photo by Crystal Blanton
On Wednesday, June 20, 2012, Pagan Spirit Gathering hosted ”A Dianic Women’s Ritual for the summer solstice” specifically for “women who bleed, will bleed or have bled our sacred bloods”, bringing up issues previously discussed at Pagan events around transgendered inclusion in gender specific rituals.
Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG) is one of the largest and longest running Pagan festivals in the United States. Centered in the Mid-West, this festival has been known for its focus on community and rites of passage throughout its time. Rev. Selena Fox and Circle Sanctury are known for putting on a festival full of a variety of rites and opportunities for the community to experience.
This year the festival participants experienced their own version of this ongoing controversy that have been happening at Pagan festivals around the struggle for transgender inclusion in rituals versus the stance of Cis-gendered rituals at Pagan festivals. The past two years at Pantheacon we have seen this same conversation play out in live action among the festival participants, resulting in the silent meditation that happened outside of a “women born women” ritual to stand against hate speech.
The experience at Pagan Spirit Gathering appeared to take a different tone, one that Selena Fox referred to as an “experiment in cooperation”. During the press conference at PSG, Selena Fox referred to the idea that there did not have to be a decision made to exclude one type of ritual or another but to co-exist in cooperation with all sides.
Melissa Murry, a transgender woman, read a letter in the PSG morning meeting after the previous night’s woman’s ritual, expressing her pain from being excluded from the rite.
“Sisters, Brothers, Tribe,
Today I rise as a woman and ask you to bear
witness to my pain. As a tribe any wound, is
inflicted on all of us. My pain today is caused
by my exclusion from the main woman’s
ritual; it flows from an event occurring in the
very community where we all expect to find
acceptance, love and understanding.
Yesterday I stood invisible, excluded and in
tears as a result of this exclusion.
Today I do not seek easy answers, there
are none, I do not seek protest or debate,
only the acceptance of my community and
acknowledgement of my pain.
Today I ask you to understand that as a
trans woman, I stand within the ocean of
love that is PSG: My only call to my sisters
and brothers is to be included in what we all
enjoy as a community: acceptance, love, and
understanding.”
Numerous discussions, support and outlets were opened immediately after the morning meeting. There were moments of seeing Ruth Barrett, a Dianic High Priestess, in deep discussion with Murry. Barrett and Murry presented, in a later morning meeting to the PSG community, an intent of possitive discussions and cooperation. This presentation to the PSG community was applauded by the audience and Murray and Barrett stood hand in hand as a sign of mutual respect.
Photo by Crystal Blanton
Pagan Spirit Gathering made an announcement that a official meeting with Pagan media would take place after Saturday’s morning meeting to discuss the direction that the community of PSG wishes to go.
The two hour press conference included agreements from both Barrett and Murry to support the rites of one another and to help the process of creating transgendered mysteries for the future of PSG events. Murry volunteered to stand guard for the blood mysteries rites and Barrett said the same about the transgendered mystery rites. Upon Murray’s statement of the importance of the blood mysteries, Ruth Barrett showed tears and intense emotion that illustrated the layers of pain that this conflict have tapped and the sheer importance that this issue has for all parties. It was a genuine face to the issue that has not always been displayed in other leaders.
Photo by Crystal Blanton
Pagan Spirit Gathering made a commitment to review policies in support of the spirit of cooperation and respect. Melissa Murry made a commitment to explore the development of transgendered rites for Pagan Spirit Gathering and Ruth Barrett committed to support Murray in the process. The conference ended in hugs and tears, showing an investment in the outcome.
What Murry, Barrett, Selena Fox and the PSG community have done for the collective Pagan community on this issue is still to be seen but the PSG community appeared to benefit from the tone that was set at this year’s festival. Regardless of how incidents like this will affect the upcoming festivals approach, the humanizing of this issue that Murry did for the transgender community and Barrett did for the blood mysteries community showed real people behind the debates and arguments.
Photo by Crystal Blanton
Crystal Blanton reporting for Pagan Newswire Collective Bay Area
This is what I was hoping to see! I love that there is understanding and I love that this article is fact based.
The issue that I can see with this is that not everyone that falls under the transgender umbrella should be segregated from a women only ritual, the article raises for me the question of intersex females like myself. I have discussed this in a group before but am willing to do so again. I myself was born intersex, meaning that I was born with both male and female genitals and secondary characteristics, I had surgery when I was a child that has now since been corrected and I now live my life as a normal female, however there are certain genetic differences between myself and a cisgender female. Should I be told I cannot be a part of such rituals? I bleed but I would hardly call my menstruation normal due to the anatomical differences between myself and a female that was not born with my complications. What I am getting at is that being intersex means that I fall under the transgender umbrella, the gender binary is not so clear cut as one might imagine. If some transgender people and not others are to be allowed to participate the question arises of how such allowances are to be policed and the larger question of if should they be policed at all? Does this mean that there are percentages of womanhood? even outside of the transgender question, women who were born without functioning wombs, who may have no possible way of having a menstrual cycle and who are unable to give birth and experience the inherent pains and so called mysteries of what is considered “normal’ womanhood are still very much female, should these women be segregated from a Dianic Ritual such as this? is a woman a person who can prove they have an (F) on their drivers license? you see what we need in order to make things fair is to agree on the criteria of what a woman is and it seems that there is much disagreement about what exactly that is and what it means to be female. One point to remember is that there is almost as much natural diversity in each of our gender groups as there are between the different races of people. In this text I am trying to illuminate some of the points that should possibly be taken into consideration when discussing what seems to be a very hot topic at the moment. If anyone would like to discuss this further with me I would be more than happy to do so and can be contacted at Emma_L_Eggleton@me.com. Thank you for your time.
I sent you an email Emma. I look forward to connecting with you! And thank you Crystal for the wonderful article! Blessings to you and your beautiful family!!!!
[...] covering PSG and Melissa Murry’s story. You can read the coverage here and here and here and here and here. I recommend you read through all of it. Having several PNC members participating [...]
Ah, the Plessy v. Ferguson solution!
“Separate but equal.”
That always works out SO well.
Meanwhile, the same logic is being used to defend this:
“Christian Identity Ministries & William Collier Defend Whites Only Pastors Conference”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/racist-whites-only-christian-pastors-conference-sparks-outrage/
“The Rev. William Collier, the apparent organizer, doubled down on the “whites only” event, saying, according to WBRC-TV, ‘We don’t have the facilities to accommodate other people.’ But his commentary went well beyond that. ‘We haven’t got any invitations to black Muslim events. Of course, we are not invited to Jewish events and stuff,’ he added.”
The festivities include the ever popular “Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony.” (No kidding.)
That’s some great company you’ve decided to keep, Dianics. Stay classy.