At theJuly 24th 7:00pm HRC meeting @ Costa Mesa City Hall, 77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA

OC Dyke March planned to present their event to the Human Relations Committee of Costa Mesa to ask for their support. They urged as many women as possible to show up.

The Dykes' Lori Hutson said in her e-mail urging support:

"[We...] won’t put up with their bureaucratic bullshit!



"The city of Costa Mesa has approved our special events permit for the Dyke March with unrealistic conditions.

"First and foremost they are charging over ,000 dollars for police protection in addition to other fees totaling ,699.00. Not to mention the fact that they have approved a route that is hidden within a residential area, refusing to allow us the exposure that we demand.



"These conditions are outrageous given that no other Dyke March nation wide has to pay anything over a 'nominal' permit fee, while many do not pay a fee at all and take to major streets expressing their first amendment right to peacefully assemble. The Supreme Court has ruled on this issue several times, stating that unreasonable costs associated with freedom of speech is unconstitutional. What is the city of Costa Mesa trying to get away with?

"It is time to take a stand and unite!... Dykes unite! "



For further information, contact their center @www.thecenteroc.org

Or email or a call…

Lori Hutson

Information Technology Director

The Center Orange County

714.534.0862 x105

lhutson@thecenteroc.org

www.thecenteroc.org

www.dykemarchoc.org

I was at that Human Relations Committee meeting, and witnessed the interaction between the committee and the Dyke March organizers. It was clear that the committee is really not about accepting diverse lifestyles, and points of view at all. One of the committee members (I believe her name is Janice) was even downright hostile toward one of the Dyke March organizers. She told her off (whispering under her breath, of course) before the meeting went to break, and made rude and condescending comments. I did not like what I heard. They are obviously a very biased committee. Good luck with the City of Costa Mesa, because we haven't had any.

Thanks to all of your support and hard work, the Costa Mesa Human Relations Committee voted 7-2 in favor of supporting our march, requesting that the City Council approve our march route and waive or lower fees associated with the march. The HRC will draft a letter of support to be given to the City Council before the August 5th meeting. This provides much needed support, however we still have to convince the City Council.



There have been many articles written about what’s been happening. So check ‘em out!



http://www.ocregister.com/sitearchives/2002/7/26/local/dyke00726cci6.shtml

http://www.myoc.com/community/costamesa/news/cmmarch020801.shtml

http://www.latimes.com/tcn/pilot/news/la-dpt-human31jul31.story

http://www.latimes.com/tcn/pilot/news/la-dpt-humanrelations01aug01.story?coll=la%2Dtcn%2Dpilot%2Dnews



On August 2nd, we met with city staff and Councilwoman Libby Cowan and were able to come to an agreement. We will be marching on our original march route…only in a different direction….there will be a map of the route on the website on Monday. We decided that since this the first year Orange County has ever had a Dyke March, the most important goal for this march was visibility, and costs were secondary. So, we achieved the goal of visibility by convincing the city to approve our original march route. The costs were also reduced to about 00 instead of 99.75…which is still extremely high, but one battle at a time.

We are encouraged by the Human Relations Committee recommendation to the City Council to review policies concerning costs associated with events such as ours and hope that if we choose to organize in Costa Mesa next year, that the costs may be reduced. Not only have we changed history for Dykes in Orange County, but hopefully changed history for any group who wants to exercise their freedom of speech and assembly in the city of Costa Mesa!

Due to the fact that we were able to compromise with city staff this morning, we are withdrawing our appeal to the City Council and WILL NOT be on the agenda or attending the City Council meeting on August 5th.

Thank you for everyone's support and we look forward to seeing all of you at the march on August 17th!

Don't people have a constitutional right to take to the streets to address their grievances? If you wouldn't have done the permit process the police would have nothing to deny you, and you'd be exercising your constitutional right. In addition, police are paid to "keep order" and handle any problems that might arise with traffic. Whether you have a march or not, those police will still be getting paid. Why should you have to pay their salaries for something they're already paid to do anyway? They will just use the permit fees to spy on more activist groups and deny more people their civil rights.