My Letter to San Francisco Dyke March after the violence against Sister Dykes

The March occurred on June 23rd 2018 when the violence took place:

Letter to San Francisco Dyke March:
Sisters,
I have attended San Francisco Dyke March for close to 20 years from 1994 until 2013.
Unfortunately due to the Recession I could no longer get work in my field or afford rent so I had to relocate to Nebraska. However, I have kept up with my Bay Area Lesbian friends and communities as much as possible from a distance. I also was a Safety Monitor for the Disabled Dyke Cable Car, and tabled for Dyke March severa times selling T shirts, along with attending all those years. It was the highlight of my Pride season to be around that many Lesbians/Dykes of all stripes.

I was shocked and appalled when I found out 12 longtime older OUT Activist Lesbians, many whom I have known personally; and some as friends and allies over the Internet; were attacked by Trans Activists and their allies at San Francisco Dyke March. Neither did your Safety Monitors support them or guide them to safety or stop the harassers. They had to engage the police to stop the mob who swarmed them. Signs were ripped out of their hands, they were pushed to the ground several times, had their heels stepped on. I read what had happened, saw the videos.

These are women that I know, that are nonviolent, that have a RIGHT to be at Dyke March even if they have a difference of opinion. Some of their signs were prescient in the attack endured by Dykes/Lesbians online and off, with physical, sexual and other threats. "We will not be silenced by your violence." They are the kind of activists that were VITAL to creating Dyke/Lesbian community in the first place!!

Hate speech has turned into acts of physical violence, from two Oakland Lesbians and their son viciously murdered by trans activist Dana Rivers who spent many years protesting against Michfest at Camp Trans to constant trolling on every Lesbian and many womyn's groups with threatening hate and rapist speech towards Lesbians, Feminists and women they disagree with. To a hateful display put on at the San Francisco Library by the Degenderettes on Punching Terfs, decorating baseball bats with paint and barbed wire, and stealing our matriarchal symbol the Labryis as a symbol of Lesbian and Amazon Pride, and morphing it into a weapon they threaten to use against any so called 'TERFS', which is a hate word. Nor do we want to be called ":Cis" or 'Queer". I also heard that shirts from the Degenderettes were being sold at Dyke March, "I Punch Terfs". Advocating violence is NEVER acceptable.

We are LESBIANS, DYKE FEMALES out loud and proud. We do not want sex with ANY  born males, nor is penis female any way they want to sell it. Bottomline Lesbians have a RIGHT  to date who we want, when we want, and engage in the consensual sexacts WE DESIRE between two Female bodies. We also have a right to our own spaces, and to defend Lesbian youth, and encourage them to THINK before transitioning at such a young age, before they really know who they are. That there are other possibilities, which one of the signs addressed. All the side effects going on Testosterone. We all know countless Lesbian women who have been actively pressured to transition, which is now extending to youth.

More and more are starting to detransition after seeing what these hormones do to their bodies, and that what was promised them was smoke and mirrors. Coming back to OWN their Female and Lesbian selves.

But the bottomline is that violence is NEVER acceptable or ganging up on one's so called Sisters, IN A DYKE MARCH  which is OUR night of Pride. Built up by Longterm Lesbians such as these Sisters and others who have lived a lifetime both as Lesbians and as Females. There is a Trans  March for Trans people the night before. I would not barge into that EXPECTING they accomodate me as a lifelong Dyke and Female, or threaten them with violence.

We will no longer stand for cooptation of our communities, our bodies, our beings or identities or for the continuing censorship and threats of violence or ACTUAL violence from the trans community and their supporters.

We will hold all Lesbian Organizations accountable to actually represent US. Lesbians. Dykes. Born Female women who love and lust and partner with other women, who have lived and created Dyke/Lesbian community together, who long for our Sisterhood, our lost spaces and lost connections.

What we saw at Dyke March is Lesbophobia, real true Lesbian hating. And completely unacceptable. Violence is NEVER ok.

The Dyke March Committee will need to do some soul searching. Do you HONOR your Lesbian and Dyke Elders, us older big Butches, and basically matriarchs of the Dyke Movement who broke ground and territory before it was in, popular or safe, or do you not? Femme and androgynous Dykes too.  Is there no room for differing opinions, and like the current Administration any opposition must be silenced with violence, dismissal or false narratives? Because this was nothing short of those men marching in Charlottesville with their torches chanting "Blood and Soil".Except it was 'TERFS got to go".  Fortunately none of these women were seriously hurt. They did suffer bruises however. Check out all the hate speech  that is said against those who speak out at terfisaslur dot com.

Whether it be Dyke March, loss of Michfest, loss of our bookstores and Lesbian businesses, our gathering spaces, chased out of our OWN commmunities, silenced on the internet, deplatformed, signs ripped out of our hands, beat up, pushed down or even murdered, our Butches and baby Butches pressured to take Testosterone while the Pharmaceutical, Psychiatric, Medical industries grow fat over Female bodies, and male ones too, and the crime of pressuring youth to transition that do not conform, when 80% or more of them if left alone would come out Lesbian or Gay, we will NO LONGER be silenced, or tolerate violence against us. We ask that YOU as Dyke Sisters hear us, with our NAME in your Organization. We will NOT be battered anymore by the GBT, or organizations that no longer represent us.

                                                       -In Sisterhood,
                                                   
FEISTYAmazon/ M.A