Feature Image Photo by Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images

You are jostled awake to find yourself among a large crowd of marching queers. You are buoyed on by what seems like tens of thousands of protesters, shouting and chanting. Someone thrusts a pamphlet at you, with the words “Dyke Manifesto" printed on: a rallying cry for all lesbians to wake up! You realise you must be in the first ever Dyke March. organised by the Lesbian Avengers!

This all seems pretty cool, but uncertainty ripples through the crowd as you reach the final destination of your march: the Whitehouse. You locate the organisers, who are in a mild panic because their fire-eating sticks have gone missing. Without those, they won’t be able to perform their most str...