2009 Dyke March Information > 2009 Statement
Dyke Rights = Human Rights
Human Rights = Dyke Rights
At the San Francisco Dyke March, we gather to experience and celebrate our collected energies, to acknowledge our many communities, to learn from our incredible diversity, to respect each other, and to create new ways to share our resources. We have pride for good reason: Dykes participate in every aspect of political, social and artistic institutions, illuminating issues of social justice wherever we are.
Today in California and around the globe Dykes are up in arms about living in violent, woman-hating cultures, we protest the denial of full rights of citizenship, we oppose being lied to by politicians, and we reject the denial of our humanity and the humanity of our friends, families, allies around the world. Dyke rights are human rights!
We also reject the notion that a deeply personal and basic right can be put to a popular vote. The recent passage of Proposition 8 declared that our relationships – indeed that we – are and should remain, by definition, second-class citizens. We're angry at the courts that accepted the tortured logic of creating unequal categories of citizens. Loving whoever and however we choose is a human right. Committing to any chosen relationship is a human right.
We reject the view of humanity being helped by expanding the prison industrial complex. LGBT youth, often among the kids living on the streets, are subject to longer and harsher prison sentences under California’s newly enacted Proposition 6. Families of incarcerated people saw their dreams of early release and alternatives to incarceration eradicated by the passage of Proposition 9. The real crime is the amount of money spent on prisons! Prison reform is about human rights.
Undocumented immigrants live in fear in the shadows of our cities and towns. Many are subjected to armed militias, renegade police and state-enforced patrols, which often tear children and parents apart. Immigration policies keep LGBT internationals from joining their partners in the US, creating years of heartbreak and economic stress. No one has the right to legislate how we will love. We reject as irrational and baseless the idea that undocumented immigrants pose a threat to our borders and national survival. Immigrant rights are human rights!
Our dyke sisters Renata Hill and Patreese Johnson are still in prison for defending themselves against homophobic and misogynist violence in New York. The family and friends of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, the first black man to be killed in 2009, are grieving his loss at the hands of transit police in Oakland, California. Each of us has the right to live and be free from the terror of renegade law enforcement. The right to live is a human right!
Our sister, Jane Doe in Richmond, California, copes with the aftermath of a homophobic gang rape last December. Statistically, crime is down this year in Oakland in every area except rape. Daily we learn of atrocities committed against women's bodies all over the world. Reproductive health clinics are under increasing assault, and are being told by police that it's their fault, for providing legal abortions. Women's rights to our bodies are human rights!
For more than six years, as a matter of United States policy, both US and international prisoners have been subjected to unimaginable horrors, terrifying torture, removal from their families, and the denial of their most basic rights. We reject torture in every form and demand that the US and all countries comply with international standards of fairness and due process. Freedom from torture is a human right!
While bankers and executives get trillions of tax dollars to spend on bonuses, homeowners and tenants are being tossed out of their homes. Three million workers have lost jobs in the last year. Insurance companies and politicians are once again colluding to deny us universal health care. We reject this blatant indifference to the urgent needs of average people. We demand quality health care and housing for every dyke and every person!
The U.S’s 40 billion in government-to-government arms sales this year is outrageous! Our taxes fund militaristic support of repressive regimes around the world. We reject war! We reject the empty promise that peace can be achieved through murder, and the imaginary borders that allow one group to murder another. War is a violation of human rights. While we do not want our dyke and gay sisters and brothers hounded out of the military for their sexual orientation, neither do we support the existence of the military. Dyke Rights = No Wars and No Armies.
As dykes, and as a part of every community, we feel each of these injuries keenly. We know that our identities cannot be fragmented. Dyke rights are human rights. Dykes cannot be free until we bust through all the prison walls and until we create communities to hold and heal and cherish the people among us who have been damaged by drugs and poverty and violence. Dykes cannot be free while there is a death penalty, in this country or anywhere on the planet. Dykes cannot be free while 40% of the world’s people have no access to clean drinking water, or while native land is stolen and torn up for uranium mining. Dyke rights are human rights.
We recall that the LGBT liberation movement in the US grew out of the African American civil rights movement, the movement in opposition to the Vietnam War, and the women’s movement. We, the San Francisco Dyke March, continue the rich legacy of that activism when we demand something better than following heteropatriarchy. We insist that ALL our relationships be cherished and acknowledged, not just the ones most like heterosexual marriages. We embrace the freedom to explore all types of loving, all types of consensual sexuality, all types of gender identity.
There were many lesbian activists among groups like the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) and the Combahee River Collective, which demanded a new paradigm for thinking about caretaking, housework and children. We honor this herstory when we honor children as are our collective responsibility and future. Community is a human right!
As we come together at the San Francisco Dyke March to celebrate our creativity and our unity, we commit ourselves to always looking critically at the choices our flawed society offers. We commit ourselves to dreaming a world where all freedoms are realized and justice is our passion.
With justice comes peace.
The right to full citizenship is a dyke right!
The right to live without fear of governments is a dyke right!
The right to define our communities is a dyke right!
The right to define our relationships is a dyke right!
The right to make a new world is a dyke right!
Dyke rights are human rights!
