This year, organizers of the annual Take Back the Night rally and march decided to eradicate the divisions that in the past had separated women, gays and allies as they traveled from the University to downtown Eugene.
It was a way to acknowledge the different ways people have experienced sexual assault, said University student Maceo Persson, who spoke at the rally.
Hundreds gathered at the EMU Amphitheater Thursday to rally and march against sexual violence.
Dozens of booths were set up and volunteers gave out buttons, including ones that read “got consent?” Blue ribbons were also worn by those who identified themselves survivors.
The rally featured dances and cheers from the Eugene Radical Cheerleaders, speakers from the University community and keynote speaker Nandi Crosby, assistant professor of women’s studies and sociology at California State University, Chico. Marietta Bonaventure, slammaster of the Eugene Poetry Slam, emceed the event.
The Take Back the Night March began in the U.S. in 1978 in San Francisco. The ASUO Women’s Center and Sexual Assault Support Services put on the event every year locally on the last Thursday of every April.Crosby began her speech Thursday by clarifying what she called the “f-word,” or feminism.
Crosby denounced the stereotype that feminists are angry men-haters who are always looking for a fight.
“A revolutionary is a lover,” Crosby said, quoting Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. “When people fight back to claim their humanity, that’s not violence, that’s love.”
Heather Huhtanen, the Sexual Assault Training Institute director for the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force, was the first speaker. She had the women in the crowd chant, “Let’s take back our bodies, let’s take back our autonomy, let’s take back our autonomy and let’s take back our sexuality.” She also challenged the men in the crowd to speak out about sexual violence.
Persson and Lezlie Frye spoke out for transgender and disabled people, saying that differences between people are often used to justify violence.
The Eugene Radical Cheerleaders, made up of female University students, opened and closed the rally with dances and chants regarding sexual violence.
“I drank ale, I drank stout, I passed out, that is not consent,” they cheered.
At dusk, the crowd marched and was met by local samba group Samba JÃ