D.C. Dyke March: Thinking outside the boxes

The annual Washington, D.C., Dyke March on June 11 celebrated 12 years of radical lesbian defiance with a rally and march of some 700 people.

Some 700 took part in this year’s D.C. Dyke March, chanting against racism, sexism and anti-LGBT bigotry.

The crowd was predominantly young lesbian women, with noticeable participation from D.C.'s African American lesbian community. There was also a solid showing of gay non-trans men, including the supportive local chapter of Radical Faeries; a large contingent from the local lesbian and gay Deaf community; members of the local bisexual women's group; representatives from the D.C. Drag Kings troupe; and many transgender people, including some from the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The tradition of an LGBT Pride Month “dyke march” began on the eve of the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation. That night more than 20,000 people poured into the streets to advance without a parade permit, defying state restrictions. There are now more than a dozen annual Dyke Marches in North America.

The 2005 D.C. march theme was “Thinking Outside the Boxes.” Organizers said this year's Dyke March specifically welcomed people of all identities in order to emphasize that, “Every day folks along the queer spectrum are embracing and inventing new ways of describing their identities, including ways of honoring shifting and multiple identities.”

The organizing committee, chaired by Al Miner--who identifies as a “Jewish tranny” and a “primarily masculine and gender-queer person”--mirrored this commitment to diversity. Miner noted that the all-volunteer members include Shana McDavis-Conway, an African American bisexual: Joy Hunt, a white lesbian who works for the Advocacy Institute; an Arab American college student and drag king; Jen Halpern, a white lesbian; Natalie Illum, a differently abled poet and activist; and Sarah Glaubinger, who identifies as gender-queer.

Marshals for the march were trained by Marty Langelan, a nationally recognized expert on violence against women and a former president of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center. Marshals included Jaya Karla, a 17-year-old Indian American student who is interning at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Stacey Long addressed the crowd before the march began. Long talked about her partner Wanda Alston, an African American lesbian who was tragically killed in March. Alston had served as D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams's special assistant on LGBT affairs and as head of the recently created Office for LGBT Affairs.

Long spoke of how Wanda had been an activist passionately committed to the movements for civil rights, women's liberation and LGBT rights. Long called on all who were gathered together at the march to continue the struggle in the spirit of Wanda's activism.

'Rage and pride!'

Leslie Feinberg, transgender lesbian activist and a managing editor of Workers World newspaper, recalled the lessons for today of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. She pointed out that Stonewall was made by people with many different identities, including multiple oppressions: Black, Latin@, white, homeless street youth, sex workers, transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual. She emphasized that these individuals, who did not face a common oppression, made history when they fought back together, shoulder to shoulder, against police repression.

Feinberg said that the difference between Stonewall and today is the potential for a broader class-wide struggle. The 1960s Vietnam War years were a period of economic upturn based on military spending. The government “guns and butter” social programs and higher levels of employment made it easier to isolate the liberation movements and student struggles.

“Today,” Feinberg said, “there's no butter, there's no margarine, there's just guns. The cities are being starved to pay for endless billions for war that both aisles of Congress are approving. The overall standard of living is declining and access to jobs, health care, education and affordable housing are scarce. So in order to wage the broadest, most diverse struggle against capitalism and its wars for global empire, we have to unite to fight against all forms of oppression.”

The crowd cheered Feinberg's call to support the right of the Iraqi people to resist imperialist occupation and the demand to bring the GIs home now. They roared in response to her call for unity in the struggle against the military draft, racism and sexism and vocally vowed to fight for the rights of Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants and Deaf and disabled communities.

Organizer Al Miner, who first heard Feinberg speak at a conference sponsored by Al-Fatiha, an organization of LGBT, intersex and questioning Muslims, said that Feinberg's anti-corporate message was also important to the march. Miner added the committee invited Feinberg because they wanted someone who could appeal across generational lines, and who embodied the message that multiple identities and diversities are to be celebrated, not swept under the rug.

Miner said of the D.C. Dyke March, “It is with rage and pride that we make as much noise as we can, not only for our own rights but for other groups who so often get left behind. We don't have a permit, we're not a 501.C.3 organization, we wouldn't want to be--we don't need support from a government that murders people in the name of patriotism.”

Miner added, “I don't give a damn how hard a sell it may be to garner rights for Muslims or transfolks or whoever--when any group has their basic civil rights withheld, we all suffer. This year's march theme is to remind our community of just that.”

Miner wants the political theme of this year's D.C. Dyke March to have a far-reaching impact: “I hope everyone who came to the march will go back to their own organizations or communities and share that message of inclusion--and that includes other dyke marches. It's so simple: Why not include everyone? There is strength in numbers, after all.”

As a lesbian activist, Pratt worked for 10 years in D.C. to connect the struggles against racism, LGBT oppression and imperialism.