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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 2, 2000)
. » june2»2flûû Coventry Cycle (V W orks ; mai: ivi ^-Tiñeres íReallu Cooí S tu ff Antiques & Treasures/ ^ P rofesional Service Comfortable Bikeo f t A vengers in A ction The Lesbian Avengers plan Portland's annual Dyke March in classic grass-roots form— sans the aid of Pride Northwest by Katy Davidson it* W hen sign- wielding Lesbian Avengers (left) staged a dem onstration May 17, a Bible-quoting opponent (right) was conveniently on hand Recumbento a Specialty! Open Tuesday-Sunday 230-7723 2025 SE Hawthorne 7372 5W Capitol Highway Portland, OP 97219 • 503-246-6267 We are located in M ultnom ah Village near The Bridge. Call for directions. Committed Mortgage Broker for the GLBT Community Stop by and see us at Gay Pride. FHA; VA; COFI; COSI; (5.0 index est.) non-conforming; conforming; creative financing; credit restoration Call us today and give us the opportunity to be the liason for you and your dream(s) ORS„ ( 503 )- 493 - 2323 / 636-6000 www.directorsmortgage.net and all marchers are instructed to meet in the t seemed like a typical day on the South Park Blocks near Portland State Universi N orth Park Blocks at 6:30 p.m. T he Portland chapter of the Lesbian ty. U nderneath a canopy of green leaves, Avengers was started in 1993 by Hillary Smith throngs of backpackers marched between classes, chatted, stopped for a smoke. O ne and 30 other women, and the group bombarded couple necked beside a large tree, one long Southeast H aw thorne Street for the city’s first haired hooligan jammed some chords on a beat- Dyke M arch the following year. Though the up guitar. A nother goofy-looking character, in Avengers have phased in and out of existence, high-tops and a sandwich board, preached the 1,000 women showed up at last year’s march. word of the Lord from atop a concrete riser. T he Avengers are proud to keep the march T hen came the divine interruption. as grass-roots as possible by not using sponsors or “I can’t believe there’s a preacher here,” blue- city permits. haired Erin Sexton said. “T he Dyke M arch is not a function of Pride “1 know— we’re so lucky,” Erin Savage Northwest,” Sexton says. “It’s not for commer replied excitedly. cial purposes, only for visibility.” Behind the trunk of a wide tree, a small According to Lisa Roth, a longtime lesbian group of Lesbian Avengers painted the finishing activist from San Francisco, the nation’s first touches on several signs bearing slogans such as: “official” Dyke M arch crashed through Wash “Save yourself, be a dyke,” “Bigots bum in hell," ington, D.C., in the early 1990s. It was a collab and “Tremble hetero swine.” orative effort by several groups. After six more Avengers showed up, the In 1993, three organizations in San Francis group exploded onto the scene, toting their co— A C T U P W om en’s Caucus, W omen signs and shouting pro-dyke sentiments toward Against Imperialism and Prairie Fire— joined the preacher and a crowd of onlookers. They forces and prepared to go to the March on passed out flyers with information about the W ashington, “dreading that it would be male Oregon Citizens Alliance’s proposed ballot ini dominated, which it was, and male-oriented, tiative, commonly called the “Student Protec which it was,” according to Roth. tion A ct.” W hile in D.C., the groups decided to do If approved by voters in the November gen something “very visible, very feminist, very fun, eral election, the act could ban support groups, very in-your-face, and for women only.” They gay-straight alliances, and AIDS education in planned a march with no permit and no cover- Oregon’s public schools. your-breasts policy, then discovered that the Naturally, the PSU event morphed into an New York chapter of the Lesbian Avengers was all-out shouting match between the Avengers planning to do a dem onstration in front of the and the preacher. A t one point, when the W hite House on the same day. preacher called the women insecure and gross, The San Francisco groups informed the one Avenger yelled, “Insecurity? I’ll show you Avengers about their plan, they agreed to join insecurity!” then proceeded to make out with forces, and more than 20,000 women marched another Avenger in front of the crowd. across the national mall together. Though the outrageous scene garnered more After the success in W ashington, the groups giggles than outright support, the crowd seemed flew back to San Francisco to march again on to side more with the Avengers than with the the night before the city’s pride parade. Since self-annointed messenger of God. O ne female then, the Dyke M arch has spread to New York, student walked by and exclaimed, “I support the Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities homosexuals!” After watching the melee for a and is traditionally done on the eve of pride. while, another student said, “America’s a great Though the Lesbian Avengers spearhead all country. I feel so much better now.” of the Dyke M arch planning in Portland, it is These Lesbian Avengers are the same feisty more of a community-wide effort in other cities, women who put on Portland’s annual Dyke such as San Francisco. R oth says the SF March. Avengers have always been quite a small group, Traditionally, the Dyke March is held on the but they have always worked on the Dyke eve of the Portland pride parade. Though the March com m ittee as individuals. Avengers make it clear their march is not affili ated with events organized by Pride Northwest, H To get involved, or to get more information about it’s evident they hold the Dyke March on thè the L esbian A vengers , call (503) 452*5408. night before because so many lesbians are already in town. K aty D avidson is a Just Out staff writer. She This year, the Dyke March falls on June 17, may be reached at kary@justout .com. I
