Feature image LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images

For thirty years, the Dyke March has taken place in NYC as an alternate to the next day’s Pride Parade. While the official parade is overrun with corporations, the Dyke March has remained a combination of protest and party. It aims to better represent the origins of pride and continue its focus on the issues dykes and other queers continue to fight for and against.

A month before the event, NYC Dyke March announced their theme this year would be Dykes Against Genocide. This felt like a reassurance that the political roots of the Dyke March would be honored as we gathered as queer people to take a stand against the ongoing violence in Palestine and other colonial violence around the world. Unfortunately, two days before the event a statement was posted to the official Instagram — and then quickly taken down — that called into question the organization’s commitment to Palestinian liberation. An apology and explanation was issued, but doubts still existed going into the event.

Luckily, on the day, the energy was positive with a wide range of people celebrating their queerness and marching for Palestine and other issues they care about. Despite the focus of this year’s theme, the march has always had a variety of chants and slogans, and as I looked around I felt like I received a window into what dykes care about right now. Or, you know, what dykes in NYC who attended this march care about.

I started writing down people’s signs and shirts and have gathered them here. This isn’t everything I saw — these are just the signs and shirts expressing a clear want. From the serious to the silly and everything in between here are some of the issues dykes were campaigning for this past weekend.

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  1. Free Palestine
  2. Protect trans kids
  3. Stop the fetishization of lesbian media
  4. Register to vote
  5. End the genocide
  6. End the occupation
  7. Abortion is healthcare
  8. Stop NYC Cop City
  9. End the U.S. war machine
  10. Ceasefire now
  11. No mask ban
  12. I just want my titties out
  13. Read queer books
  14. Read banned books
  15. All empires will crumble
  16. Dump him
  17. Top4top
  18. Gender affirming care is healthcare
  19. Fuck Trump
  20. Fuck Adams
  21. Fuck pinkwashing
  22. The future isn’t binary
  23. I want lesbians on the telly
  24. NYPD IDF KKK they’re all the same
  25. Know your roots read Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (it’s a free pdf)
  26. I want a dyke for president
  27. Divest
  28. Fund whores, not wars
  29. Remember our queer siblings in Palestine
  30. ACAB
  31. Buy weed from women
  32. Femme seeking single monogamous butch IG: @harsh__babe*

*IG handle added with permission… shoot your shot, single monogamous butches of Autostraddle