by dglawless

July 6, 2001

From journal San Francisco Gay Pride 2001

We arrived in San Francisco at about 5 p.m. this gave us just enough time to get to the Castro District for the Saturday night Dyke March. The Dyke March on the Saturday night before the Gay Pride Parade has been a long-standing tradition. When we got to the area where the march was to take place, they were already lined up and ready to go.

The March is always led by the "Dykes on Bikes" which is a colorful group to say the least. You will see all sorts of folks on all sorts of bikes. There were some pretty impressive Harley Davidsons as well as an occasional scooter. Many of the women had on elaborate costumes. The age range was probably 18 to 80 and everything in between.

Following the motorcycles were many different groups of women. Some were representing political causes and organizations such as breast cancer, environmental concerns, animal rights groups, HIV, and lesbian and gay families. There was a large PFLAG (parents and friends of lesbians and gays) group. Lesbian police officers and firefighters and clergy groups. Every ethnic group you can imagine was represented in the march along with drummers and musicians.

The night was cool and windy but there were still about 1000 marchers and many more onlookers. It was a very exciting beginning to our Pride weekend trip to San Francisco.

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