NYC Dyke March

Well, this year they (the City) decided to give the Dykes only half the avenue, so they wouldn’t have to stop traffic entirely for the duration of the march. (Heaven forbid the tourists be delayed in their bus ride down 5^th avenue!) It was a great time anyway; even though we only had a skeleton crew of Church Ladies, the show must go on, as they say!
Andy Buck (of Rick and Andy) showed up to lend his voice, and we were appreciated by the marchers, so a good time was had by all. We’ll do it again next year.

Let me get straight to the point…
CON:
We have the right to march! We have the right to march and protest without a permit and yes, we can stop traffic. Many times, that’s the whole point of a march: stopping traffic and getting your attention. We didn’t stop much traffic here, at least not initially. Where the march started, on 5^th Avenue near Bryant Park, only half of the street was barricaded off for us. The other half of the street had cars and busses zipping by us. We had to stop at traffic lights, many times! So it was a walk-​and-​stop march. I felt highly offended by that. Where’s the love? The Dyke March in San Francisco… the streets were ours and neither person nor car can get in our way! In NYC, we didn’t take over the streets fully until we got much further down. The Dyke celebration for me is an Annual Pilgrimage and I have high expectations. As with any pilgrimage, we expect others to respect our practices and in this case, our route. I didn’t feel like we owned the streets the way we should’ve.
PRO:
Although I was offended that we didn’t fully stop traffic the entire route, although I was slightly disappointed that there weren’t as many dyke-​loving signs and supporters outside of the march as I’m used to, the march itself was AMAZING beyond words. My brief moments of sadness were quickly filled by the joy and pride of the marchers. I squeezed my way towards the drum line (as always) and danced, hopped, and skipped the entire way!
Women are beautiful!