MEET A NASTY WOMAN: 5 QUESTIONS WITH KATE BROWN
Meet Kate Brown. Kate graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, from the University of Colorado, Boulder and earned her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Kate is the Scientific Director of Research and Development at Generate Life Sciences, where she focuses on establishing the scientific, strategic, and tactical direction of research for the newborn stem cell division of the business.
Kate is also an active member of the LGBTQ community. Kate is the President of San Francisco Dykes on Bikes Women’s Motorcycle Contingent, a 501c(3) non-profit whose mission is to create a national and international community of women motorcyclists supporting philanthropic endeavors in the LGBTQ+ communities.
Kate is married to her wife of 8 years and together they have a loving dog Shasta whose days are spent napping next to her desk while she works from home.
What makes you a Nasty Woman?
I’m a Scientist. I’m also a Dyke on a Bike. A Nasty Woman isn’t one thing - it’s the multitude of ways that we show up in the world everyday.
Share an experience that shaped your views or helped get you involved in activism.
I watched my first San Francisco LGBTQ+ Pride Parade in the early 2000s. I couldn’t believe the sound as hundreds of Dykes on Bikes started their engines, the roar that began reverberating down Market Street rattling all of the windows in the high-rise downtown buildings, and then the sight of an incredibly diverse show of strong, women motorcyclists and their allies. It was a scene like nothing else and it stirred something inside of me. I knew that I had to be a part of it.
I have had the privilege of working with the San Francisco Dykes on Bikes® for more than 16 years, many of which were alongside one of the founding members, Soni Wolf. Soni rode with Dykes on Bikes for 40 years. She was an activist whose steadfast refusal to accept “Dyke” as an epithet, taught me about courage, dignity, leadership and LGBTQ+ Pride. She was a mentor who helped shape the way I think about acceptance and claiming my own space.
What advice do you have for people who want to help enact change and push progress but don’t know how to get involved?
First, VOTE! Nothing will change unless we press for that change, unless we voice what we want at a local, state, and federal level.
Second, ASK! There are so many organizations that need people and volunteers. Ask around - look for opportunities and groups that speak to you and your vision of what this world can be. Ask if you can learn more about them. You may bring something to the table that nobody else does. Perhaps it’s a unique viewpoint or a skill set. But the most important things we can bring are our enthusiasm, our time, and our desire to be a part of change. And remember, you aren’t making a life-long commitment by going to a meeting; but you may learn something and find a way to be involved that you might not have otherwise.
If you could look into the future, 10 years from now, and see that real progress has been made, what does that look like to you?
Progress is when the institutions that govern us are also made up and representative of us. Race, social-economic class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, physical abilities. We will know we have arrived when we trust in those institutions because they mirror our community.
Share with us a wine memory. It can be a favorite wine, moment or experience, or a memorable pairing.
Picking out the wine that my wife and I would serve to our wedding guests. We chose a red wine from a winery that her family helped found several generations ago and a sparkling wine from my favorite winery that I became a member of while in graduate school. Something old and something new!
Tell us more about you and any projects, business or organization that you would like to promote.
San Francisco Dykes on Bikes® WMC is a 501c(3) non-profit whose mission is to create a national and international community of women motorcyclists supporting philanthropic endeavors in the LGBTQ+ communities. In 1976, the movement for women’s empowerment and visibility brought a small group of women to the front of the San Francisco Pride Parade. The local newspapers picked up the phrase “Dykes on Bikes” and the name stuck. Under the legal strategy of activist lawyer Brooke Oliver at 50 Balmy Law and with the help of an amazing team of lawyers working pro bono, San Francisco Dykes on Bikes WMC argued successfully with the United States Patent Trademark Office, all the way to the US Supreme Court twice over the course of 14 years, that the trademark “Dykes on Bikes” is not derogatory to lesbians but rather signifies pride within the LGBTQ+ community and is protected as political free speech under the First Amendment; in 2017 they helped overturn an unconstitutional law, part of the Lanham Act, in what is considered one of the most important Freedom of Expression cases (Matal vs. Tam) in years. San Francisco is the original and founding chapter for Dykes on Bikes chapters across the United States and around the world and the work of the San Francisco Dykes on Bikes® Women’s Motorcycle Contingent has protected the name Dykes on Bikes for use in LGBTQ civil rights, educational and charitable purposes.
Kate is our label lady for NASTY WOMAN WINES Unapologetically Daring Columbia Valley Zinfandel.
Important: “Dykes on Bikes” and the Dykes on Bikes logo are trademarks owned by San Francisco Dykes on Bikes Women’s Motorcycle Contingent, register and/or applications pending in the United States, Europe, Australia and many other countries. No copying of the Logo or any content here is permitted. Unauthorized reproduction is punishable by law.