Gay Pride celebrations, or more accurately these days, LGBTQ Pride, evoke images of rainbow flags and a multitude of gay stereotypes.  But first and foremost, the image that comes to mind is usually of the leaders of the pack, the Dykes on Bikes.  Over the years, the leather-clad, motorcycle-riding queer women have been held up as an example of both positive and negative aspects of Pride celebrations.  And they are one of the most common stereotypes of the LGBTQ community.

Riding motorcycles is empowering, freeing, and fun in addition to being a practical mode of transportation. Women have been riding motorcycles about as long as men have, for a hundred years or so.  The world’s first motorcycle club for women, the Motor Maids, was founded in the 1930s.

World War II created many new opportunities for women in support of the war effort. Recruitment posters depicted strong, short-haired women in tight fitting uniforms including one advertisement by Fleischmann’s Yeast featuring a WAC (Women’s Army Corps) riding a motorcycle.  Nearly 250,000 women served in the armed forces, two-thirds of whom were single and under 25, and few women were rejected for being lesbians. 

WACs were utilized in nearly every function within the service including as mechanics and vehicle operators.  After WWII, many women, especially lesbians, declined to return to the traditional roles women had before the war.  These women then helped set the stage for both women’s liberation and the gay rights movement.

Dykes on Bikes have been a loosely affiliated network of mostly lesbian and dyke motorcycling groups including The Sirens of New York City, Dykes on Bikes in Portland, and the most famous of them all, San Francisco Dykes on Bikes Women’s Motorcycle Contingent. 

Like drag queens, the motorcycle-riding dykes have often been criticized for the image of LGBTQ culture they portray.  While at the same time, they are also one of the most highly visible icons in the LGBTQ community, especially at Pride events that include a parade.  Dykes on bikes and drag queens are often individuals who refuse to assimilate or conform into mainstream culture and, to this day, are reminders of the original rebels who led the Stonewall riots that launched the modern gay rights movement.

Although a few women motorcyclists had joined earlier Pride parades, it was in 1976 that a small group of 20 to 25 women motorcyclists formed at the front of the San Francisco Pride Parade.  This was the beginning of a tradition that continues to today. As legend has it, one of those pioneering women used the phrase, “dykes on bikes.” That term found its way into the San Francisco Chronicle and it stuck.

Until the mid-1980s, there was no formal organization, women just showed up on their bikes and rode at the front of the parade.  But the San Francisco Pride Parade was growing and becoming more organized and structured and the need for the Dykes on Bikes to do the same was obvious and necessary.

Five women started the Women’s Motorcycle Contingent (WMC). Although many self-identified as dykes on bikes, they used the name San Francisco Women’s Motorcycle Contingent, in part, to encompass a much wider range of identities including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender-bending, femme, boi, etc.  In 2003, the organizers voted to recognize their long history by changing the name of the group to San Francisco Dykes on Bikes Women’s Motorcycle Contingent (SFDOBWMC).

Now, some 400 Dykes on Bikes, from small clubs all over the Bay Area and elsewhere, participate in the San Francisco Pride Parade.  That large a group requires leadership, planning, and good organization. Sheila Malone, a member of SFDOBWMC since 2002 told me, “Starting in April, everything is pretty much focused on Pride…it can’t happen without volunteers.”  Those volunteers help with all the aspects of coordinating the parade day ride.

The bike-riding dykes are at the front of Pride parades not because some tough woman won a thumb wrestling match or stared-down the parade committee for the spot but because there is a real mechanical reason to place the motorcycles in the lead.  Motorcycles tend to overheat and stall when they are moving slow or idling in the middle of a parade group.

Glenne McElhinney, who has been riding with the group since 1977 explained this in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, “One of the reasons we lead the parade is because as the group got bigger, the bikes all overheated…When a bike overheats, you need to ride hard to air out the engine and cool it off…” Being at the front of the parade gives the motorcyclists the room they need to move a little faster than the frequently stopping and slow moving floats, marchers, bands and other parade participants.

SFDOBWMC members do more than riding in Pride parades, San Francisco’s and others around the country.

“We are members of the ICF (Inter Club Fund, of San Francisco, Inc., founded in 1972, is a coalition of motorcycling organizations from the greater Bay Area gay and lesbian community. ICF is a non-profit funded exclusively through donations and fund-raising that was formed to promote safe motorcycling, provide assistance to persons in distress, and promote motorcycling organizations.),” Malone told me as she began a long list of other activities DOB members are involved in.

