Long Beach held its 9th annual Dyke March in Bixby Park on Friday, July 8 where about 200 protestors toted LGBTQ+ flags and pro-choice posters along Broadway Boulevard.
The Dyke March is a lesbian-organized protest created to support LGBTQ+ women’s rights including gay marriage and the right to an abortion.
Spearheading the march were Kimberly Esslinger and Marie Cartier who spoke to attendees along with other speakers.
Cartier, a poet, kicked off the protest with a poem she wrote the day Politico leaked the Supreme Court’s draft ruling on Roe v. Wade.
“And in the hour of our discontent, we are asked to worry about the fecundity, I suppose we can call it that,” Cartier said. “Have we made enough babies yet? As a people, a people ruled by patriarchy, no small thing, a social system in which males dominate and hold primary power. Oh my god, am I sick of it? Anyone with a brain is sick of it.”
Marie Cartier, a poet and professor of gender and women’s studies at Cal State Northridge, hosted the Dyke March on Friday, July 8 2022 at Bixby Park. Cartier showcased a poem called our abortion rights she wrote the day the SCOTUS document to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked. 
Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne riding the back seat of Marna Deitch’s motorcycle, turning southbound on Broadway to reconvene at Bixby Park on Friday, July 8 2022. 
A crowd of about 200 protestors toting posters reading “protect safe, legal abortion” and LGBTQ+ flags march down Broadway on Friday, July 8 2022. 
A bubble shooter attached to the back of a motorcycle in support of LGBTQ+ rights near Bixby Park on Friday July 8 2022. 
As the Dyke March walks down Broadway, onlookers from the neighborhood take photos of the protestors on Friday July 8 2022. 
About 200 people gathered toting LGBTQ+ flags and pro-choice posters attended the Dykes March in Bixby Park on Friday July 8 2022.
Michelle Burgo, who attended the event, said she sees the Dyke March as a way of celebrating and honoring the ancestors that pioneered the movement.
“It started as a riot in Stonewall and we have to continue to fight for our rights as we see, especially today,” Burgo said. “There’s so much happening all the way up to SCOTUS that my marriage could get dissolved. So I’m going to fight for the right, and I’m also going to party and put some glitter on at the same time.”
The march was carried over to the strip of Broadway to Orange Avenue, where posters touting pro-choice slogans such as “I am not ovary-acting” and “protect safe, legal abortion” filled the block.
The march went on until 9 p.m. and reconvened back at Bixby Park.
