What to expect from this year’s London Dyke March: “It’s definitely going to be louder”

Words Emily M. Cameron

Last year was a big year for the London Dyke March team – they threw their first event and quintupled their expected turnout. From an anticipated 1000 people, they led over 5000 lesbians and allies from Richmond Terrace to Hyde Park Corner in an extremely DIY grassroots show of community and strength. This year, that route remains largely unchanged, with minor adjustments based on feedback to flatten the route in the name of accessibility.

As it approaches its “second” year, the London Dyke March is uniquely both new and old. While this iteration remains in its infancy, it is a resurrection of the 2012 and 2013 London Dyke Marches, which took inspiration from events of the same name in the US. Both main organisers are acutely aware of this history: Shivani Dave works as a researcher and historian of queer culture, while Stav B, an artist and activist with Act Up and This Is My Culture, contacted the previous London organisers to secure their blessing before last year's march. 

This year, London Dyke March feels more urgent than ever. London Dyke March is part of a wider culture pushing against pinkwashing and corporate Pride celebrations, bringing Pride back to its roots in protest and defending hard won rights. By being loudly trans inclusive, this year's Dyke March also flies in the face of the recent weaponisation of lesbian identity against trans women, as well as the threatening and rolling back of queer rights around the world. 

For London lesbians, Dyke Marches exist mostly as 90s archive images and events in other countries, but London Dyke March are bringing the past into the present, the far away to right here.  Ruminating on the question of “Why bring back London Dyke March now?” Shivani asserts simply “Because we can.” It’s a practical and urgent answer. “Right now we have the right to assemble, we have the right to protest, we have the right to be in each other's arms. We’re speaking in the bright and leafy patio of infamous East London lesbian bar La Camionera with Dyke March consultant and Plastyk afterparty organiser Karlie Marx on an ever-so-slightly delayed but surprisingly clear speaker phone.

First of all congratulations on last year – it was such a huge success. Were there any specific moments in history or people that inspired you to bring back the Dyke March?

Stav B: I've been to three Dyke Marches over the years that I've been [in London] – but something happened [in my mind], I was on Instagram and the New York Dyke March was on my feed. I was like, ‘What the fuck? Why do they have a Dyke March and not us? We are the best city in the world. We're going to do a Dyke March.’ So this is how the idea germinated in my head, I wanted us to have a Dyke March on a regular basis. I wanted it to be part of our LGBTQIA+ map. 

Shivani: In November 2023, I created an Instagram account called @dyke_march because I was getting a bit annoyed by the fact that there was a lot of stuff going on that didn't seem to be for dykes. There was loads going on for bears and twinks and gays and queers and some stuff going on for lesbians. As I love all of those communities and want all of them to have their own spaces, I'm a dyke, and I want my space. 

Frankly, I am marching every time I leave the house. I got to a point where I was feeling like I was marching alone quite a lot of the time. The La Camionera stuff had just gone crazy, when they had the basement and 2000 lesbians on the street [when lesbians filled the entire width of Broadway Market for La Camionera’s trial opening]. I kind of thought, well, if we can get 2000 lesbians on the street outside a basement bar, then how many can we get to march in the street? Stav and I were like, ‘Let's make it happen’ We’d done a bit of organising together with Act Up and This Is My Culture, but we kind of just had the right vibe – from the get-go, we were like, ‘This is trans-inclusive, it's pro Palestine, it's pro-migrant, it's pro-sex worker– 

Stav: Radical. DIY.

Shivani: Yeah, it's anti-corporate. It's not pink-washing. We don't want Sadiq Khan to give us £70,000 to run an event in the City of London. We all already pay for the public space, we want to use it the way we want to use it. 

Were you aware of the 2012 and 2013 London Dyke Marches, and the international Dyke Marches?

Shivani: I’m a researcher and queer historian, so I have lots of connections around the world. I spoke to people in New York and San Francisco who were telling me about the Dyke Marches that they'd been to.  It felt sad to me that I didn't get to have this. It felt almost worse that we once had a Dyke March and that it no longer exists. Stav knew the people organising the march back in 2012 and 2013, so we got in touch with them, and they said, ‘We give you our blessing to carry it on. We don't have capacity.’ They were very supportive and helped out with questions that we had at the beginning. I thought maybe 1000 people would show up and we’d have a nice time, but 5000 people showed up –  

Stav: And we had a nice time.

Shivani: It was DIY, it wasn't shiny, but I think that's what made it dykey. 

Karlie, why is it so important in this particular moment to have a Dyke March?

Karlie: It's so important to have a Dyke March right now because a lot of the war around transphobia is being fought on the battleground of lesbian identity, lesbian attraction, and women's spaces, and the dyke brigade can roll in and just put this whole thing to right and make it plain what's what. You go to the Dyke March, and you're surrounded by gorgeous people who have signs up about how they want to protect you, and you can just swan around and feel the love. And it's about the image of it as well. It's about being like, ‘This is dyke culture’. Dyke culture is pro Palestine, anti-racist, DIY, inclusive toward disabled people, towards trans people. It's about taking back the cultural narrative of who we are.

Is there a specific message behind this year’s Dyke March?

Shivani: Free Palestine, rights for trans women, sodomy, and the right to assemble.

The march is on 21st of June. Can you tell me any more details about the route? Meeting time? 

Shivani: We’re meeting at 12pm, we're going to set off at 12:30pm, from Richmond Terrace where we met last year.

Wonderful. Is there a theme? Are there any specific instructions for the march?

Shivani: Be loud, bring your friends, bring your pets. 

Stav: Bring the chants. 

Shivani: Bring everything that you want to wear on your sleeve.

Stav: Or not to wear. 

Shivani: Yeah.

Stav: Free the titties.

How are you expecting it to compare to last year? What will be different from last year? 

Stav: This year is definitely going to be bigger, it's definitely going to be louder.

Shivani: The vibe is to be loud and proud, to stand up for what you believe in, to make friends, to bring friends, old or new. Bring your families, even if they're all cishet, bring them, show up. It's about showing people that being a dyke or being queer, being a lesbian, a bisexual woman with a boyfriend, it doesn't mean that you don't have love and you don't have community. The point is to try and get all of us out in the street to be like, ‘We're a huge proportion of this fucking city, and we deserve to be seen and heard and respected and taken seriously.’

Shivani: I also really wanted to get Karlie portable DJ decks.

Karlie: Yeah, and I said that if you did that, you needed to make it abundantly clear that it was not my idea.

Are you aware of any Dyke March romances? Any Dyke March couples?

Stav: Yeah, there are definitely a couple, and a lot of sex.

Shivani: Oh yeah, the dykes were feral after last year.