Chicago’s Dyke March Is Back After 6-Year Hiatus

PILSEN — The Chicago Dyke March is returning for the first time in six years — and just in time to mark the protest and celebration’s 30th anniversary.

The Dyke March and Rally kicks off 1 p.m. June 27 near Dvorak Park — the official starting location has yet to be announced — and participants will rally 3 p.m. in the park, 1119 W. Cullerton St.

Organizers are fundraising $10,000 to cover the costs of putting on the event, pay performers and give out free food. They’re also encouraging supporters to sign up to volunteer and get the word out. Click here to donate.

The event, which started in 1996, has long served as a protest of corporatized Pride, with organizers focused on showing support for lesbians and fundraising and advocating for particularly vulnerable groups.

“It’s not a parade. We don’t have corporate sponsorship or floats,” said Amar, an organizer with the Chicago Dyke March Collective. Amar and other organizers asked that their last names not be used because the event’s organizers have historically been targets of harassment. “It’s just people coming together and putting in this work, fighting against an oppressive world to build an abundant connection.”

In 1996, the first Chicago Dyke March was held in Lakeview as a grassroots alternative to the corporate, white male-dominated Chicago Pride Parade, organizers said at the time. It was founded by the Chicago chapter of the Lesbian Avengers, a direct-action group focused on lesbian visibility and survival across the country.

In the years that followed, organizers often moved the event around Chicago’s neighborhoods, bringing it to Andersonville, South Shore, Pilsen, Humboldt Park, Little Village and other areas.

In 2020, the march was canceled due to COVID-19, with organizers instead setting up an emergency fund for Black, Indigenous and other people of color who are queer. Attempts to bring it back faced challenges. During the hiatus, organizers focused on mutual aid, political action and community events.

While the Lesbian Avengers are no longer active in Chicago, their legacy lives on through the Chicago Dyke March Collective, this year’s organizers said.

The event has “always been a space for gathering and inspiration for our communities,” Amar said. “Some folks travel across state lines to attend. Folks come from all across the city. For some, it’s their first publicly queer event.”

Since the start of Trump’s second administration, the federal government has implemented many policies targeting LGBTQ+ and particularly trans people, including prohibiting trans female athletes from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams and blocking access to gender-affirming care for youth.

At a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under threat, the stakes feel personal, organizers said.

“People can instill fear — they try to make folks feel afraid to be out, to be visibly trans. … It doesn’t help that we’re constantly discussed, prodded and debated over by politicians, by people [who] are not trans,” said Angel, one of the organizers of this year’s Dyke March. “It’s not easy at all to put on a march and rally — but especially 30 years ago, in 1996, when it was so much harder to be visibly queer, visibly trans, visibly a dyke.

“That empowers me to keep that future going.”

The word “dyke” was once seen as a slur for lesbians or masculine women, but lesbians have reclaimed the term over the years. After decades of work, organizers want the event to continue to help people find themselves and their community.

“It’s allowed for a lot of time to reflect on what it means to be a dyke … what it means to love dykes, to be loved by dykes,” Angel said. “I know people who have found their life partners at Dyke March. They have found their families at Dyke March.

“My hope is that when people show up, they will find a way of finding themselves when they find community.”

The march hitting its 30th anniversary is a reminder of how much previous generations risked for dyke visibility and an opportunity to keep their work going, organizers said.

“For me, it’s a reminder that folks have been doing this for a long time,” Amar said. “This is also a thank-you to them. Because of them, we are still here, and we think about the future dykes, future queer and trans kids.

“We do this for us in the moment, and also for them.”

Follow the Chicago Dyke March on social media for updates.