The 2013 Philly Dyke March kicks off June 8 with several new features to get dykes and their allies rallying for recognition. The march has been unifying and organizing dyke-identified individuals of all races, gender identities and backgrounds to take to the streets since 1998. This year’s march will begin at 3 p.m. at Kahn Park at 11th and Pine streets with performances, speeches and a first-ever wedding ceremony. The official step-off is 4 p.m., and participants will march through the Gayborhood and down Broad Street, but will incorporate a new route that will be kept under wraps until the march. Kathryn Hinchey, one of the organizers, said it will be historic. After the march, participants will return to Kahn Park, where they can enjoy free water ice, speeches by such leaders as director of LGBT affairs Gloria Casarez and live performances from folk musicians and others. This will mark the first year that a hip-hop collective will be introduced. The march brings both new and returning participants and organizers each year. Hinchey, one of the newer organizers, started as a volunteer for the march about a year-and-a-half ago. “I just love the message behind it and doing it in response to a space where we are not welcomed,” she said. “Pride is a predominately white male event, but the march just really made me happy to have a place we could call ours.” For longtime organizer Heather Coutts, the Dyke March provided a sense of community when she was new to Philadelphia. “I’ve been involved for seven to eight years. I really like being involved in the community and organizing for my community,” she said. “Initially, I was fairly new to Philly. I moved here in 2002 and this was another way to get involved in the community and meet new people.” Hinchey said organizers hope to draw several-hundred participants and have been trying to get the word out in different ways, including through the march’s first-ever street team, made up of 10 individuals disseminating information in person. An after-party hosted by Stimulus Productions, in conjunction with the William Way LGBT Community Center’s Homecoming celebration, will be held at Voyuer Nightclub. Coutts said the event is a way to bring the community together to focus on more sectors of the LGBT community. “I think sometimes people forget that there is a strong dyke community that includes cisgender women, transgender women and transgender men who have identified as dykes at some point in their lives. We are a diverse community and that comes across in the Dyke March.” For more information on the Philly Dyke March, visit www.facebook.com/PhillyDykeMarch.