“We have supported the NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights), …fund-raised for breast cancer, leukemia…done Habitat for Humanity projects…helped buy uniforms for a girls’ basketball team. We see our role as a responsible member of the community; LGBTQ, women’s and San Francisco Bay area.”

In addition to all of that, DOB riders do just that, ride their bikes. Typically in the summer after the brunt of the Pride season, they have several rides around the Bay Area.

For the past several years, SFDOBWMC has been busy with legal matters.  In July of 2003, the Women’s Motorcycle Contingent became aware of a woman in Wisconsin was trying to trademark “Dykes on Bikes” as the name of her clothing and merchandise company.  The dykes in San Francisco, with the Brooke Oliver Group, P.C., objected to this commercial use and filed a trademark application for non-commercial use, LGBTQ Pride and community events.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) refused to grant the trademark three times.  The PTO said that, “a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities would recognize that the term…is disparaging and objectionable to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.” The legal team submitted evidence in the appeals process illustrating that the PTO had approved other trademarks that could also be construed as disparaging, vulgar, or objectionable.  These examples included Crippled Old Biker Bastards, Biker Bitch, and Evil Pussy as well as TechnoDyke, Homo Depot, Queer Shop, Queer as Folk and even Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  This time SFDOBWMC won the case and eventually secured the trademark after another legal challenge by a gentleman claiming that “Dykes on Bikes” denigrated men. That case ended in January of this year when the U.S. Supreme Court turned away the challenge.

The process of this legal battle did show the members of SFDOB that their history was important and needed to be well documented.  Sheila Malone, an artist and educator, was one of the individuals who played an important role in doing just that.

“When I first joined the group, it seemed there were interesting stories about the members and it also seemed that the history wasn’t being kept up with,” Malone told me.  “When this woman in Wisconsin was trying to trademark DOB, we considered how this term affects us.  What does it mean to us.”

Malone set about making a documentary about the San Francisco Dykes on Bikes.  And in the process of creating the film, Malone met and talked to some women who were not fans of the DOB moniker.

“In the 90s, a lot of the women did not want to be called Dykes on Bikes because of the stereotype…they wanted to be women…it [WMC] doesn’t really have any queerness about it,” she said, explaining another reason why the group had been officially known as the Women’s Motorcycle Contingent even though they had long been referred to with the catchy queer nickname, Dykes on Bikes.

So, in addition to being a name of inclusiveness, Women’s Motorcycle Contingent was also away for many of the riders to distance themselves from the stereotype associated with lesbian bikers.  The battle over the trademark was a way of reclaiming both their heritage and their identity.

I asked Malone if she thought about the stereotype of a biker dyke.

“I suppose there still is a stereotype of a very butch man-hating, plaid-wearing motorcycle riding woman.  But our group is really made up of all types of women. We sort of blast through all the stereotypes.”

A number of things came together at the same time: Malone’s documentary, the trademark legal battle, and the re-naming of the group as SFDOBWMC, which all led to an exhibit at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.  Malone was one of the co-curators of the exhibit, which was on display earlier this year.

The exhibit, Dykes on Bikes: 30 Years at the Forefront, incorporated text panels, photos, mementos, and excerpts from Malone’s film. There was even a simulation of riding in a Pride parade.

Malone described the exhibit for me. “It highlighted the 30 plus years of Dykes on Bikes.  The metaphor of the exhibit was road signs and mile markers starting in 1974 with one woman riding on a motorcycle in the Pride parade.  Then we went by decades; We Fought for It, We Earned It, We Own It.  The first 10 years were about women taking their place in the parade…then getting organized and modeling themselves after a traditional non-profit…and now we won the name.”

Now that they do own their name, Dykes on Bikes, will other motorcycle groups be able to use that name or license it from the San Francisco organization?  Malone explained that some of the details aren’t final yet.

“We hope to publish our new bylaws soon and what we hope to do is have a template for groups, then have other chapters of Dykes on Bikes.  We don’t have a problem with other folks using the name if it is in that context of motorcycles in Pride parades…But it’s up to us to be responsible for the use of the trademark.”

Whether you feel thrilled or vilified by the stereotype image of a dyke on a motorcycle, Dykes on Bikes are an enduring part of our collective LGBTQ history.  And more than 30 years later, they are still leading the way for our community.

For more information about Dykes on Bikesâ, please visit www.dykesonbikes.org.  To experience a mini virtual tour of the Dykes on Bikes: 30 Years at the Forefront exhibit that was on display at the GLBT Historical Society, use this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ3alostOhQ.