USC’s ONE Archiv holds the stori of L.A.’s gay motorcycle clubs

Contents:

• DYK ON BIK & GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS THE U.S.
• RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB
• LONGG AND BELONGG: TOWARD A CULTURAL HISTORY OF GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS THE US
• STORI OM L.A.’S PNEERG GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE TOLD THROUGH USC’S ONE ARCHIV
• HANGG OUT WH RSIA'S ONLY GAY MOTORCYCLE GANG
• GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS:
• GAY MOSW · CY GUI
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

DYK ON BIK & GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS THE U.S.

The advent of gay motorcycle clubs the last half of the 20th century was grew out of a need for eedom, safe haven, and above all, pri. Jog a gay biker club provid support, safety, mararie and eedom to a group of people who stggled to fd those thgs an anti-gay society. Te to s name, Dyk on Bik (DOB) is a motorcycle club prised of gay, bisexual, and transgenr women that supports the larger LGBTQ muny through ridg events and fundraisers.

RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB

This is a closer look at how a small group of gay women motorcyclists planted the roots of one of the largt and most wily known gay motorcycle clubs the world, and how current Dyk on Bik members ntue that legacy 2020. A uple dozen gay women motorcycle rirs had joed together at the start of the para, and one person the group ma a ment about “dyk on bik.

LONGG AND BELONGG: TOWARD A CULTURAL HISTORY OF GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS THE US

” The gay women’s motorcycle club then went back to urt, head up by San Francis lawyer and longtime club ally Brooke Oliver.

She sometim spoke about the pri she felt ridg her motorcycle wh other gay women durg those dozens of pri paras: “To ri down Market Street wh all those people lookg and appldg and sharg and ridg wh other women on motorcycl has got to be one of the highlights of my life. Today, this gay women’s motorcycle club is officially lled the San Francis Dyk on Bik Women’s Motorcycle Contgent (SFDOBWMC). The signifince of the pk triangle is a heavy one: Begng the 1930s, German Nazis ed the symbol of upsi down pk triangle to intify gays ncentratn mps.

STORI OM L.A.’S PNEERG GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE TOLD THROUGH USC’S ONE ARCHIV

But durg the AIDS crisis the 1980s, gay activists om ACT UP retook the symbol, flipped the triangle and created inic posters that ntaed the words “Silence=Death. The first gay motorcycle club was the Empire Cy Motorcycle Club, found the 1960s for gay men, followed the Rabow Motorcycle Club, which was tablished San Francis 1971 for the whole LGBTQ muny.

While other motorcycle clubs have perhaps been active for longer perds of time (at least one group disput that they are the olst all-male, all-gay group), Empire Cy is the only one that requir, and has always required, all of s members to ri a motorcycle. "Beg a gay biker, beg a group, you fd yourself wh people who have the same terts, the same fort level, " he go on. Though E stopped ridg 1996, he is currently an ECMC Emer member, meang he don't have to own a bike or license signatn, or pay the 1960s, when E joed, "gay" was not somethg you discsed and "out" was not somethg you were.

"E lowers his voice when he says the word "gay, " even though we are chattg the lobby of The Center, as New York's Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr Communy Center is known. Followg ECMC's history is a b of a Forrt Gump-like experience of gay history post-1950: E himself was a member of the Mattache Society which, tablished 1950, was one of the earlit gay rights anizatns the untry.

HANGG OUT WH RSIA'S ONLY GAY MOTORCYCLE GANG

ECMC also predat the fluential Stonewall Rts 1969; E actually participated Christopher Street Liberatn Day, which is now nsired the first ever gay pri para, 1970. ECMC survived the AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s; and today some members have married their partners wh the passage of gay marriage New York State. "Today, ECMC is vol about s existence—members wear those aforementned leather jackets and vts whout fear of repercsn; they rec members at fairs like Folsom Street East, the largt outdoor fetish ftival on the East Coast; and they hold meetgs the first Wednday of every month at The Center, which all terted men and prospective members are wele to be a member of the ECMC, you mt be a gay man over the age of 21, you mt own a motorcycle, you mt be sured for said motorcycle, and you mt be licensed to ri a motorcycle.

GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS:

Open to both members and ved guts, the meetgs are a great way to nnect wh like-md dividuals wh our gay motorcycle muny.

Associate membership is opened to all gay/gay iendly applints 21 years of age or olr and mt receive two-thirds affirmative vote of the active membership.

We are lookg at how the nex of two inti – gay and motorcyclist – self-imposed as well as imposed by society at large, plays out public and private. While there have been gay and lbian motorcyclists almost as long as there have been motorcycl, thgs don’t get tertg until World War Two ends.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

The first imag popular culture of the gay motorcyclist seem to be tertwed wh postwar and Cold War polics, often reflectg and optg the imag of mastream motorcyclists the procs. The vtigatn supposedly was to addrs munist fluence and filtratn, but quickly veloped a homophobic and anti-Semic edge. Homosexuals were seen as eher munists or secury risks, if not both, which lead to mass firgs of homosexuals om ernment agenci.

By lkg munism wh homosexualy, the heargs created a sense of guilt through associatn, pecially when any real evince was lackg, as was so often the se.

By the time the first half of the 20th Century was drawg to a close, both gays and motorcyclists had inti as outlaws, threats to the Amerin Way of Life, imposed by the mastream. And ntug the ncept of guilt by associatn, many saw the aggrsively mascule behavr of the motorcycle clubs and gangs as exampl of overpensatn by men who really weren’t mascule, that is, were gay, or latent homosexuals. Bee of the Lavenr Sre wch hunt, most homosexual anizatns followed the cell stcture format tablished by Harry Hay for the Mattache Society, an early lbian and gay rights group.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

If Larry Townsend is unrstood rrectly a passage about gay motorcycle clubs The Leatherman’s Handbook, due to perd attus toward homosexualy, many of the gay motorcycl clubs beme disenchanted wh the AMA and broke formal ti while followg the anizatn’s lead qutns of safety and the like. While the two outlaw inti were beg creasgly tertwed, a third velopment grew importance: what Jack Frscher would later dub “homomasculy”, which the web-based Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia f as a “subculture of gay men who prefer mascule-intified men”, or men who prefer men who look and act like men, sometim exaggerated, vaguely workg class, who were often seen as more thentilly male than men form other soc-enomic class. Homomasculy was the real foc of the 1950s physil culture magaze, providg jt most imag of well-mcled men wh such mascule props as wboy hats, Roman swords, engeer boots, and the like.