SEPTEMBER 2, 1994. GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

SPEAK OUT

Tribe 8's experience as this year's Michigan 'Issue'

by Debra Shepherd

Walk onto the Land at the Michigan Women's Music Festival and you see laughing, bare-breasted women roaming freely. You are swept through orientation, you sign up for two 2-hour workshifts, and you are presented with your Festival manual.

An 84-page compendium of the schedules, services, and most importantly, ethics of the Land, the manual conveys the ideal needed to function here—a high level of awareness for those around us. The Festival strives to preserve a uniquely all-woman environment that nurtures us and leaves us restored for the next year. And it does.

Nowhere is there energy quite like this grandma of the women's music festivals. It is more than an event, it is an exponential transformer that blends the energy of 6,000 women, raises it to an extraordinary level by its own sheer magnitude, and then puts it out for us all to share. The festival is the yardstick by which some women measure their own personal growth and transformations.

There's only one hitch in all this. Some women don't like to share the energy of certain "other types" of women. Some women feel the energy of the Land is jeopardized by these "other types." However, nestled within the manual section “Guidelines for Living Together" is a page titled "Honoring Our Diversity." From the words on this page, and the ideas it represents, springs forth the flame that each year ignites the Land-the "Issue."

The Issue is not predetermined in the manual, it is spontaneously formed. It is formed from misunderstanding and ignorance, prejudice and fear; because we as women have the same personality defects as all humans. It is also formed by "other types" of women refusing to be denied.

Past Issues have been the treatment of

women of color; S/M women; and transsexual women. This year the Issue rocked the land and no woman was impervious to it. The Issue screamed about rape, screamed about incest, shook its' fist at repressive patriarchy and screamed "Fuck you!"

the ground-no one was dropped-and when I looked up, open hands surrounded us, offering a pull up. There were no injuries. They even provided a special area for women who wanted to attend but felt they needed extra support because of the sensitive issues.

Well, all's well that ends well? Not necessarily. We cannot overlook the fact that members of Tribe 8, some of them rape and incest survivors themselves, were literally shaking

We need to look at how

The Issue was San Francisco's own "alldyke, all-out, in-your-face, blade brandishing, gang-castrating, dildo-swingin', bullshitdetecting, aurally pornographic, Neanderthal-pervert band ofpatriarchy-smashing snatchlickers," as they describe themselves. They were Tribe 8. And they were all of the above.

we treat our sisters. If our community is to be diverse we must learn to truly respect our differences

So what woman could have a problem with such nice girls like these? Well some women, without thoroughly investigating the facts of the situation-such as reading the actual lyrics of the songs-decided the band "promotes violence against women." They stated their sentiments in two ten-foot banners and planted themselves at the entrance to the concert, in an attempt to discourage other women from attending. (Their original plan to "chant out" five punk rocker dykes armed with serious sound equipment met with better reasoning skills). And, with concern for the women who would "inevitably" be injured in the Tribe 8 all-woman mosh pit, they put the Womb (the medical care center) on hyper-alert.

Well, sorry for them, the concert was a rockin' smash and even Alix Dobkin found the mosh pit fit to stage-dive into. I stage-dove holding the sweet hand of my 14-year-old daughter and found the pit to be a virtual "womb" itself. The women, after passing us around the pit above their heads, lowered us to

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on stage after passing through the picket area and seeing themselves accused of promoting violence against women.

One Tribe 8 member, identifying herself as an incest survivor, approached a protesting woman to open dialogue. She was met with a grim, icy stare. Tribe 8 held a workshop the next day, specifically to process the issue with these women who protested. Although over two hundred women sat in on the 21⁄2-hour session, and worked towards an understanding, none of the women who actually held those signs showed up.

We need to look at how we treat our sisters. If our community is to be diverse we must leam to truly respect our differences. We need to credit, trust and respect the sisters who do differ. Time and again, women of our community have behaved abusively towards sisters they disagree with. In years past, S/M dykes and transgendered women have been emo-

tionally, verbally, and physically abused on the land by sisters who disagreed with their politics and behavior. If we are not able to act responsibly towards our own, how can we question younger women who are disillusioned when they witness that our politics do not meet with our behavior?

The beauty of the Issue is that it comes back with us to our individual communities, gets processed in amongst ourselves and through the pages of our publications, and returns with us the next year a little more resolved. Women of color have spoken their needs and white women have tried to listen. S/M dykes now camp on the land with minimal harassment and most non-S/M women have some understanding of them. The transgendered community had to again set up camp outside the gates, but their Issue is still alive amongst us and we are coming to terms with it.

This is how our community really grows and changes-through open dialogue, investigation, questioning and thought. And most importantly, it comes through learning to trust our own sisters, listening to their stories, and accepting their realities as valid. We do not make strides when we scream at, threaten, or harass our sisters. That is the acid that eats us apart and disillusions newcomers.

If you still have a hard time understanding this, take time next year to chat with the Pussy Posse, a group of teen-aged girls who hung with lesbians, transgendered women, S/M dykes, Tribe 8, and freely roamed the Land. Their youthful, clear insight is refreshing and hopeful.

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