Images by Stacie Joy
On this Pride weekend, the 30th annual edition of the Dyke March took place yesterday, with thousands of participants marching down Fifth Avenue from Bryant Park to Washington Square Park.
The official site notes that this is a protest march, not a parade:
The March is a demonstration of our First Amendment right to protest and takes place without permits or sponsors. We recognize that we must organize among ourselves to fight for our rights, safety and visibility.Thousands of Dykes take the streets each year in celebration of our beautiful and diverse Dyke lives, to highlight the presence of Dykes within our community, and in protest of the discrimination, harassment, and violence we face in schools, on the job, and in our communities.
Organizer Nate Shalev talked about the march's diversity with Gothamist:
Back to Gothamist:
There's just simply no other space like it, where trans dykes, butch dykes, femme dykes, all dykes feel like they have a space where they can be who they are and celebrate who they are. And that means being angry, and that means being joyful, and you don't have to be anything except whatever the thing is you are."There was a heightened feeling of fury yesterday following the seismic ruling by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
EVG contributor Stacie Joy was on lower Fifth Avenue and in Washington Square Park for the March...Feeling outraged? Us too! Come see dyke rage for yourself tomorrow at the 30th Annual NYC Dyke March. Theme this year is D4T: Dykes for Trans Liberation. 5PM Bryant Park. See you there.
— NYC DYKE MARCH (@NYCDykeMarch) June 24, 2022
Celebrations around the Washington Square Park fountain after the long, hot trek accurately reflect what march participants feel at the end of the road, Shalev confirmed: "It's always really wonderful, because it's allowing dykes to exist in whatever space they need."
