Dykes on Bikes

Dykes on Bikes (motorcycles) are a traditional crowd favorite participant at gay pride events such as Pride parades, Dyke Marches and significant LGBT events like the international Gay Games formerly and informally known as the Gay Olympics.

They most likely were originally put at the front of the parade for logistical reasons and have remained there as a symbol of LGBT pride, defiance, liberation and empowerment. The contingents are fiercely independent and self-reliant in the "Do it yourself" and feminist traditions and have been studied as a social phenomena as a "complex, multi-layered form of consumption-related cultural resistance that raises awareness of social injustice and discursively informs social meanings in everyday life outside the festivals."

Along with drag queens, the Dykes on Bikes have been criticized for not portraying a more acceptable image of LGBT culture but supporters counter that they are seen as highly visible icons of gay pride who refuse to assimilate and conform to mainstream society gender roles and indeed remind of the butches and queens who helped lead the Stonewall riots launching the modern gay-rights movement.

Although they are mostly associated with large parades and events they are actually a loosely affiliated international network of mostly lesbian and dyke motorcycle clubs including The Sirens in New York City, Dykes on Bikes in Portland, Oregon, and the Women’s Motorcycle Contingent in San Francisco as well as a growing international network of chapters.

The Dykes on Bikes have been criticized for using the term dyke in their name rather than lesbian but the group has registered the mark in the United States, after a battle to demonstrate that the terms diesel-dyke, bull-dyke, bull-dagger and dyke all have historically negative connotations but have been re-appropriated as self-referential terms of endearment and empowerment distinct from lesbian and indeed awards and events utilizing those names are now used by the LGBT community. Like the tradition of motorcyclists rejection of the norms of middle-class, middle-America, the Dykes on Bikes teach, by example, that women can be masculine and challenge the dominant sexual and cultural expectations of what a woman is and what she can do and achieve.

History
Although the term specifically was coined by actual dykes on bikes at the first gathering at the 1976 SF Pride parade the term could have been used prior to then but came into formal use at that time. Dykes and motorcycles have been regularly intertwined in lesbian fiction and the term is sometimes used derogatorily against any woman rider who isn't with a man.

In many countries motorcycles are simply an economical and effective mode of transportation. Cheaper to purchase, maintain and use than a four-wheeled vehicle and more capable of handling narrow or poorly maintained roads, motorcycles are a simply a better option. The United States with its car friendly culture and its wide well-marked and extensive road system is an exception rather than the rule but even in America the motorcycle is used not only as transportation but as means of escapism.

According to Harley-Davidson historians female riders did everything men did from long distance riding to enjoying lazy Sunday afternoon rides with friends. In 1915, mother-daughter team Avis and Effie Hotchkiss became the first women to cross the United States on a motorcycle. Dorothy "Dot" Robinson competed through the Depression alongside men in endurance races. Bessie Stringfield was the first African-American woman to complete a solo cross-country ride and during the 1930s and 1940s she traveled through all of the lower 48 states and rode abroad in Europe, Brazil, and Haiti. The 1930s saw the founding of the Motor Maids, the world's first women's motorcycle club founded by Wellesley College graduate Linda Dugeau.

Motorcyclists refer to maintenance and repair as wrenching (in the United States) or spannering (in the United Kingdom), as in "turning a wrench." Traditionally more motorcyclists work on their own vehicles than four-wheel drivers and wrenching was a needed skill for riders as the materials and technology used often meant repairs had to be done on the road, miles from home. Motorcycles are as reliable as automobiles, but the feeling that many riders have that their motorcycle is more than just a means of transportation leads them to working on the bike themselves.

World War II creates opportunities
The outbreak of World War II in 1942 provided women opportunities to volunteer for their country and almost 250,000 women served in the armed forces, mostly in the Women's Army Corps (WAC), two-thirds of whom were single and under the age of twenty-five. Women were recruited with posters showing muscular, short-haired women wearing tight-fitting tailored uniforms. Bessie Stringfield joined a motorcycle dispatch unit of the army.

Many lesbians joined the WAC to meet other women and to do men’s work. Few were rejected for lesbianism, and found that being strong or having masculine appearance – characteristics associated with being dykes - aided in the work as mechanics and motor vehicle operators. A popular Fleischmann’s Yeast advertisement showed a WAC riding a motorcycle with the heading This is no time to be frail. Some recruits appeared at their inductions wearing men’s clothing and their hair slicked back in the classic butch style of out lesbians of the time.

Post-war many women including lesbians declined opportunities to return to traditional gender roles and helped redefine societal expectations that fed the women's, black and gay liberation movements.

Dykes on Bikes first appearance
The first formal appearance s the Dykes on Bikes is 1976 at San Francisco's Pride parade where the riders were placed first as motorcycles don't always run reliably at the walking pace of the rest of the parade and as first contingent they can move faster. Although the original group self-identified as Dykes on Bikes and they were known as such, over the years they used the Women’s Motorcycle Contingent / Dykes on Bikes to encompass those who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or any of the newer gender-bending terms like femme, androgyne and boi.

Worldwide phenomena
Dykes on Bikes have been leading marches such as Gay pride parades, Gay Games events and protests. "Dyke Marches" have become a popular Pride event nationwide with the Dykes on Bikes often leading the marches. The Dyke March events are generally non-commercial, often in sharp contrast to corporate-sponsored pride events, and are usually inclusive of lesbian, bi, and trans women. Leading pride parades around the world from San Francisco to Melbourne, Victoria in Australia, Paris, London, Tokyo, Toronto, Sydney, Zurich, and Greece.

Legal battle to keep "DOB" name for non-profit use
"On February 20, 2004, the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused the registration of the mark Dykes on Bikes under Trademark Act Section 2(a), explaining that a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities would recognize that the term “dyke” is disparaging and objectionable to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities." It was noted that during the same time period from 2000-2005 the Patent Trade Office did approve of “Crippled Old Biker Bastards,” “Biker Bitch,” “Whore,” and “Evil Pussy” as well as “TechnoDyke,” "Homo Depot," "Queer Shop," Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and Queer as Folk. Brooke Oliver Law Office that represented the SFWMC also pointed out the absurdity of the initial rejection ruling citing the PTO's own regulations that "the perceptions of the general public are irrelevant" and indeed the test of “whether a mark is disparaging and/or offensive is the perceptions of the individuals referred to and/or identified by that mark. In this particular case, it is women—or more specifically lesbians, bisexuals and transgender women—who ride motorcycles in the Pride Parades and who would be using the term.”

On November 13, 2006, the Dykes on Bikes won a battle to trademark the name having struggled since 2003 to persuade the United States Patent and Trademark Office that "dyke" was not an offensive word. In 2005, after a prolonged court battle involving testimony on the word's changing role in the lesbian community, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board permitted the group to register its name.

Photos

 * International photo gallery Dykes on Bikes
 * Photos of Dykes on Bikes leading 2007 San Francisco Pride parade
 * Photos of Dykes on Bikes leading 2005 San Francisco Pride parade
 * Photos of Dykes on Bikes pre-2005 San Francisco Pride parade
 * Photos of Dykes on Bikes leading 2004 San Francisco Pride parade
 * Photos of Dykes on Bikes pre-2003 San Francisco Pride parade