Deterring a Flood of ‘Dyke’ Insults

You think it’s easy putting together an annual Dyke March?

There’s the fund-raising. You’ve got to choose the date. You’ve got to line up the entertainment (one of this year’s attractions: Hamburger Mary’s Drag Show). You have to get the park permit from the city and then a permit for the marchers’ route. And then you have to get the word out to maximize turnout, if only to avoid this question: What if they threw a dyke march and nobody came?

So, these last few months have been busy for Lori Hutson, who’s handling the press for the march Saturday in Costa Mesa.

And now, with just a few days to go, everything has fallen neatly in place. The grunt work has been done, and as for the all-important publicity -- well, the sponsors can thank the Costa Mesa City Council for making the event more visible than it could have hoped for.

By imposing some tough permit conditions and prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to threaten to take it to court, the council -- before basically giving up the fight -- has given the marchers the kind of publicity they couldn’t buy.

“Any publicity is good publicity for an event like this,” says the savvy Hutson, “so it [the flap with the city] did play into it a little bit.”

The Dyke March is similar to those held in other cities in America. Its purpose, Hutson says, is to “promote visibility of lesbians, bisexual and transgender women.” At its core is a protest over the way those people are treated in society, from subtle to not-so-subtle harassment or outright discrimination.

For that reason, the march through a small section of Costa Mesa won’t be called a parade. “We’re trying to keep it known as a march, because a march makes you think of protest,” Hutson says. “A parade is more of a celebration type of thing.”

I had to ask her: Do you really need a march? While many gay people prefer to live their lives without undue attention, why such a public display of one’s sexuality?

“The more visible we are in everyday life, the less we’ll be discriminated against,” Hutson says. “Some of the older generation, they probably can’t believe we’re using the word ‘dyke.’ ”

But, she says, “because the [event] is for lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be called a lesbian march.”

Besides, she says, “the more we use the word and the more we’re comfortable with it, the less hurtful it is when some redneck driving down the street yells, ‘Dyke!’ Then we can say, ‘Thanks for noticing.’ ”

Saturday’s event starts at noon in Lions Park. The march is scheduled for 5 p.m. and will wend its way from the park and finish up around 19th Street and Newport Boulevard.

The event sponsors won their fight with the city, but Hutson isn’t gloating. She knows she should thank the council for the free pub.

I ask if the idea is to be provocative. “I think we are pushing the envelope in Orange County, if only because that, except for last year’s march, this is the first gay event held on a public street since 1989,” Hutson says. “It’s like people know the gay community exists, but don’t want to talk about it. But the tradition of dyke marches has been to definitely push the envelope and be as out there as possible. I don’t know that that was necessarily our intention. Ours was mainly to make it a comfortable and safe environment for other women in Orange County to come out here and be with us.”

Given the distaste some residents will have for the march, I ask Hutson if it advances the cause. “Every inconvenience, every negative remark,” she says, “was offset last year by one 17-year-old girl who said, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever been around other lesbians, and I’m so thankful.’ ”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821, at dana.parsons@latimes.com or at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.