San Francisco
The first San Francisco Dyke March was held a few months later, in June 1993, and is still celebrated every year on the Saturday evening before the annual Pride Parade. The Dyke March is informal, with marchers creating their own signs and most people showing up to participate, rather than to just watch. The streets along the march route are lined with thousands of enthusiastic spectators, mostly gay men in support of the women. The march begins in Dolores Park with speeches, performances and community networking and ends in the Castro District, at the Pink Saturday party where the Dyke March sound-truck becomes a stage for more performances, DJs and more speakers. The San Francisco Dyke March has high attendance numbers yet remains a peaceful and well-organized event. While some have stated that 200,000 attend, the more common estimate for 2010 is around 50,000, as found on the official website.
Since its inception, the San Francisco Dyke March Committee (a small group of volunteers) has never applied for nor received a permit from the city, exercising the First Amendment right to gather without permits and without blatant corporate sponsorships.
Read more about this topic: Dyke March
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