Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Pantheacon 2012: Here we go again...

After last year's controversy over rites which excluded transgender women, the organizers of Pantheacon learned their lesson and put no more "womyn born womyn" rituals on their calendar.  Unfortunately for us, this only happened in Bizarro World. In our dimension they scheduled a ritual which was not only advertised as "for genetic women only" but which was led by Z Budapest, whose hateful comments about  "transies" were among the low points of last year's argument.

As can be expected, the blogosphere is once again abuzz over the controversy. Thorn Coyle organized a silent protest outside Z Budapest's ritual (more from Thorn here). And Yeshe Rabbit, whose CAYA coven organized last year's ritual, chimed in as well.  But what I found most interesting was a comment from a Dianic who attended Z's ritual, a womyn who posted as "Sierra."
What about our right and women and girls to have our own rituals and space? When every other group can have their own rituals and space that is not challenged, why is it that only women are being attacked for seeking to take care of our own needs rather than the wants of others? This agenda by some transfolk to assert their patriarchal "right of privelege" to go where ever they want, whenever they want and yet to portray themselves as the "victims" of genetic females has gone far enough. Its time that people start questioning the assertions being made by the anti-Dianics and make some effort to listen to what is being said by the Dianics who celebrate women's mysteries. We will not give upour rites and our sacred space.
Z Budapest has a right to hold rituals for "genetic women only" and to refer to transwomen as mutilated men attempting to exercise male privilege. And others within the community have the right to call her on her beliefs.  Exclusion cuts both ways. If we are going to support the Dianic right to exclude transwomen as "mutiliated men," then we must also support the right of other groups to exclude those Dianics as "bigots." You may disagree with either or both parties in this controversy, but you can hardly disagree with anyone's right to free association.

I also find it interesting how the Dianics seem so caught up in the idea of "patriarchal privilege" that they are unable or unwilling to recognize their own privilege.  Is there anyone who would deny that transwomen have less cultural clout than cisgender women, or that they are disproportionally subjected to violence and discrimination? Frankly, all this talk by college-educated middle-class white women about the "privilege" of a marginalized class reminds me of the endless rantings about how "white men suffer more discrimination than anyone else in America thanks to Affirmative Action" or how there is a "secular humanist war against Christianity."

This privileged worldview can be seen in the whimpering about "[giving] up our rites and sacred space." Nobody is denying the Dianics the right to worship as they see fit.  But there's a big difference between acknowledging a group's rite to hold exclusionary rituals and giving them a venue to hold those exclusionary rituals at a public event.  Like the fundamentalists who see the separation of church and state as a direct attack on their faith, the Dianics seem bound and determined to declare that anyone who denies them a venue at any event - regardless of the cost in hurt feelings and marginalization to other attendees - is engaging in a war against Dianics.
Transfolk have their own amazing mysteries and rather than constantly trying to destroy and eliminate Dianic Mysteries, should focus their energies on building their own traditions, mysteries and rituals. They can then invite whomever they want to share their experiences with them. Why has this not happened? You might want to ask yourself this because it may clarify what is really going on. Make an effort to look into the history of the last 10 to 15 years of harrassment of women by some in the trans-community that has led to the elimination of nearly all genetic women's space. Anytime we attempt to gather, we are called bigots and it is said that we are somehow victimizing the trans-folk. We have very few safe spaces left. Space that we need to take care of ourselves physically, emotionally, spiritually. I am not anti-trans. I have no issues with an inclusive community. But I will not be bullied and harassed out of participating in my birthright as a female.
Again, nobody is bullying or harassing her out of "participating in [her] birthright." There is a big difference between a silent protest and a pipe bomb left on someone's doorstep. There's a big difference between saying that PCon will not provide official sanction to "womyn-born-womyn" rituals but will not and cannot stop Dianics from holding these events in their own suite and saying that Dianics are unwelcome to attend PCon as teachers, presenters or even guests. I also note that there used to be an official name for the solution Sierra offers.  Do the words "separate but equal" ring bells with anyone? (We can at least be grateful that she didn't tell us that some of her best friends are trans).

