A whole lot of demonstrators flowed downtown from Bryant Park on Saturday, June 28, for the thirty third annual New York Metropolis Dyke March, which adopted a strong anti-Zionist stance and explicitly anti-fascist tone.
Self-identifying dykes led the march, themed “Dykes Say No to Fascism,” to Washington Sq. Park with a “Free Free Palestine” banner. On the head of the protest, marchers carried mass-distributed indicators that includes massive white textual content calling for an finish to Israel’s assaults on Gaza, which has been characterised as a genocide by a number of human rights teams. Different indicators supported Black liberation, condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and affirmed that the combat for LGBTQ+ rights is much from over.
Additionally main the protest was a 20-foot papier-mâché dinosaur. The pastel-colored creature known as Sapphasaura, artist Anna Moustakerski defined to Hyperallergic, and made as an homage to the 1973 protest towards anti-feminist exhibitions on the American Museum of Pure Historical past. The Lesbian Feminist Liberation Zap hauled a 250-foot dinosaur of the identical identify down Broadway greater than 5 a long time in the past, demanding modifications to the museum’s programming.
Sapphasaura crosses an intersection on wheels.
The model of Sapphasaura current on this yr’s march, nonetheless, was coated with messages of affection that the artists requested the general public to deal with to future generations.
“We kind of think of it as a big, totally dominating monster that is urgently carrying everyone’s messages,” Moustakerski instructed Hyperallergic. The multicolored missives instructed future generations to “be gay” and “fight fascism.”
Within the months main as much as Saturday’s protest, this yr’s organizing committee introduced a agency anti-Zionist stance that additionally denounced antisemitism: “Our critique is directed at a political system and ideology, not at Jewish people or Judaism,” the Dyke March’s Assertion of Values reads. Conservative shops reported in April that the march had outright banned Zionists from attending, which an NYC Dyke March spokesperson denied to Hyperallergic.
“[A] commitment to anti-Zionist values is a direct response to the dyke community at large that has overwhelmingly shown broad support for the liberation of all oppressed people,” the spokesperson continued, “which includes the people of Palestine that have been under military occupation for much longer than the Dyke March has been in place as a political organizing space.”
Whereas this yr’s march theme was not strictly centered on Palestine because it was final yr, opposition to violence in Gaza remained on the core of the protest.
As in earlier years, the Dyke March outlined itself as a “protest march, not a parade.” Final yr’s demonstration, themed “Dykes Against Genocide,” garnered criticism after its planning committee issued an announcement stating that there was area throughout the dyke motion to acknowledge each the impacts of the October 7 assaults on the Jewish neighborhood and Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza. The group retracted its Instagram assertion half-hour later, saying that the committee had not agreed to publish the publish. This yr, the march seems to have a extra organized response to ongoing violence.
A message in help of Palestine led the protest.
Anti-ICE indicators peppered the march on Sunday.
Aya Sternoff, who was standing behind the desk, instructed Hyperallergic that they’d noticed a normal fatigue in protesting during the last two years. Extra lately, nonetheless, Sternoff has seen a “surge in social struggle.”
Glimmers of optimism shone via the anti-Trump, anti-fascist, anti-war, and anti-violence protest within the type of indicators nodding to Zohran Mamdani’s latest democratic major win in a race that was largely anticipated to be all however handed over to disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Some marchers held easy marketing campaign indicators, whereas others added Zohran’s identify to their very own handwritten placards.
Mary Magdalene performs in entrance of a police officer.
Efficiency artist Mary Magdalene lit up faces along with her massive speaker on wheels and “God” signal. She bent in half and twerked in entrance of law enforcement officials, who tried to stay stoic. At one level, she climbed on prime of a New York Police Division automobile and danced to applause from passing marchers.
Author and activist Sarah Schulman, who was one of many co-founders of the march and a founding member of the group Lesbian Avengers, expressed approval of this yr’s march on X.
“I am so proud, 33 years later, as thousands march in NYC w/ a ‘Dykes Say No To Fascism’ banner and for Palestinian liberation, without corporate sponsorship,” Schulman wrote. “Still organic. Still ahead. Still a freedom vision.”
A vendor bought anti-Trump pins alongside the protest route.
The march happened days after the Supreme Court docket upheld prohibitions on gender-affirming look after trans youth.
Indicators expressed opposition to navy violence.
A number of protesters carried indicators supporting Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy.
Marchers maintain a Mexican flag superimposed onto an LGBTQ+ delight flag.
Anna Moustakerski (proper)
Indicators referenced land struggles, together with in Palestine and Puerto Rico.
At every intersection, organizers gripped palms dealing with visitors.
Black indicators with white, anti-Trump textual content dominated a sea of protest indicators.
A marcher holds an indication expressing disapproval with the NYC Dyke March committee.
The march’s organizers took a agency stance opposing Zionism this yr.
This yr’s march explicitly referred to as out Donald Trump.
