A decade ago, the Lesbian Avengers founded a direct-action event in response to the male-dominated and corporate Pride Parade. Ten years later, the dykes march on. Lesbians have come together each summer since, not to hold their own parade, but to rally and march against what the Pride Parade has become.
Since its inception, the Dyke March has evolved dramatically. For starters, the march has a new face.
'In the beginning, it was mostly all-white organizers,' Sarah Thomason, a second-year organizer, said. After a few years, organizations such as Amigas Latinas and Affinity approached Dyke March's organizers with their concerns about the lack of diversity. Things really started to change around 2000, when women from such groups came on board. 'A lot of females of color were organizing it. It was really cool,' Thomason added.
This year's organizers are pleased with how the march has progressed, particularly with how participants now gather on blankets to enjoy live entertainment along the beach afterwards.
'It's a way of branching out to the community and really trying to get the groups involved with each other and maybe coordinate things and let different communities know what other organizations are out there,' organizer Tamar Carmel said. 'I guess you can kind of relate it to networking.'
Although The Dyke March remains a direct-action alternative to the Pride Parade, it has become a chance to interweave communities that normally don't communicate with each other.
'Now, we're bringing people together because there are a lot of groups that are really separated in a lot of ways, and I think my hope is that because we are bringing a bunch of different people together, they will come together for things other than Dyke March,' said organizer Jenney Grant.
The opportunity to network and the lessons learned from organizing the march, Thomason said, has also led many past organizers to move on to bigger and better things. The march has become the catalyst for many women to organize other events and become more involved in the community.
Sure, there are still fears that down the road, the Dyke March might meet the same fate as pride parades across the U.S. They fear it will someday veer from its roots and its mission. However, organizers say the key is to remain hyper-aware of the direction the Dyke March is traveling.
'I think with a lot of organizers in the past, that's why they remain involved in it,' Grant said. 'I think that the way we are trying to prevent that from happening is trying to make sure there are always people asking those questions and keeping it in check.
'I check with people from the past about what we are doing to make sure it's really grassroots and non-corporate. That's a problem with doing a direct-action thing over the years, especially when it's really hard to sustain by itself.'
The 2006 Chicago Dyke March will be held Sat., June 24. The march will start at Trumbull Elementary School, on the corner of Ashland and Foster, at 1:30 p.m. It will head east on Foster, north on Clark and then east on Bryn Mawr, ending at the lake for a rally, live entertainment and dance party.
See Chicagodykemarch2006.org for details.