Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Chicago SlutWalk Retracts ‘Zionist Symbols’ Ban

After being condemned for promising to ban “Zionist symbols,” the Chicago SlutWalk is now saying that its early August event will be inclusive of all who want to fight sexism and sexual assault.

“We are not banning any symbols or any kind of ethnic or heritage flags,” organizer Red S. told Haaretz, after consulting with other people in charge of the march. “Those are welcome, everyone is welcome to express themselves as they see fit at SlutWalk.”

“We have some apologizing to do,” adding that the impetus for the “Zionist symbols” ban was a tweet from the SlutWalk’s social media team, which she said had not consulted others before sending out that post.

The Chicago SlutWalk had raised hackles for tweeting out plans to ban Zionist and Jewish iconography, including the Star of David, which it said it wanted to do in solidarity with the Chicago Dyke March, which expelled three Jewish marchers who were waving Star of David flags last month.

The Chicago event is one of many “slut walks” that occur around the world to advance feminist ideas of gender equality and consensual sex. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been host to their own slut walks.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.