Unity, Diversity, and the PatheaCon Fail

Last year at PantheaCon a big light was shown on the issue of diversity in the Pagan community, specifically gender acceptance and diversity, thanks to a ritual that was held during the conference.  The ritual was a Dianic women only ritual which seemed to be missing one caveat.  By "woman" that means you had to be born a woman, not a trans-woman regardless of where in your transition you might be.  Transgender attendees were turned away at the door because, quite plainly, they weren't "woman enough."  The uproar this caused sent a ripple through PCon and the call was made to address these issues of diversity, unity, and acceptance.  So this year the theme for PCon was declared "Unity in Diversity".   And for the most part the Pagan community seemed to be excited to see where this might take us next.  That was until people started to see the program for this year's event and saw the description of Sunday night's ritual that Z. Budapest was holding this year:Did you catch that?  Genetic women only.  Once again her ritual is exclusive to women only, but this time it's even more clear what kind of women will be welcome; only those who were born women are welcome to be honored as Goddess and as woman in her ritual.  This is the PantheaCon Fail.Why is it a fail?  How can you purport "Unity in Diversity" and yet support public rituals that are exclusive at your public event?   Why accept the proposal for a ritual that is going to knowingly exclude people at an event where diversity is part of the focus?  Is it just because it's Z. Budapest?  That can be my only assumption.Now, let's break this apart for a second.  I am a woman.  I was born female.  I am all for women only space and women only ritual.  I am also all for men only ritual space.  Hell, I'd be all for transgender only space if it was desired.  Why?  Because we all have our own Mysteries related to gender and gender identity to explore and we have the right to explore those things and honor them in private space.  But this is something that should be done in private space, not at a public event.Z. Budapest can hold all the Dianic cis-woman events she wants and it wouldn't matter to me in the slightest.  She has every right to do that and given that her line of the Dianic tradition calls for women only space, that's fine.  But this is something that should be done in her own time, in her own space.  Exclusive rituals like this truly have no place in the public realm.  It makes those that do not fit the bill feel less than and left out.  And in the case of trans-women in the Pagan community who want to be able to ritually honor their femininity and their Goddess-self, to not allow them into such a right only creates more divides in the community.I understand there are other issues at play here too.  It's a skyclad ritual at a public event and safety may be on the minds of some people.  Why might that be?  Well clearly based on a blog post from Z. herself a few days ago just before going to PCon she seems to view all men as a danger to all women and that this is apparently just in their nature, specifically in their brains, by the very fact that they are male.Z. talks most specifically about a very unfortunate incident that happend at Yale University in the fall of 2010.  A group of initiates to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity marched in front of a freshman women's dorm and chanted "No means yes, yes means anal."  The problem with the blog post that Z. made is, as she sometimes does, she took the event somewhat out of context and didn't explain the whole situation.  It was part of hazing/initiation with the frat, not that this in any way excuses what happened, but unlike how she portays it it wasn't an act to try and assert dominance and place fear in the hearts and minds of the women on campus.  She also fails to mention that after the event happened the school banned the fraternity from campus use, activity, or recruiting for five years.  DKE is a well known and well established frat at Yale best known for being the frat that George W. Bush belonged to.  This event wasn't a random assembly of men on campus to express hate toward women on campus.But the best part is how she explains her views that this act by these men demonstrated that they are all, in fact, closeted homosexuals who were mentally having sex with one another by joining in this chanting march together.  She specifically points to their use of the word "anal" and asserts that anal sex is a homosexual act and since all these men were together thinking about anal sex at the same time they were truly thinking about anal sex with one another.  Really?  I mean...really?Z. Budapest has some ideas about feminism and spirituality that are hard to deny are becoming antiquated in today's world view, especially in the Pagan community.  I think that Pagans want to see equality for all in the community (and, for the most part, in general society) whereas it seems Z. is still fighting the feminist fight of the 60s that seems to attempt to raise women above men.  And in my opinion it often looks as though in order to achieve this women first need to be put down, things twisted to seem more damaging than they might truly be, in order to provide a platform for the women to "rise above their male oppressors" as it were.Needless to say, I don't agree with Z. Budapest and her views.  I never have.  But don't let that be mistaken with the fact that I do have respect for her for what she has done in the past with regard to bringing Goddess spirituality to a higher place and for the work she did to reverse laws against psychics in the 70s.  But in the case of the PantheaCon situation I don't feel a ritual like her's belongs there.  It is exclusive, designed to single out those that don't fit a certain mold, and creates a rift in the community in more ways than one.  But, let me be clear in saying I do not hold Z. Budapest to blame for that!  That is her tradition and it is her right.  The fault lays in the hands of PCon for allowing this ritual and these hurts of last year to be brought back up in a year when "Unity in Diversity" is supposed to be the theme.David Salisbury of Capital Witch wrote on his personal blog calling for a boycott of PCon until rituals and events that intentionally exclude others are eliminated from the conference agenda.  Maybe Z. Budapest shouldn't be holding rituals at PCon and should just do workshops.  Maybe her time with PCon has passed.  It's not for me to say, but what I will say is that I agree with David.  The organizers of PCon sent a clear message to the community with this.  Who you are means more than who you impact with what you do.  And we need to let them know that's not acceptable.