Scroll down for screenshots of the full Twitter conversation.

On May 28 I started a conversation on Twitter with THEESatisfaction, musicians of whom I've been a fan for a bit, about their upcoming performance at the Allied Media Conference, which I've been deeply involved in since I first attended in 2011.

I wrote in response to their tweet about their upcoming performance at the AMC, a space which to me has long worked to be a safer space to trans women, other trans and gender non-conforming folks. This community ethos was especially visible in 2014, when the AMC was the site of the first International Trans Women of Color Network Gathering , a beautiful, groundbreaking and vital part of last year's conference. Because of that, I felt it was important to ask THEESatisfaction about their participation in a transphobic and specifically transmisogynist institution despite a boycott called by trans women and their allies. I recently learned that THEESatisfaction played at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in 2013. The festival has had a longstanding practice of excluding trans women from participation as performers or attendees. In response, boycotts and other protests of the festival and its policies have been happening since 1992. In 2013, a widely publicized petition was circulated asking the Indigo Girls and other MWMF performers that year, including THEESatisfaction, to boycott the festival until trans women were fully included. Below are screenshots of the rest of the conversation. The tweets that came from me and Jessie, another AMC participant, are still available on Twitter; THEESatisfaction have deleted all of their tweets and quickly blocked Jessie and I, cutting off further dialogue. To date, THEESatisfaction has made no further statements with regards to their performance at MWMF, transmisogyny, or how it relates to their performance at the AMC. AMC organizers have been aware of the situation since May 30 at the latest. Though they have engaged in conversation with myself and others about the topic, they have also made no public statements about this situation. THEESatisfaction is still set to perform on Saturday night. thee_screenshot_1thee_screenshot_2Fourth set of screenshots of conversation with THEESatisfaction   The next screenshot should be read in reverse order, from bottom (earliest) to top (latest.) Finally, a tweet from the personal account of one of the members of THEESatisfaction, which has since been made private. thee_screenshot_5 EDITED TO ADD: I shared this on Facebook on June 20, 2015:

Trans women & allies met tonight to discuss the situation & possible responses. For a variety of reasons, including exhaustion, illness and a meeting earlier with Cat from THEESatisfaction, we have decided not to do an action at tonight's show. We hope that Cat makes a statement from the stage as she said she would during our conversation. As a community we will be following up with AMP and AMC organizers about the problems with how they handled this situation and next steps to address these problems going forward, including how performers are selected and held accountable in the future.

The Allied Media Projects' staff and board later posted this statement on their site, addressing this situation and others that occurred during the 2015 Allied Media Conference. Cat of THEESatisfaction made a statement from the stage in support of trans women, accompanied by tweets that promised further response. Those tweets were eventually deleted, and no written response was posted on the THEESatisfaction website.

 

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