50 Years Ago In Pride History

50 Years Ago, Dykes on Bikes Rode to the Front of Pride. Their Engines Are Still Hot

We ride along with the legendary, leather-clad lesbians — and take a trip through their history.

By Ana Osorno

The first sound you hear at San Francisco’s annual Pride Parade is the revving of hundreds of motorcycles. Atop them the most glorious dykes you’ve ever seen, bedecked in leather. They slowly coast down Market Street, as joyful as they are queer, waving to thousands of spectators as they kick off the procession. But that wasn’t always the case.

In 1970, San Francisco’s first-ever Pride celebration took place on Polk Street, with a small group of LGBTQ+ people organizing to mark the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. What began as a small word-of-mouth event grew rapidly, turning into the Christopher Street West celebration by 1972 — which drew some 2,000 participants and 15,000 spectators — and then the Gay Freedom Day Parade.

But in 1976, something magical happened that would forever change the trajectory of queer history. During the Gay Freedom Day Parade, a group of brave, motorcycle-riding lesbians made a seemingly inconsequential and impromptu decision to move their bikes to the front and claim their space.

“There were some women on motorcycles and they were in the middle of the parade, behind a bunch of men, and they wanted to be at the front,” current Dykes on Bikes president Kate Brown, who uses she/they pronouns, tells me. “It was that movement of just being up and in front and loud and proud. And it was a moment of courage and lesbian dignity and owning that. Somebody coined the name Dykes on Bikes and our paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, picked it up and ran with it. And we have been known as Dykes on Bikes ever since.”

Their faces reflected in the motorcycle mirror under a Pride flag, a pair of women in the ‘Dykes on Bikes’ group wait, in the Castro District, for the start of the International Lesbian & Gay Freedom Day Parade, San Francisco, California, June 26, 1988. (Photo by Bromberger Hoover Photography/Getty Images)Bromberger Hoover Photography/Getty Images

Today, the San Francisco Pride has grown far beyond its humble beginnings, with an estimated one million people celebrating, protesting, and marching in 2025. The rainbow Pride flag — the global symbol of LGBTQ+ joy and resistance — flies over all the proceedings, first raised by creator Gilbert Baker in 1978 in this very city and now ubiquitous around the world. The Dykes on Bikes have multiplied as well.

The first time I ever glimpsed a group of queer women on bikes — whom I would later learn were affiliated with The Sirens MC — was in June 2025, but to say that I “saw” them would be an understatement. I was attending the Brooklyn Pride parade with friends when a group of older butches on motorcycles rolled up, engines humming, and invited younger lesbians to hop on the back of their bikes. It was thrilling to witness.

But you don’t just see Dykes on Bikes. No, you hear and feel them throughout your entire body. It’s an all-consuming experience. The noise of the engines fills your ears, and your legs feel like jelly beneath you as they make the ground shake through their sheer numbers. “You can’t look away, it’s so powerful,” Brooke Oliver, the lawyer for Dykes on Bikes, says. And then there’s the joy radiating off both the riders and the spectators who are lucky enough to be in their presence — a pure feedback loop of mutual admiration. As someone who had grown up desperately wanting to ride a motorcycle when she was older — thanks in large part to childhood joyrides around my uncle’s neighborhood — I was immediately in awe.

Little did I know that this would be the start of a thrilling adventure which would eventually lead to me sitting on the back of Big Butch’s bike, coasting over the Golden Gate Bridge. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

That night in June of last year, as I was riding the subway home after the Brooklyn Pride Parade, still coming down from the exhilaration of the evening, I pulled my phone out, and like any good journalist would, began doing research. I learned that Dykes on Bikes would be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026 — a major milestone packed with so much history, including a legal battle over the use of the term “dyke” that made it all the way to the Supreme Court.

“It’s incredible history, and I think every time we ride, whether it’s in a Pride parade or whether we’re putting our jacket with its patch on, it just resonates with us what that group of small women did,” Brown says. “Twenty Dykes on Bikes just moved to the front and said, ‘We’re here. We’re not going anywhere. I’m a dyke and I’m riding this motorcycle and nobody’s going to tell me I can’t ride it.’” (snip-MORE, and it’s a Great read!)

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Published by ali redford

I love dogs and people. I want living creatures to thrive. I love to cook, and share the food, but ya gotta get in line in front of the dog.

7 thoughts on “50 Years Ago In Pride History”

  1. Hi. A grand tribute and I am glad I saved the open tab to read it. I remember when Ron had the second gay bar in a large town in New England where I met him. We had constant trouble with the haters and thugs, northern rednecks who couldn’t just live and let live but had to rule over and attack anything different from themselves. Those haters would wait in small groups to attack the patrons as they left the bar. Often the butch lesbians would move in to protect the rest. I have memories and have told the stories of facing off against several guys trying to protect others feeling like I was not going to win this fight when a couple of women would step in and take the hating attackers to the ground and run them off. I remember sheepishly the night after a rather bad one where I was losing the battle and getting the worst of it the women moved in in force. I spent some time the rest of the evening sitting on the bar as they made me an honorary mascot. I just don’t understand why some people say women are the weaker sex. Anyone who can have another being using their body for 9 months to provide all it needs to grow into a living functioning baby and then suffer the pain of giving birth is not weak. Anyone who can navigate a patriarchal system designed to subjugate them and not just survive it but over come it is far from weak. I could say more but I think we all know why men prefer to think of women as lesser, it is to protect the fragile ego of the males of the species. Hugs

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      1. Hi Ali. I think I have a healthier attitude towards women because I have no desire to own, control, or be dominant over them. Far too many men, even gay men, want to control female bodies and tell them what to do and how to do it. Far too many straight males think they are owed female companionship simply because they want it instead of earning it. Also there is the insecure male who just assumes that women are inferior so must be subservient and obey even the dumbest man. And I have never understood that mentality. It is as silly as an adult woman needing to be escorted by a male in some Islamic countries even if the male is a young boy of 8 or 9. WTF.

