Drakyn went to Camp Trans and, from his post, had a grand ol’ time. Wish I could’ve gone, even though I’m not that fond of camping. Really dislike the bugs. And the odor of the portapotty’s, I’ve a sensitive nose. Speaking of toilets and shit, guess what I stumbled upon on the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival Boards? The link to the thread is located here. The italics part below is from Drakyn’s Back-From-Camp-Trans post, Link Located Here, the bold is from AmazonHeart;

Michfest is no longer it’s main thing, though certainly its still important to CT. The “WBW”(such a BS phrase) policy is pretty much unenforced and it seems like the majority of festies either don’t care if trans* women are there or want trans* women there. In fact, some festies who left early left their wristbands with CT for trans* women to get in and another festy donated money for tickets for trans* women. I missed the days we walked the line, but I heard that reception was mixed which is pretty normal. Though there were some folks that didn’t talk to any negative people at all.

The mtf-spectrum folks who went to fest all had a good time, they even hosted a workshop on ENDA. One woman I talked to said that one festie she had spoken with in the line recognized her and came over and said hi and was very glad that she had made it into fest.


Bolds mine. You know, this is just so wrong on every conceivable level. Feh-muh-nust spends hours and hours, weeks and weeks raising money for tickets for women who can’t afford to go to Fest so they can go. Some of my friends paid the upper limit of the sliding scale this year because they knew it might be tough given the economy, and they don’t have a lot of money, either, they scratched and scraped themselves but they wanted to support the Festival.

And then we have FESTIES giving their wristbands to CT people so they can not only stroll through the gates but stroll through without paying a penny. This is basically theft.

I took the liberty of leaving out her email link, she stated she didn’t want to send traffic to Drakyn (or apparently even mention his name) so she gave her addy out so people could get his blog post from her and read it themselves. Now me, being the cynicist that I am, suspect she’s attempting to avoid trackbacks and the like. How rude.

Now, my question. How can giving a bracelet to another be ‘theft’?

A ticket costs an amount of money. For each bracelet a ticket must be bought. That bracelet ensures that whatever woman is wearing it is able to spend the amount of X hours the festival is open inside the festival. Giving something away is not theft when the price is set. It isn’t so much money for so many days. It’s a set amount of money for a week. Loaning something that’s already been bought to someone who fits requirements to use it (in this case, being a woman) is not theft.

Hey, let’s talk about theft for a moment. You know, just so we’re clear. That bracelet doesn’t magically extend the time a person is allowed to go if it’s given to someone else. Really, it doesn’t. So there’s no theft of services that way. The bracelet is made to let women into festival. If one woman leaves and another woman takes her place, there’s still the same amount of resources being used that’s already been paid for. The bracelet wearer isn’t swindling you, the complainer, out of a damn thing. I didn’t hear about anyone creeping up while a bracelet-wearer was, say, standing innocently in line to -steal- their bracelet. I certainly didn’t hear about anyone cackling madly and then bolting with the goods. What a mental image. (Steal. You know, what didn’t go on? The – actual – definition of theft?)

But, back to the bracelet. It doesn’t give the second woman extra hours in the festival after everyone else is told to toddle home. Bracelet lasts the same amount of time as everyone else’s. Nor does that bracelet of admission transform into a VIP pass to…wherever, I don’t know what their paranoia is conceiving, really. Maybe, they wonder, a given bracelet turns into a backstage pass to meet the Indigo Girls! Or perhaps upon showing the given bracelet at mealtime the lucky bracelet recipient can receive all the vegan nutloaf she wants! Who the hell knows. At any rate the woman who received the bracelet isn’t getting any extra benefits that others don’t already have with their own pretty little wrist decorations.

And AmazonHeart’s paranoia comes out to play. Apparently she’s able to decide whether someone is or is not a festie by what kinds of workshops a woman facilitates, as seen in her comment below.

