A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian and sapphic community. Dyke marches commonly take place the Friday or Saturday before LGBT pride parades. Larger metropolitan areas usually have several Pride-related happenings (including picnics, workshops, arts festivals, parties, benefits, dances, and bar events) both before and after the march to further community building; with social outreach to specific segments such as older women, women of color, and lesbian parenting groups.
Dyke marches are concentrated in various influential cities across North America. New York City, in which the first officially declared Dyke March was conducted, continues to hold these marches annually throughout its boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Other cities where dyke marches may be found in the United States include: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Long Beach, Minneapolis, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland (Maine), Portland (Oregon), San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC, and West Hollywood. Canadian dyke marches can be found in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. The first Latin American dyke march was held in Mexico City in 2003. In Europe, dyke marches take place in various cities, including Berlin, London, and Stockholm.
History
Before the concept of a "dyke march" came to be, one of the first documented lesbian pride marches in North America took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in May 1981. Approximately 200 lesbians attending the fifth Bi-National Lesbian Conference marched through downtown streets chanting "Look over here, look over there, lesbians are everywhere!"
Later, in October 1981, the now-defunct organization Lesbians Against the Right held a "Dykes in the Streets" march in Toronto, Ontario, with lesbian power, pride, and visibility as the theme. 350 women participated in this demonstration. Another similar demonstration would not be held again in Toronto until 1996.
The first conceptualized and self-proclaimed dyke march was formed in Washington, DC, during the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Organized by the Lesbian Avengers, over 20,000 women participated in the march on April 24, 1993. Due to the successful turnout of this first march, the New York Lesbian Avengers decided to organize a march of their own held in June 1993. Beyond marching throughout the city, a manifesto was handed out and the Avengers created a “float”: a bed on wheels full of kissing dykes. A banner, which is used every year to demarcate the front of the March, was improvised at Bryant Park with markers and oaktag. Around the same time that year, Atlanta and San Francisco also held their first dyke marches.
Most dyke marches today occur in late June during Pride celebrations commemorating the Stonewall riots in New York City on June 28, 1969.
Importance to community
The first Dyke March held in April 1993 in Washington D.C. was accompanied with a manifesto crafted by the Lesbian Avengers. The purpose of the flyer was to address the necessity for grassroots lesbian organizing, especially given the anti-gay bills being pushed throughout the early 1990s. After learning about this manifesto, lesbians from Los Angeles created a large banner for their contingent, and those from Philadelphia constructed a vagina statue that was carried through the streets of Washington D.C.
An excerpt from this call to action within the lesbian community reads:
Lack of recognition by media
After the second annual Dyke March in New York City on June 25, 1994, there was a lack of media coverage of the event in spite of attendance numbers reaching 20,000. The New York Times was the only major newspaper that published a mention, albeit brief, about the march. The Lesbian Avengers perceived the overall silence to be a "media blackout", resulting in an aggressive media campaign.
Concurrent with the international march on the United Nations on June 26, 1994, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) issued a press release about Stonewall that failed to recognize the existence of the Dyke March. The Lesbian Avengers confronted the organization about this oversight, and GLAAD re-issued the press release with the addition of a sentence acknowledging the absence of mainstream media coverage about the march.