        I read the article. On the Platner sexting issue I have heard conflicting reports. However I think it is both a personal issue between him and his wife and unless you were one of the texters involved it is none of our business. Sam Seder had a good breakdown on this and the issue of him getting rough with a woman. One point he made was that in the age we live in, we will have to accept people in politics who sent nude pictures to others they were in relationships with that will surface. Just as the idea of no traditional nuclear families is becoming more and more common we will see people running for office that have fetishes and nontraditional living arrangements.

        As to the woman who claimed he grabbed her shoulder hard enough to leave a mark and locked her in a bedroom where she fell asleep until morning. At that point she found the door unlocked and left. She admits she was never hurt by Platner. I have to ask what was the state / condition of each of them at the time. Had they been drinking, or was he having a flashback and realizing he needed to get away from her? Were they having an argument that got out of control? Plus from what I read she was the only woman to accuse Platner of being abusive. Plus according to Seder and crew the woman was a GOP operative.

        I watched Martha Raddatz on This Week attack Platner and praise Mills even as the people in Maine they interviewed said they did not care they were still voting for him. She went on about how Platner’s past disqualified him but did not seem to feel that way about Paxton or tRump. It is the same way she attacks democrats especailly progressives but never does so to the republicans, She is venomous towards the progressive democrats but not towards any of the republicans. It was the same on CBS, even the commentators wouldn’t directly criticize tRump or the republicans. It is getting harder for the average working person who gets their news from TV to get unbiased factual news reporting. Sigh! 😣😤🤦‍♂️ Hugs

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        1. Well, but there we go. The article was not about Platner, though it went, factually, into the problems (problems before he became the only candidate against Collins; now Maine is stuck and I only hope they elect him and stay on his ass so he won’t do a Fetterman in the Senate,) it is about the liberal men who defend him.

          At the expense of women. Even something as gentle as casting doubt because of “both their conditions”, and “she was OK after, so what’s the problem?” is sexist and woman-blaming.

          Tengrain had a post up over the weekend, or late in last week, anyway, about Platner and Maine. He managed to defend the candidate well without being sexist and woman-blaming. I don’t imagine it’s easy to get past years of indoctrination that every man’s problem is a woman’s fault, but more people need to work on it than do. It’s quite alienating to women, and we still vote.

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          1. Hi Ali. Not quite woman blaming. I read up on her telling of the incident. She admitted they had been drinking heavily. In my view woman blaming would have been if I assumed he was right minded in control and sober. He has admitted to drinking heavily, which is normal for military people. I did not say she was OK so what was the problem, I said she said she was never hurt.

            Ali I would be the last person / man to say every man’s problem is caused by a woman. Never even crossed my mind. But you have to look at what has come out about her, her accusations, the fact she helped found a support group for Justice Kavanaugh who was very credibly accused of rape by numerous women, and what got me was her explanation of why she came forward to make her accusations against Platner was the very same reasons almost word for word that she used for why she felt the need to create a group to support Kavanaugh.

            I am sorry but the phrase coined during the me too movement was “believe the women”. I feel that would be better phrased as listen to the women, understand what they are saying / claiming, but also use reason and judgment. Just like men can and do lie, women can and do also. I believe in being fair and treating both men and women equally. I don’t assume men are angels and heros, and I don’t assume women are delicate flowers and always the victim. I have a reason for that.

            I have written how a female sergeant with more rank than me forced me to have sex with her four or five times including locking me in her quarters until I did as she demanded. She was raping me and humiliating me. I was the victim not her. If she had accused me of being the aggressor, many people would have believed her lies. So not all men are the villains, and not all women are the victims.

            I wish I had seen Tengrain’s post I think I would have enjoyed it. However even as I am improving greatly I am far from being well again. Twice this week I was able to eat three meals a day. Today I think I will only be able to handle the breakfast of left overs. Plus I am very tired even as I am not going back to bed during the day. I am up to doing the cartoons / memes / news posts most days, and I am trying to keep up with the few comments I have coming in, but I am not well enough to try to go back to other blogs. But I do miss them as well as reading your and Randy’s posts. As Kamyk would say I just don’t have the spoons yet. Hugs

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              1. Thank you Ali. The weird thing is I have a few good days and then bang I have a really bad day where all I can do is go to bed and I can’t eat. I find it strange. For the last few days I have done well and today I can barely sit at my desk wanting just to go to bed and sleep. I have a visit with my primary care soon. Hopefully he can tell me what is going on. Hugs

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