Saturday’s historic Women’s March on Washington (and, as it turned out, the rest of the western world) was about a lot more than just white cisgendered ladies who have “safe space” boards on Pinterest. Granted, that’s basically what I am, but I know at least one other person besides me who thinks I’m cool anyway. Still, most of us millions who marched this weekend did so because we strive to reject hateful ideals and the Neo-Nazism that is resurgent across the western world right now. While inclusivity and self-awareness are always a problem when large groups of white people get together (which is what we did at the women’s march) I still think it can be productive to celebrate the good while noticing the bad — our lack of intersectionality in the current progressive feminist climate, for one thing.
Our protests this past weekend came on the heels of some good news in radical demonstration history: that the National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries has announced its plans to digitize a majority of its collection of queer protest signs and posters. Officials say the USC Libraries will “digitize 4,200 LGBTQ political posters and protest signs from its collection. The materials will be made accessible through the USC Digital Library and the Digital Public Library of America for free public access.”
So in the spirit of fun and mourning and radicalism and acting out and remembering that our silence won’t protect us, let’s continue to remember, bolster, and preserve these radical moments in our history. Here are some of the raddest, queerest, best/worst signs from our protest against the western world’s attempt to stall and rewind human progress.