"Here Come the Lesbians!" Notes from the 2018 Dyke March

Jennifer Flynn and her partner Bela Walker walked with their daughter on their shoulders wearing a t shirt with the word "Love" and other sites and sounds from the Dyke March. 

photo by annie frame. as mary emily ohara writes: "No corporate floats allowed: the dyke march is still a radical pride protest. 'its always going to be political no matter what we do.'"

In an interview before she left New York, my friend Elizabeth Meixell, of the Church Ladies for Choice, said her favorite moment of the year was the dyke march.  She loved the faces of the women who smiled as they strolled down 5^th Ave, greeting the Church Ladies, who serenaded them with the words: “God is a Lesbian, God is a lesbian.  She is a dyke.  Send her Victoria, Mary and Gloria, She’ll lick clit on the floor with ya.  She is a dyke.”

And the same was the case this year. Sadly, Elizabeth is no longer in New York.  But the Church Ladies are still here, joined by throngs of supporters, devotees, young queer kids, many from 

high school supporting each other and an image of a diverse, adoring world. 

“I’m so bored with your lord,” Brian, aka Harmony Moore chanted at the evangelical preaching at us as the dyke march was about to begin.

Waiting for the march, we heckled the fundamentalist spewing hatred, flashing and mooning him,

 throwing as much radical ridicule as we could.   

And sang a few Church Lady classics, “This Womb is My Womb” and “"Christian-fascio-Nazi-nutso-

psycho-right-wing bullshit," written to the tune of Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious from 

Mary Poppins. The first verse opens:

Its Christo-fascio-Nazi-nutso-psycho-right-wing bullshit

If you try to talk to them you’ll find they are full of shit!

We will guard our clinics just in case they try to pull shit.

Christo-fascio-Nazi-nutso-psycho-right-wing bullshit!

The second verse situates the right-wing attack within a witty reading of US history:

This country’s values are Judeo/Christian, yessiree!

And that requires a very special view of history:

Importing slaves and killing Indians is not a sin,

But give a boy a condom, oy, the trouble you’re in.

The third verse continues the narrative:

Young women in America, their fate must not decide.

An aging pop[Pope?] in Italy is much more qualified.

If you want an abortion, then you really must be sick:

You can’t think for yourself because you haven’t got a dick

Finally, we see the black banner in the distance.

“Oh my god, here come the lesbians!”

We all line up with our ‘God is a Lesbian” signs, ready to show a little solidarity and adoration.

Gradually, the sea of smiling lesbians makes its way down 5^th Avenue, coming in to greet their adoring fans. Young people, elders, people from all parts, carrying signs reflecting the wonderful, complicated diversity of this moment.  Solidarity is everywhere, friends greeting, applauding, and supporting each other.

“The future is intersection!” notes one woman’s t shirt.

“Butch Trans Women Are Valid” declares another sign.

“Lesbians Against White Supremacy”

“Dykes Abolish ICE”

“Not Gay, Happy Queer!”

“Dykes against this bull shit ass bull shit!”

“Dykes for Palestine!”

“Dykes against ICE and border walls!”

“My cat is also a dyke!”

“Resistance is not enough, Revolt, Revolt, Revolt!”

“Vote homo not Cuomo!”

“Queer as in abolish prisons!”

“Femmes against racism”

“Your acceptance is not required.”

“Abort Mike Pence!”

“Do unto Puerto Rico as you would do unto Manhattan!”

And gradually some of my favorite people begin to appear.

Virginia and LAK and the Rise and Resist crew, Michelle from the RMO, the Fed Up Queers, Joe from the Revolting Lesbians, Jennifer Flynn and her partner Bela Walker walked with their daughter on their shoulders wearing a t shirt with the word "Love." Maxine Wolfe, of ACT UP, walks up to greet Kate Barnhart.

And finally an hour later the lesbians had passed and the Church Ladies changed back into civilian gear and went home.

It’s a joyous afternoon, pointing us at a world where we adore each other, accepting each other for what we are.  The world could certainly learn a thing or two from the unpermitted, highly participatory drag march.