understands the festival’s current stance. She followed this by asking festival management to “open their hearts and minds a little more.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/07/29/equality-michigan-petitions-michfest-end-exclusionary-policy

From Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/right-wing-backlash-against-smartypants-neil-degrasse-tyson

Conservative elites delight in tearing down smart, educated people.

By Amanda Marcotte
July 30, 2014

If there’s one belief that binds the disparate factions of the American right together, it’s the belief in American exceptionalism, both for the nation and for individuals. The mythology that conservatism is about promoting excellence and encouraging strivers is found throughout conservative media and literature, from the story of John Galt in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged to Reagan’s description of America as a “shining city on a hill.” While it often manifests as contempt for the poor and the vulnerable, in the abstract this conservative enthusiasm for doing better could, in theory, be channeled productively toward actually pushing people to achieve.

So why are so many conservatives abandoning this enthusiasm for the exceptional in favor of what can only be described as jealous sniping aimed at people who are actually trying to expand the world creatively and scientifically? There’s a lot of high-falutin’ talk on the right about supporting the strivers, but in practice, the conservative response to someone who tries to stick his head above the crowd is to beat it down with a hammer. Conservatives may think of themselves as lovers of excellence, but in reality, “Who do you think you are?” is swiftly becoming an unofficial right-wing motto.

It’s easy to see why, despite their supposed enthusiasm for excellence, conservative pundits would offer up liberal scientists, journalists, and artists as hate objects for their base. This is a time of economic instability and ordinary people are seeing their fortunes declining. It’s easy to turn that anxiety into rage at people conservative audiences think have easy, charmed lives as coastal elites.

But in doing so, conservative pundits are exploiting their audiences, turning their class-based anger away from the people who are actually causing their economic problems, such as the Wall Street elite, and toward people who may be successful but who are not doing any harm to other Americans and are often trying to help them.  If you can get your audiences to hate journalists and scientists, they won’t hate the wealthy bankers who actually screwed them over.