Of course, the “Festies” who “left early” and ripped off the festival by giving their bracelet(s) to CT people might have been CT people in the first place and not Festies at all, like the CT person who facilitated a workshop on ENDA on the land.

No matter what, we all know each woman pays for her own ticket and to give their bracelet to someone who hasn’t paid is stealing from Fest.

Okay then. So any festie that leaves early and doesn’t want to waste hard earned money on something she bought rotting in the nearest rubbish bin because she can’t stay the full week is, according to Heart, not ~ really ~ a festie. Apparently it is an us vs them thing, after all! I was always a little unclear on that point. Does that include everyone who has to leave early or just those that would rather not waste hard earned dollars and want to share the wealth of actually being able to afford to go?

Don’t bother answering! I already know the reply. A lot of people, I’m thinking, already know the reply. If I had a hefty sum, I’d lay the bet that if a festie donated the rest of her ticket-time to a woman lucky enough to be born like Heart that pined to go herself but alas, didn’t have the necessary funds, she would be waxing poetic about the mystikal Tribe That Bleeds and its awesome Sisterhood Connection that just had to have been the cause of such generosity. Sisters, looking out for each other! So sweet!

So then, Heart states that everyone pays for her own ticket.

Oh Rly?

I see she hasn’t talked to…herself much. Fancy that. Does the right hand not know what the left hand is doing? AmazonHeart, aka Cheryl Seelhoff, aka Heart, Aka, crunchygranoladyke, ‘cept that was one of her sockpuppets, probably shouldn’t include that one as a regular alias… Anyway, Cheryl’s famous for her collection plate, she certainly didn’t pay full price for her own ticket herself when she solicited for funds last year. So where’s the beef? What’s that I hear, the booming sound of silence?

Here’s a thought. If people don’t want the end effects of their donated funds being used how they wouldn’t spend it, they can keep their funds to themselves and stop bellyaching. (I’m assuming here Cheryl (the one who posted the thread in question) hasn’t donated to something she hasn’t benefited from, seeing as she’s complaining for -others- hard-earned cash being spent how she doesn’t like, and not her own. I’m looking at you, Cheryl, what with the consistent ‘Please give to my person’ posts. Ever get ’round to removing that tree?) Can’t believe people are being so negative about others being thrifty and not letting bracelet time (and money) go to waste, ugh.

Oh, and then there’s the exchange of Rabbit.Leaps and Nedra. First comparing trans women to rapists, then there seems to be a save-our-asses post. Quaint, really. Filthy and quaint and horribly, horribly foul, and very unsurprising, especially considering the posters.

Nedra – If we fight, we might hurt ourselves. If we don’t fight, we wanted it.

Rabbit.Leaps – heh…. read that again. sounds like the delema of a womon being raped.

Nedra – Rape is the extreme magnification of that same mode of thinking. It’s not rape. But it’s still a violation. And it still triggers shit we shouldn’t have to experience on the Land. The lack of understanding of that only futher repels me from the transwomen who do attend — *actively*, *knowingly* against the intended boundaries.

Ps – AmazonTrader goes on in the second page about how much handier she is than Brenda. Apparently she’s so good she can open her wristband perfectly with a buck knife, one handed, by herself, with no damage! Most people don’t throw a mini-fit about a trans woman including herself in on bracelet removing skillz.  Reminds me of Heart and her almost amusing claim that she ~so~ isn’t transphobic, Oh NO Dear! Now get away from me, you have cooties!

Since the most vocal of the insulters of trans people seem to live on assumptions concerning our genitals and sexual activity, I do believe I sense an awfully large smear of shi- oops, ‘fundamentalism’ staining their person. In that vein, this song is dedicated to you, my dear reactionary, bigoted internet neighbors. Enjoy with my blessing, and keep an ear out for the end.

‘Assumption’ by The Arrogant Worms

-Edited, my horrid eyesight mistook AmazonTrader for Heart with the apparent cooties about the knife skillz. Edited to correct.