Every year at the end of June, the San Francisco Pride Parade starts in the exact same way — with the cascading roar of several hundred women starting up their motorcycles at the exact same time. This year was no different. The San Francisco Dykes on Bikes: Women’s Motorcycle Contingent, or simply DOB, led the parade down Market Street for the 40th year in a row — the parade itself is only 6 years older.

Finding their place at the front was easy. The first time a group of female motorcyclists gathered at the head of the SF Pride Parade, in 1976, they were sick and tired of handling their bulky bikes — prone to overheating — while crawling along at parade-goer pace. As the story goes, an article in the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed the motorcycle club "Dykes on Bikes" and the name stuck. But earning the right to officially (and legally) label themselves "dykes" proved to be a lot harder.

As the organization grew, the women attempted to protect the moniker for nonprofit use, only to have the trademark office reject their request on the grounds that the term was derogatory to the lesbian community. From 2003 to 2008, the battle over their name continued, until the trademark office yielded following the submission of sufficient evidence that proved activists were reclaiming the word for positive use — the iconic television show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was referenced as a similar example. Today, the DOB has chapters all over the globe, from Melbourne to London to Akureyri, Iceland. All of the women call themselves "dykes" proudly — it's fully trademarked, after all.