Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / Sept. 30, 2000, edition 1 / Page 23
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e-play Out of context by Rachel Gold Special to Q-Notes Because we can visit a web sice in our paja mas and have a “discussion” with other people, we tend to treat those, interactions like spoken conversations. The difference is chat when you stop speaking, that conversation disappears. An online discussion sticks around. Organizers and participants of the Michi gan Womyn’s Music Festival found this out the hard way in mid-September when a radical right-wing organization took a series of discus sion posts out of context to involve a state sena tor and law enforcement officials in a search for “child abuse” at the event. The Music Festival’s online discussion fo rum went offline for about two weeks in early September as the organization was attacked for allegedly allowing children to witness sex acts between women at the event. Festival organizer Lisa Vogel explained to discussion participants that the board went down because of “a campaign of misinforma tion and harassment directed at the Festival hy Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFT) and the American Family Association of Michigan. Much of this began when a freelance reporter affiliated with AFT con structed a false and sensational portrait of the Festival by selectively quoting shreds of [bulle tin board] comments out of context.” AFT (wvw.americansfortruth.org) posted the story on August 31, charging “Radical les bian festival featured homosexual acts per is a formed in front of children.” “Performed funny word to use in the context of an artistic festival where many talented women took the stage. The “acts” described by AFT, on the other hand, include nudity, sexual acts that young people may have overheard or witnessed, and some very frank workshops. The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (vww.michfest.org) is an annual gathering held in August where women, mostly lesbian, camp out in the woods for a week, fend off bugs, listen to music, attend workshops and wear whatever they want or nothing at all. (This gives way to exemplary fash- ion statements such as the women who wear only boots, a fanny pack and a hat; one rea son you don’t see les bian fashion designers.) Dozens of work shops span topics from politics to art. The mu- sic plays from morning to night on different stages and includes some recognizable names from folk to punk performers. Women can shop for jewelry, clothes and lesbocentric knick- knacks. A few hundred women bring their children, who have a separate campground with three facilities for different age groups. Children can also wander the larger camp (unless they’re male and over the age of five). During my experience at the womyn’s mu sic fest — where I took off my shoes and got stared at for walking barefoot in the woods while the bare-breasted women got not a blink — I saw no sex at all, overheard no sex (and I m a light sleeper) and didn’t even find a likely in such a way that the relatively small percent age of women who want to participate in or watch “sex acts” can be easily avoided by any one who isn’t out to find them. Granted, a few of the workshops on sexual ity are wild. It’s important to remember that the Festival is held on private lands and that it takes some effort, and money, to get there. The women and children there are taking a vaca tion and choosing whether or not to bring their families. The hollow accusation that gays dis proportionately abuse or molest children has been long and loudly touted by the right wing. It comes in second only In the world of email, it’s easy to misunderstand someone’s meaning. to the notion that we indoctrinate youth into our “lifestyle.” The dis cussion of children at the festival provided one more opportunity to trot out one of the last remaining scare tac tics of the right. According to Felicia Park-Rogers, the execu tive director for Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (www.colage.org), “Of the dozens and dozens of peer-reviewed, social science stud ies done on lesbian patents, none of them show that lesbian mothers are any more likely than heterosexual parents to abuse their children. In fact if anything, perhaps due to extra scrutiny, there is far less [abuse].” Park-Rogers is also the daughter of a gay father and lesbian mother. She points out that most children of gays and lesbians turn out to be heterosexual. In fact, many gay and lesbian parents want their children to be heterosexual so they won’t have to face the kind of discrimi nation they have faced in their own lives. dating prospect. The campground is sectioned “I think the majority of lesbian mothers Q-Notes ▼ September 30, 2000 ▼ PAGE 23 want their children to be happy and to be free,” she said. “Like any parent, they have concerns that if their children come out, they may face extra discrimination, similar to what they have experienced.” She added that having spoken to the women who run the childcare programs at the Festival, “They’re places that are highly protected. They’re run by professionals. They are really unique opportunities for kids who come from similar backgrounds to gather in a supportive environment.” The Music Festival participants having the discussion about children at the event were cre ating a responsible conversation expressing a variety of needs in the planning of the event. You’d never know that from AFT’s campaign of deliberate misinformation, but that’s the danger of conversation on the Internet — it’s very easy to take it out of context. Many corporations have already discovered the potential of discussion boards to pass mis information, or accurate but unfavorable in formation, and have required employees to re frain from negative posts about the company they work for. In addition, we’ve slowly been learning that in the world of email and discussion groups it’s easy to misunderstand someone’s meaning with out the help of body language and vocal inflec tion. We have to work a little harder for accu racy in this new medium and resist jumping to conclusions. According to Vogel, the Festival won’t pur- • sue legal action against its attackers because it “risks giving this campaign legitimacy.” She added, “As we start the bulletin board up again, please remember that this is an Internet bulle tin board and that anyone has access to it. 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