Land Project Invites Women

The Land Project is presently a group of fourteen women, some of whom came together initially in June, 1975 with the goal of owning land in the country. The membership has gone through changes since then and many more goals have been added. In June,

1979 we accomplished our first goal of buying land in the country.

We presently own 20 acres of land in Northwest

LETTERS

While WSW is to be commended for their recent attempt to come to grips with what is obviously, for them, a difficult and disturbing issue, transexuality, the manner of execution of their abortive effort fills me with anger and distrust.

First of all, I submitted a piece on transexuality with a cover letter of explanation that it was an educational article. You chose to edit my cover letter so that it appeared to be part of the text, so that it appeared to be a letter to the editor instead of an article, and then without my permission or prior consent printed it as such. Your manipulation of my materials submitted in good faith shows a real abrogation of editorial integrity to deal equably with your writers.

Second, when you did print my piece, you saw fit to print a two-page feature article with banner headlines in the same issue, written by a person who had never even talked to, let alone actually met, a transexual. Your decision to play down the experience of the group in question in favor of a view written totally from outside (which, I might add, mentions doctors' views, feminists' views, and the views of "the literature," but not the view of a single transexual) speaks volumes both for your sensitivity to other oppressed groups and the degree to which you have learned from your own oppression.

Third, both Linda Jane and Mary Walsh, whom I took the time to talk to afterwards, defended Linda's piece on the ground that it "only intended to give the medical point of view," and therefore the views and feelings of the group in question were irrelevant. This is breath-taking in its consciousness! I don't even feel bound to comment on it. May I suggest, though, that you print a feature article on lesbians. Have it written by a straight womyn who has never met or talked to a real live lesbian. Research it without any lesbian input, but rely heavily on what our beloved textbooks have to say about lesbians. Finally, do it solely from the perspective of our long-time friends, the psychiatrists, and womyn's long-time supporters, the medical profession. Do not quote, interview, or have it reviewed by a single lesbian. And then see what kind of reaction it gets from the Cleveland Heights lesbian community when you tell them you were "only being objective" and "just reporting the medical

Page 2/What She Wants/May, 1980

Pennsylvania (somewhat near Pymatuning Lake). It has an unfinished but livable house, a barn, pond, meadow and woods.

We have heard that there is interest in the women's community in seeing our land and we are interested in sharing the land with other women. In order to do this, we'd like to have three open weekends this summer. The dates we chose were the weekends of June 28, July 26 and September 13. Plans are to leave Cleveland Saturday morning and return Sunday evening. We would provide food, a sleeping space and transportation for a fee of $13.00. There would be structured and free time. We want to limit the number of women on each weekend to 15, feeling that's about all the land (space) could handle. We do not want alcohol, drugs or pets brought to the land and there will be no smoking indoors.

The farm is a 21⁄2 hour drive from Cleveland. We will all have to go together in order to find it. There is plumbing, electricity and a phone. Due to the number of women there would not be showers available (we get our water from a spring which could go dry). Registration deadline is the first of June, Ju-. ly, and September, respectively. Participation is on a first come, first serve basis.

The first weekend will be for adult women only. If there is enough response from mothers with children

point of view" of their lives. And call me when your fire insurance expires.

For that matter, have a key article written about womyn's medical and psychological problems, but have it written by a man who has never met a womyn and who relies only on what he can learn from male doctors and men's textbooks on womyn. How well does that fit the WSW's philosophy?

It is obvious you have learned little from your own much-touted-oppression. You hide your-discomfort with transexuals behind the very doctors you decry for treating womyn's depression with drugs instead of help, behind the very medical profession you castigate for being chronically chauvinistic and oppressive, behind the very textbooks you criticize as invalid because they were written from "the outside." Suddenly, these are all unimpeachable sources when dealing with transexuals. We have all seen enough well-intentioned articles written from a safe distance by sincere liberals who worked from "the literature" and the so-called "experts".

As transexuals, we reject your patronizing attempts to portray us and our situation "objectively," as if you or the medical profession were suddenly "value-free". The fact that you headline your own viewpoint and article in preference to allowing the group in question the right to speak for themselves shows that you are no more interested in transexual liberation than Anita Bryant is interested in liberating gays. You might reply that you were merely interested in informing your readers. Just so; it is highly apparent that you are not interested in us. You are simply presenting one more interesting and titillating phenomenon a la Time Magazine.

As transexuals, we reject your misguided attempts to tell others about us; we will tell them ourselves. If you cannot help us in this, then at least keep silent on the issue. You are unable and unwilling to talk with us, to consult us, to raise your own consciousness a little bit. You are even unwilling to fulfill the simple and obvious journalistic responsibility of face-toface investigation. Your claim to the right of selfdefinition is conveniently hidden under the bureau when it comes to another minority group. You have learned the tactics of your oppressors so well, that it is now second nature. You discard your principles too casually when they do not involve your own oppression; it is shameful, and I am saddened to see it.

In sisterhood, Riki Anne Wilchins

or women who would like to attend a weekend with children, we will make the second open weekend available for this purpose (July). Małe children ages 5-12 and female children over age 5 are welcome. The tentative schedule is as follows:

Saturday morning leave Cleveland Saturday afternoon arrive, tour land, eat

lunch, free time

―

←

Saturday evening dinner and campfire Sunday morningearly breakfast, group work project (move trash, clean barn, garden) Sunday afternoon lunch, free time Sunday evening leave the land

جیے

Registration Form Land Project Open Weekends

Name

Day Phone

Night Phone

Weekend Choice: (june, july, sept) 1. 2. 3..

Can you drive?

How many can you take?

If applicable, do you want to bring your children? Number of children? Ages

Would you come on a weekend with children?

Are you part of a group that would like to come together? If so, how many in the group?

return form to:

Land Project

c/o 2953 Berkshire Road Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118

Help the Help Line

By Wegi Louise

A feminist "Help Line" at WomenSpace is smoothly and quietly serving Cleveland's community of women. WomenSpace is a large, loosely knit coalition of 60 feminist organizations. A year and a half ago, WomenSpace committed herself to direct service and assumed responsibility for the telephone service which had been created and maintained by Cleveland Womens Counsel since 1972.

Women call the Help Line with an incredibly wide range of concerns. We receive calls from desperate women seeking shelter from abusive husbands, women requesting legal assistance for divorce, job, housing and credit discrimination, lesbians new in town seeking connections to community furctions, and confused and stressed women seeking support groups and therapists. When a woman calls, we listen to her concerns, help her organize options, offer several resources matching her stated needs, and give her support to gain control of her life. Our 500-card resource bank lists attorneys, therapists, and medical professionals that we have screened and that women have reported doing excellent work for reasonable fees. In addition, we track services and agencies useful to women, explaining how best to use male bureaucratic agencies.

Our staff consists of 15 volunteers who have taken a 50-hour training course conducted by Wegi Louise and Susan Haas, co-coordinators of the Help Line. HELP! We are in need of response from Cleveland's feminist community in the following three

areas:

1. We are upgrading our medical referrals and are in search of medical professionals you have had "positive" experiences with-gynecologists, family practitioners, and specialists (especially women).

2. Listings of alternative medical or natural healers are being compiled and we need feedback on natural healing services that you may have heard of or experienced.

3. We need women who want to volunteer on the Help Line and help women help themselves! The next training will be in June. Call us at 696-3100 for more information or visit us at 1258 Euclid Avenue.