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Queer Trivia
She was an American activist.
She was born on September 19, 1948, and grew up in Rhode Island. She joined the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. During her time in service, she worked as a medic at a hospital in Texas, treating wounded combat veterans. She did not speak about her time caring for soldiers returning from Vietnam because she was too traumatized by how the veterans were treated.
After her discharge, she moved to San Francisco and settled in the city’s gay district, the Castro. She became a manager of photocopier centers for the Charles Schwab Corporation as well as for other brokerages and law firms.
In June 1976, a group of 20 to 25 lesbians decided to ride their motorcycles in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade, which had started in 1970. They led the parade to keep their bikes from overheating while idling behind the slower-moving walking groups.
One of the riders referred to the group as “dykes on bikes,” a phrase that was overheard and later reported in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Dykes on Bikes (DOB) officially formed within a week of the parade. She embraced the name and helped the new group use it to become one of the most visible and empowering symbols of LGBTQ communities.
In 2016, she was sainted by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in recognition of her lifelong dedication to fundraising, activism, and human rights.
She was selected to serve as a grand marshal for San Francisco Pride in June 2018 but died two months before the event. Her close friends represented her in the parade by carrying the custom-painted motorcycle tank from the bike she rode in her first parade in 1978. Other riders honored her by placing signs on their motorcycles or holding them by hand.
In June 2019, she was among the first fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted into the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.
Do you know her name? The answer is at the bottom of the email.
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