'Women unite, take back the night'
March against sexual violence gets mixed reactions from public

by Shannon McMahon
Contributing writer

Anora Johnson The Daily Illini

Participants chant during the annual Take Back the Night march Friday night. The event, which began in England in the early 1970's, allows women and transgendered individuals to publicly address issues such as fear, isolation and other injustices women might feel they have been subjected to within modern society. Prior to the march, a rally provided a forum for speakers to express views on gender and cultural issues.

Women and transgendered people marched through Champaign and Urbana in an effort to reclaim their power Friday night.

Take Back the Night brought 320 women and transgendered people together - more than have ever attended the event during its 22-year history.

"This is one of society's ills," said Lucy McCollum, who organized the event with 20 others whom she called "fabulous women."

"We can only become richer in addressing and eradicating these issues plaguing our society," McCollum said.

The event began with a rally near the Illini Union followed by a march around campus.

"We want to raise awareness," said Kelly Righton, a co-organizer of the event. "This is an opportunity for women to march at night, without men, in places where many women were raped or assaulted."

"We are marching to symbolically and literally take back the night," said Champaign County Health Care Consumers organizer Claudia Lennhoff, one of several women who spoke before the march.

Men are restricted from the march but are allowed to attend the rally. The absence of men from the march has been controversial.

"This is a time for women, and I might add that this one-hour march is having no harmful effect on men," Lennhoff said to a cheering crowd. "They are not being raped, beaten, denigrated, impoverished, terrorized or victimized."

Posters reading, "Women Unite, Take Back The Night" and "Yes Means F-k Me, No Means F-k You" waved in the air.

Sluts Against Rape presented a skit emphasizing that women can "strut their stuff" in the face of rape.

"Even if society calls you a slut, you don't deserve to be raped," said Melanie Harrison, a self-proclaimed slut and graduate student, holding a fake wooden axe. "Everyone has the right to be who they want to be without fear of rape."

Staceyann Chin, a poet born in Jamaica, came from New York to deliver a performance of slam poetry, which is delivered loudly and aggressively.

Anora Johnson The Daily Illini

Sydney Meyn, left, and Erin Gillis, center, chant while marching arm-to-arm along Third Street in Champaign during the Take Back the Night march Friday night. Meyn and Gillis, eighth-graders at Urbana Middle school, said they joined the event because they wanted to support women's rights.

"Every day, I know what I want to be today," Chin shouted in a poem. "I want to go down in history as miscellaneous because I couldn't be categorized."

Debbie Shelden, a participant in the march and rally, emphasized the importance of remembering "our sisters with disabilities."

Shelden said although the University is a leading institution in accommodating wheelchairs, many handicapped entryways on campus are dimly lit, forcing women into increased danger. The marching path was re-routed nine times because of wheelchair accessibility restrictions.

Hundreds of women clapped as the march began. Participants chanted as posters cast shadows over the crowd. Some women carried megaphones and led the chants, while others worked as security guards, directing traffic.

"This is a way to feel powerful about things that take away power," said Lissa Staley, a graduate student. "Most places on campus I'm scared to walk on, alone at night, but I'm forced to anyway."

As the crowd passed Busey Hall, women from the residence hall ran on the porch and joined in the cheering. Many cars on campus were blocked by the march and honked their horns in unison with the chants. As marchers passed businesses, employees stared at the women walking