next gen festies

S'Niyah, a member of the Land/Festie community has recently made serious allegations against WWTLC and event producers on the Land in Michigan. She claims that she was removed from the Land and "banned" for "the crime of being and advocating for trans womyns right to be included in any space for womyn/females." She claims that WWTLC has spread a "false narrative" as to why she was removed from the Land. We, a group of young festies who have been active, enthusiastic members of the fest community for at least a few years each, would like to clear up the misinformation that has been spread about this situation. 

We are the ones who approached the WWTLC Board about the behavior of three womyn, including but not especially S'Niyah, and her trans identity was never once a point of discussion or a factor in our request for her removal from the Land. (In fact, none of us knew she was a trans womon until after she had been asked to leave the Land, and we can prove this if necessary.) Many of us have known her and considered her our friend ever since she began attending festivals on the Land. Her views on trans inclusion were known to most of us, and her right to express them accepted, as was her belonging amongst us. During fest, we are always aware that we will meet womyn who hold different opinions and who have had different life experiences. We made a point to respect this womon's views and expected the same from her. 

In the afternoon of 7/25/26, a few of us spoke to the Board and presented our concerns about a series of statements made by S'Niyah and two members of crew with whom she associates. These statements were made at a different festival (not on the Land) several weeks prior, and at BMG that week. One concerning statement by S'Niyah was encountered online, by chance, months before festival. A screenshot was taken and sent to the event producers before fest began, but neither the young womon who sent it nor (evidently) the event producers felt the comment alone was grounds to revoke her event tickets -- the young womyn who knew of the comment hoped we were simply mistaken about its tone and context, and that talking to S'Niyah in person on the Land would clear things up. 

The concerning verbal statements made on the Land the week of BMG by the three aforementioned womyn had been overheard and corroborated by several separate womyn. As stated on Facebook by the WWTLC board of directors regarding this event, S'Niyah, along with the two other womyn, were loudly plotting to "expose" and harass other festival attendees for holding radical feminist or abolitionist beliefs about gender and expressing a need for female-specific spaces like BMG. 

The overheard quotes from the three individuals, most of which we submitted to the Board at their request for proof, include (but are not limited to):

Mentioning that they can find some "terfs" on social media. Verbal identification of a womon they considered a "terf," connecting her Land name to her Facebook profile

Declaration of intent to circumvent the female-specific intention of BMG.  "We are outnumbered but not beaten” and "we are the future of BMG", calling for “Lesbian Day of Accountability” (as opposed to Lesbian Day of Visibility) in reference to the Board 

“It’s all terfs out there”, “the large majority of them are terfs”, "they aren't smart" (referring to the rest of the festival outside their camp), "I basically have a degree in terfs" (said by S'Niyah when talking about her degree), "RISE is where the real terfs are" (discussing the upcoming week of festival)

Statement from one witness: "On Thursday of BMG (July 23, 2026) at approximately 7pm, one woman came to the Loud & Rowdy area and witnessed/passively participated in a conversation between four women, including three crew members. In this conversation, S'Niyah mentioned having applied to the WWTLC board and then withdrawing the application due to 'not wanting to contribute to the institution of transphobia'. One of the other parties encouraged her to reapply in order to 'counterbalance' a specific existing board member. The parties then talked back and forth about how if they were able to get on the board, and then get more members of their political alignment/friend group on the board, they would be able to pull sway in order to make BMG male-inclusive. Towards the end of the conversation, S'Niyah seemed to be leaning towards wanting to reapply to the board in order to push measures that go against the mission statement of BMG. S'Niyah angrily discussed the presence of 'transphobia' by lesbians on the land, and a desire to remove these women she politically disagrees with from the festival."

During our meeting with the Board, we also discussed our concerns about the practices of consent and age verification at the Loud & Rowdy fire/"The Zone", but these concerns were not linked specifically to S'Niyah. As for why S'Niyah was the only one removed from the Land (where the other two womyn involved were not): the WWTLC Board was doing their due diligence and would not act without concrete evidence that what we were saying was true. They requested documentation of these threats in the form of screenshots -- which was impossible to provide, as the statements had been entirely verbal, with the exception of the single screenshotted internet comment made by S'Niyah. The womyn who escorted S'Niyah out did not show her the screenshotted comment, because the womon who submitted it to producers prior to the festival was afraid of being doxxed in retaliation (in accordance with the threats of that nature overheard that week). Therefore, on 7/28/26, around 1:30 PM, S'Niyah was asked to leave by the producers of RISE and refunded the cost of her ticket, on grounds of threats to "expose" and harass other attendees. Again, we must stress that we, the concerned young festies who approached the Board, had no idea S'Niyah was trans when we approached the Board with our concerns about the three womyn making these statements. We first learned this information on 7/28/26, around 2pm -- after the removal.

The text of the TikTok comment by S'Niyah:

"As a young person (22) whos been very involved with those communities and spaces as Ive explored different lesbian subcultures, The way transphobia and, even moreso trans misogony [sic] is done in these spaces can get very intricate and if u arent super prevy [sic] to trans misogony specifically, a lot of it can go unnoticed as they cloak their prejudice in a lot of AGAB language and gender/sex technicalities as to why trans women arent equal to cis women. As another commenter said, its definitely a pipeline that many ppl WITHIN the trans community can and have been drawn down as they market themselves as 'AFAB only space' or 'lgbt womens groups' that vet out trans women. A lot of enbies and trans men become trans misogonistic [sic] in these spaces and can even be terfs themselves."

The video this comment was made in reply to was a vitriolic call for information about how to expose "how terfs operate". That video has received over 76,000 views. Minus the liberties taken by S'Niyah about the intent and purpose of our female-specific community gatherings on the Land, her comment roughly describes how private, female-specific events are organized.  Combining her comment with the statements overheard and corroborated by multiple womyn, it seems S'Niyah views the female-specific festivals she attends (which do welcome AFAB trans people) as inherently "trans exclusionary" or "terfy". Therefore, her TikTok comment can only be read as an offering of insider info to assist the poster in her mission of "exposing TERFs". Ironically, S'Niyah could not have obtained that info without first having been welcomed into our community as one of our own. Each of the three womyn making threats to expose and overthrow benefitted from the generosity of our community in the form of scholarships, sponsored tickets, transportation, and more.

We are saddened to learn that someone we considered a friend was amongst us with the intention of gathering sensitive information and causing harm to any she disagreed with or personally disliked. The power imbalance inherent to this scenario is why our statement must be kept anonymous, and why proof or names of the concerned could not be provided upon her removal: many of us are afraid. Several of us have previously been the victims of targeted doxxing and harassment campaigns (experiencing everything from economic hardship to retaliatory sexual assault as a result). S'Niyah knows these histories, because we come to female-specific festivals on the Land to speak openly and seek support for sex-based violence, and she has sat with us taking notes as we sought solace in each other. We are devastated that our trust and friendship has been repaid with unfounded and dangerous claims of trans exclusion and hate. Additionally, we believe any claim by any party that her removal from the Land was in retaliation for past complaints against the Board to be entirely unfounded -- at every point of contact, and despite our growing frustration and fear, the Board emphasized that they did not wish to and could not remove anyone from the Land without completely solid evidence of the intent to harm, and in the end, the decision to remove S'Niyah was made by an event producer unaffiliated with the Board and in response to the concerns over intent to doxx and harass attendees.

We hope this statement will bring clarity and light to this situation, and we wish it had never been necessary in the first place.

Sincerely and in sisterhood,

Concerned Young Festies