ArticleHART, MICHIGAN - The Michigan Women's Music Festival began admitting openly trans (transgender/transsexual) women last week, bringing success to a longstanding struggle by trans activists both inside and outside the festival.
"Seeing trans women inside the festival for the first time brought me totears," said Sue Ashman, who attends the festival every year. "It's restored my faith in women's communities."
Ashman said "I have friends who have already committed to bringing themselves and others for the first time next year."
Organizers of Camp Trans, the annual protest across the road from the festival, say that every year at least one trans woman at Camp Trans walks to the festival gate with a group of supporters, explains that she is trans, and tries to buy a ticket. In past years, the festival box office has produced a printed copy of the policy and refused.