Michigan law enforcement officials are currently investigating a complaint filed by the anti-gay American Family Association involving the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.
Citing the pending investigation, state police would only say that the complaint was filed and that a report would likely be forwarded to prosecutors in the coming weeks.
This year’s festival was marked by talk of conservative spies-;right-wing women from the International Organization of Heterosexual Rights who pledged to infiltrate the festival and document alleged abuses.
After last year’s festival, the American Family Association and the Heterosexual Rights group forwarded a report to Michigan authorities alleging that sexual activity routinely takes place in front of children at the festival. The report cited anonymous postings to the festival’s Web site and comments made by festival attendees in media reports. No victims have come forward to substantiate the allegations.
In a Washington Post article earlier this month, local authorities were dismissive of the AFA’s charges.
“We get all these allegations of wild and crazy things going on,” State Police 1st Lt. David Roesler told the Post, “but we didn’t have anyone coming forward. We can’t work on anonymous allegations.”
However, a fellow lieutenant told Windy City Times this week that “we are looking into all those allegations.”
Gary Glenn, head of the AFA’s Michigan affiliate, said that his organization has not made any new allegations stemming from this year’s festival.
Glenn said that the Michigan attorney general’s office assured him last year that it would be on “high alert” for the kind of activity that he alleged. Just before this year’s event, though, the attorney general backed off from that claim.
In the wake of the debacle, attendees this year speculated that several changes this year were prompted by the AFA charges.
“One of the sexuality workshops, it was like totally censored and we had to like sign this piece of paper in case someone went around and misrepresented the workshop,” one participant told Detroit’s Between the Lines newspaper. “In any community there are going to be people that talk against it. But just because someone is raising a stink about something doesn’t mean that things need to change.”
One volunteer from the girl’s camp also told the paper that finding volunteers to work with the children was harder this year.
Festival organizers could not be reached by presstime.
Between The Lines also reports that Gary Glenn has a history of ignoring IRS filing requirements that disclose his income, annual budget and donors. Also, while “waging war” on Michigan’s gay community, he has started a statewide independent political action committee and founded a national “soft money” organization which claims to have raised more than $2.5 million for “issue ads” during the 2000 primaries. BTL also reports that the AFA has reportedly lost its Michigan charitable license.