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            Ending the Boycott and Strengthening Michfest
               Some Steps to Peace and Reconciliation

                            Cover Letter to
            Lisa Vogel, Kate Kendell, and Emily Dievendorf

                           by Margo Schulter
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                                    Margo Schulter
                                    5901 Newman Court #35
                                    Sacramento, CA 95819-2618
                                    mschulter at calweb dot com
                                    23 September 2014


Lisa Vogel, Michigan Womyn's Music Festival
Kate Kendell, National Center for Lesbian Rights
Emily Dievendorf, Equality Michigan

Dear Lisa, Kate, and Emily,

Please let me express my appreciation as a Lesbian feminist by saying
that in moving toward a Michfest 40 next August warmly welcoming and
valuing all womyn including trans womyn such as myself, you are each
contributing immensely to this victory for Lesbian, trans, womyn's,
and more generally human rights.

With Michfest, I believe that the key to ending the boycott and
bringing our communities together is a confirmation that the August 18
statement ("We Have a Few Demands of Our Own") indeed means that all
womyn including trans womyn are welcome and valued attendees at Fest,
and that the "WBW-only intention" is now clearly understood to define
the "focus" of Festival rather than an exclusive guest list.

Above all, it is a question in practice of a welcoming and sisterly
rather than hostile environment, and a positive commitment to the
education, negotiating, and planning needed to make that atmosphere of
welcome and hospitality for all womyn a reality next August.

Finally, it bears emphasis that in supporting the inclusion of Lesbian
trans womyn (and some of us are feminists coming from the same Second
Wave tradition as Festival itself), all three of you are meeting your
leadership responsibilities to address the needs of all Lesbians, and
to heal problems of transsexual exclusion within our Lesbian community
that go back a full 40 years. Thank you for your diligence in this
critical advocacy.

In the longer letter that follows, a kind of commentary, I celebrate
the unique tradition of the Michfest community, which deserves respect
on the part of us all. On this basis, I suggest ten steps for our
communities to take cooperatively as we move toward an end to the
boycott, and a landmark Michfest 40 fulfilling the ideals of intention
and inclusion as set forth in the August 18 statement.

May we all, in the process, gain a deeper sense of concord that comes
from understanding and embracing more fully the diversity that is to
be found within the Fest, Lesbian, and LGBTIQA communities alike.

In love and sisterhood,

Margo Schulter
mschulter at calweb dot com