Yes — there was an “Emergency Naked Bike Ride” in Portland, called to protest the president bringing ICE enforcement and federal agents into our city, and attempting (so far unsuccessfully) to deploy the National Guard because “Portland is burning” — even in the rainy season.
When we ride naked for Pedalpalooza, we typically get the sunny and dry weather, and a lot of us stay home if that’s not the case. (As a reminder, nudity is protected free speech in Oregon, as long as you don’t intend to “titillate or arouse.”) But this was special, so when the day of the emergency naked bike ride dawned cold and rainy, that only changed the creativity of the body decor.
The October day would be the coldest day since the past spring, but still, very pale skin began to appear as the crowd gathered. Some donned bodysuits in a pink hue; others covered up with strategic duct tape letters (the “C” in both FUCK and ICE) on their ponchos.
Media crews galore snapped photos as the crowd cheered that, when their neighbors were under attack, they would “fight back!” “When trans rights are under attack, what do we do?” “Stand up fight back!” “When Palestine is under attack, what do we do?” “Stand up fight back!” “When immigrant rights are under attack, what do we do?” “STAND UP FIGHT BACK!”
The ride began, with several of our crew in various states of dishabille. Photographers were everywhere. We knew a crew from the Daily Show was somewhere, with our tandem bike, but we never saw them. We rode across the Burnside Bridge and in a loop past stages of protests past: the waterfront, the police station, the federal building “protected” in the Tear Gas Battles of 2020, city hall, where many of us remembered delivering goodies to the Occupy protestors in 2009 and others remembered from anti-war protests in 1991 and 1969.
As the ride headed nearer the South Waterfront, where the ICE detention facility is, the rain began. Riders pulled up in underpasses to don clothes or ponchos or just give up. Some of us kept going and as the downhill toward the ICE building came before us, the skies opened up. Chaos reigned, pro-ICE protesters pointing live feeds in our faces as ICE agents waved real guns our direction. Cameras were everywhere.
The frogs; the bananas; the unicorn and the other costumed protestors cheered. Later, tear gas would again fill the streets.
While ICE was not deterred and would go on to raise alarms over the next few weeks with more and more obscene use of “non lethal” munitions banned internationally for use in war on ordinary locals, including the families living in the apartment building across the street, Trump’s attempt to bring in national guard continued to be blocked by judges. Some cited the disconnect between naked cyclists and the depiction of black-clad antifascists, a distinction that tries our hearts (as wearing black and being against fascism is protected free speech too) but — at least in some ways — protects our neighbors.
Naked bike rides may not fix everything, but the audacity of the protest soothes some of our souls. And being willing to doff our clothes and ride past heavily armed federal agents in the pouring rain in support of our neighbors is — at least — a statement that will be remembered.