As for a lack of "safe spaces" - this gets back to what I said earlier. Christians are allowed to welcome or to shut out any potential congregants they see fit. They can rail against homosexuals, race mixers, Jewish bankers, secular humanists, Muslims and the like from their own pulpits. Those who find their teachings to be edifying are free to attend their churches. Last I checked, no one was seriously talking about making the practice of Evangelical Christianity illegal: neither is anyone saying that Dianics should not be allowed to practice their faith as they wish and to open their private events to participants of their choice. But like many others who are unwilling to own their own privilege, Sierra seems to mistake the right to freedom of speech and religion with the right to a cheering section.

4 comments:

Fawn said...

No one seems to be mentioning this was a skyclad ritual...so what would happen when the trans-women took off their clothes in front of the genetic-women? What about the women who were in the ritual and on their periods, would it have grossed them out?
All the hateful language being talked about from all sides makes me ashamed of my community, NOT my body or what I did. I did not hear anything of the sort being said from the Dianics' like this...the gossip surrounding this is nauseating. What about the Trans-gender ritual that also took place? Or the men's spirituality workshop? There are many dimensions to this, as there are people, and MINE was nothing but empowering. I prayed for these folks, that they receive the grace of peace from the Goddess in their lives.
Maybe they could have spent that energy protesting the neglect of CHILDREN at this event... I saw kids dragged to restaurants at 1am (under 3 years old), kids throwing up in trash cans whilst their parents continued to be engaged in conversations and were oblivious, babies who were obviously sick with green snot being carted around to listen to very adult conversations. It was extremely embarrassing and disappointing to see so many people who CARED about the transgenders feelings, yet ignored the children's needs.
I don't personally care about someone's gender identity, sexual orientation, or political affiliation in our community; I leave that up to the Christian fundies. Religion IS exclusive, especially any mysteries. I encourage those who felt 'left out' to re-claim their own mysteries and give empowerment to themselves, instead of trying to take from others.

Deborah Castellano said...

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. Everything from start to end of Z.'s ritual makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

But what the hardest thing for me has been is that as a Dianic, I find myself lumped in with Z. Neither myself or my circle has *ever* thought even for a *second* that transwomen are "mutilated men" and "trying to enforce the patriarchy". We welcome transwomen to our circle because we're all women and more over we fully acknowledge the violence against transwomen.

Also not all Dianics are so completely body based (which is a constant refrain right now). Some of our sisters are child-free by choice, some sisters are lesbians (or another part of the QUILTBAG), some are without uteruses. It's not all blood play and umbilical cords for all of us.

Z.'s viewpoint makes me sick at heart and depressed.

CKendrick said...

"What about the women who were in the ritual and on their periods, would it have grossed them out?" Really?
I honestly have kept away from reading about this incident last year and so was unaware of any of the particulars. The comment made by Ms. Budapest was truly sickening. I hear plenty of comments from those outside the Pagan community that are insensitive, ignorant, bigoted ; and they are bad enough, but coming from within our community from one who has been a respected elder, who at one point was a revolutionary figure in her day is past disappointing. Her statement about transwomen was so vile it literally made my stomach hurt. Very very disheartening. It just makes me realize that we can't allow our minds, hearts, and souls to become static.

Tannim said...

After reading this and the fallowing posts I am reminded of a similar event that happened to me back in 89 at my first Starwood. It was a Rape Survivors circle and I was excluded due to the fact that I am male. (As if men can't get raped) I was going to post things here but due to length I posted it on my own blog. if anyone is interested in reading it here is the URL

http://musingsofabornagainwarrior.wordpress.com/

I hope there is not a problem with me doing this. If there is please accept my apologies. Walk in Peace

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