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Atlanta Pride’s Dyke March caters to an edgier crowd. (Photo by Dyana Bagby)
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HOME > COMMUNITY > PRIDE
By: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
COMMENTS |
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The Atlanta Pride Committee expect women — as well as men — to gather in large numbers for the annual Dyke March on July 5, despite its new Atlanta Civic Center location. For the past several years, organizers estimate 400-500 people have participated in the annual march around Piedmont Park.
Betty Couvertier, director of outreach for the APC and an organizer of the Dyke March, says the event is a “planned but spontaneous,” trans-inclusive event for women to express their unity.
“I do hope that in this most important year, an election year and a year where we are seeing so many ‘good, bad and ugly' occurrences in our community — locally, nationally and globally — that the women of Atlanta and our allies come out to show our continued solidarity and our diversity,” she says.
The Dyke March’s route this year begins at the Pine Street Gate at the corner of Piedmont Avenue, winds toward North Avenue, turns west, then south on Peachtree Street and east on Ralph McGill Blvd. for a return to the Civic Center. The march is approximately 1.2 miles and is estimated to take 35 minutes.
The Dyke March is a chance for everyone, including men, to demonstrate unity, pride and visibility, Couvertier says.
“We invite our gay brothers to join us to help us maintain security as they march alongside of us in a show of community and a visible show of how we are united as one,” she adds.
— Dyana Bagby
Atlanta Pride again presents a mass commitment ceremony as part of the festival to provide couples the opportunity to publicly affirm their relationship. The event is scheduled for Saturday, July 5, a change from the ceremony’s Friday night spot in previous years.
Each year, dozens of couples exchange
vows during Pride’s Commitment
Ceremony. (Photo by Sher Pruitt)
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Congregation Bet Haverim’s Rabbi Josh Lesser officiates the ceremony, along with Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Lesser says he honors the message the event sends, but is especially happy to see the change in day take place.
“They’ve done it on Friday nights in the past, which has prevented a Rabbi from participating in any real way,” Lesser says. “Because they did move it, I’m grateful and I’d like to honor that.”
The ceremony is interfaith, and participants have the opportunity to be blessed individually by a member of the clergy of their own particular faith. Gay singer/songwriter Eric Himan is slated to perform at the reception.
Lesser predicts that this year's ceremony will see some impact by the California Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision.
“I think it will probably bring more politically-minded people to make the statement that we don’t have these rights in Georgia,” he says.
But essentially, it remains a personal event, and should not stand on its own, Lesser stresses.
“For me, this ceremony doesn’t replace actually working with a clergy person and having one’s own ceremony and making sure that people have the legal protections that they can have in place before doing something like this,” he says. “I feel that this ceremony is a ritual to honor people’s commitments and encourage them to go further and deeper.”
— Rob Beck
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