Human rights are dyke rights!
Human Rights = Dyke Rights
At the San Francisco Dyke March, we gather to experience and celebrate our collected energies, to acknowledge our many communities, to learn from our incredible diversity, to respect each other, and to create new ways to share our resources. We have pride for good reason: Dykes participate in every aspect of political, social and artistic institutions, illuminating issues of social justice wherever we are.
Today in California and around the globe Dykes are up in arms about living in violent, woman-hating cultures, we protest the denial of full rights of citizenship, we oppose being lied to by politicians, and we reject the denial of our humanity and the humanity of our friends, families, allies around the world. Dyke rights are human rights!
We also reject the notion that a deeply personal and basic right can be put to a popular vote. The recent passage of Proposition 8 declared that our relationships – indeed that we – are and should remain, by definition, second-class citizens. We're angry at the courts that accepted the tortured logic of creating unequal categories of citizens. Loving whoever and however we choose is a human right. Committing to any chosen relationship is a human right.
We reject the view of humanity being helped by expanding the prison industrial complex. LGBT youth, often among the kids living on the streets, are subject to longer and harsher prison sentences under California’s newly enacted Proposition 6. Families of incarcerated people saw their dreams of early release and alternatives to incarceration eradicated by the passage of Proposition 9. The real crime is the amount of money spent on prisons! Prison reform is about human rights.
Undocumented immigrants live in fear in the shadows of our cities and towns. Many are subjected to armed militias, renegade police and state-enforced patrols, which often tear children and parents apart. Immigration policies keep LGBT internationals from joining their partners in the US, creating years of heartbreak and economic stress. No one has the right to legislate how we will love. We reject as irrational and baseless the idea that undocumented immigrants pose a threat to our borders and national survival. Immigrant rights are human rights!
Our dyke sisters Renata Hill and Patreese Johnson are still in prison for defending themselves against homophobic and misogynist violence in New York. The family and friends of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, the first black man to be killed in 2009, are grieving his loss at the hands of transit police in Oakland, California. Each of us has the right to live and be free from the terror of renegade law enforcement. The right to live is a human right!
Our sister, Jane Doe in Richmond, California, copes with the aftermath of a homophobic gang rape last December. Statistically, crime is down this year in Oakland in every area except rape. Daily we learn of atrocities committed against women's bodies all over the world. Reproductive health clinics are under increasing assault, and are being told by police that it's their fault, for providing legal abortions. Women's rights to our bodies are human rights!
For more than six years, as a matter of United States policy, both US and international prisoners have been subjected to unimaginable horrors, terrifying torture, removal from their families, and the denial of their most basic rights. We reject torture in every form and demand that the US and all countries comply with international standards of fairness and due process. Freedom from torture is a human right!
While bankers and executives get trillions of tax dollars to spend on bonuses, homeowners and tenants are being tossed out of their homes. Three million workers have lost jobs in the last year. Insurance companies and politicians are once again colluding to deny us universal health care. We reject this blatant indifference to the urgent needs of average people. We demand quality health care and housing for every dyke and every person!
The U.S’s 40 billion in government-to-government arms sales this year is outrageous! Our taxes fund militaristic support of repressive regimes around the world. We reject war! We reject the empty promise that peace can be achieved through murder, and the imaginary borders that allow one group to murder another. War is a violation of human rights. While we do not want our dyke and gay sisters and brothers hounded out of the military for their sexual orientation, neither do we support the existence of the military. Dyke Rights = No Wars and No Armies.
As dykes, and as a part of every community, we feel each of these injuries keenly. We know that our identities cannot be fragmented. Dyke rights are human rights. Dykes cannot be free until we bust through all the prison walls and until we create communities to hold and heal and cherish the people among us who have been damaged by drugs and poverty and violence. Dykes cannot be free while there is a death penalty, in this country or anywhere on the planet. Dykes cannot be free while 40% of the world’s people have no access to clean drinking water, or while native land is stolen and torn up for uranium mining. Dyke rights are human rights.
We recall that the LGBT liberation movement in the US grew out of the African American civil rights movement, the movement in opposition to the Vietnam War, and the women’s movement. We, the San Francisco Dyke March, continue the rich legacy of that activism when we demand something better than following heteropatriarchy. We insist that ALL our relationships be cherished and acknowledged, not just the ones most like heterosexual marriages. We embrace the freedom to explore all types of loving, all types of consensual sexuality, all types of gender identity.
There were many lesbian activists among groups like the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) and the Combahee River Collective, which demanded a new paradigm for thinking about caretaking, housework and children. We honor this herstory when we honor children as are our collective responsibility and future. Community is a human right!
As we come together at the San Francisco Dyke March to celebrate our creativity and our unity, we commit ourselves to always looking critically at the choices our flawed society offers. We commit ourselves to dreaming a world where all freedoms are realized and justice is our passion.
With justice comes peace.
The right to full citizenship is a dyke right!
The right to live without fear of governments is a dyke right!
The right to define our communities is a dyke right!
The right to define our relationships is a dyke right!
The right to make a new world is a dyke right!
Dyke rights are human rights!
Human rights are dyke rights!