USC’s archive of LGBTQ materials — the largt the world — ntas untls stori, cludg those of Los Angel’ gay motorcycle clubs.
Contents:
- RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB
- HARLEY STROKERS GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUB NEWSLETTERS
- STORI OM L.A.’S PNEERG GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE TOLD THROUGH USC’S ONE ARCHIV
RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB
Two 2 Newsletters—June and July 1990—for the Harley Strokers MC headquartered Portland, OR . Both stapled, taped, and fold for mailg both addrsed to Club member om Berkeley, CA , one prted on peach paper 8 pp. and the other on whe 10 pp. . About VG+ some wear, and one has wrg on rear . Both newsletters are maly ncerned wh the upg 3rd Annual Harley Strokers MC Renzvo “Open to all gay Harley owners & buddy * gay harley davidson club *
As a longtime biker and an openly gay man, Tom Hood says there likely always will be a place for motorcycle groups that ter to lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr groups, he says, aren’t as necsary as they were years ago. Origally om Platteville, Hood is print of the Rirs Motorcycle Club Boston, one of the natn’s olst gay men’s motorcycle club was formed the early 1980s when the biker muny didn’t wele LGBT rirs who openly exprsed their, LGBT bikers say thgs are much better, although there are exceptns. Paras like this are a sign of better tim, acrdg to Hood, who attend Lawrence Universy Appleton om 1985 through ago, he belonged to an outlaw biker club, but as a gay man, he has sce ma Rirs his outlaw clubs — known as “1 percenters” bee 99 percent of bikers don’t belong to them — have a strong anti-gay most people motorcyclg pay ltle or no attentn to someone’s genr or sexual inty, acrdg to Hood.
”Yet Harleys are popular wh lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr bikers, said Chaz Antonelli, past print of the Empire Cy Motorcycle Club, New York, the olst gay men’s biker group the natn. Still, not everyone has embraced some of the years ago, a Salt Lake Cy police officer got to trouble when he objected to ridg the motorcycle briga at the ont of a gay pri para, sayg was a vlatn of his relig Moutsos said he was unfairly labeled a bigot bee he simply asked to swap rol and work a different part of the para June 2014.
Moutsos said he was offend by the notn that he would treat gays and lbians differently than anyone else.
HARLEY STROKERS GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUB NEWSLETTERS
… It’s a ltle too tight, ” he there will probably always be a place for LGBT motorcycle groups, Hood said, over time there will be ls need for them as society be more one time, Rirs Motorcycle Club had 140 members; now ’s down to about said he thks the LGBT muny n claim a victory when ’s no longer a big al for sports stars and celebri to announce they are homosexual. Early on, such clubs beme a vibrant subculture wh Wisns’s gay and lbian movement. More than 40 years ago, Si Sms beme a face of Milwkee’s LGBTQ muny when he was featured ridg his motorcycle a WTMJ seri, “Some Call Them Gay.
LGBTQ bikers reprented what the straight world uld not fathom: gay men not as fey and mcg stereotyp but as mascule, rough-and-tumble guys; and gay women not as nuns and spster librarians but as tough, n-do gals. The club is one of the olst all-ridg, all-gay, all-male motorcycle anizatns the world.
STORI OM L.A.’S PNEERG GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE TOLD THROUGH USC’S ONE ARCHIV
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.