USC Archive Sheds Light On LA's Gay Motorcycle Clubs

Contents:

• STORI OM L.A.’S PNEERG GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE TOLD THROUGH USC’S ONE ARCHIV
• USC ARCHIVE SHEDS LIGHT ON LA'S GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS
• 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

The Satyrs Motorcycle Club of Los Angel is the olst nng gay men’s motorcycle club and anizatn the world. It was not an easy time Ameri for gay men to ngregate wh fellow gay men. Homosexuals were.

The Satyrs was not the first gay & lbian anizatn, that was the Mattache Society formed 1950. They belonged to some of the untry’s first gay anizatns: gay motorcycle clubs.

The Satyrs, found 1954, remas one of the olst ntuoly operated gay anizatns the Uned Stat. Today, gay men n meet openly, but durg the ’50s, the clubs were some of the only plac they uld gather safely whout fear of discrimatn or vlence.

USC ARCHIVE SHEDS LIGHT ON LA'S GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS

Gay motorcycle clubs: om fear to eedom. The first gay motorcycle clubs were born durg the height of McCarthyism. But some officials also sought to root out gay men, lumpg them wh munists and fearg they uld be blackmailed to exposg state secrets.

The clubs formed an age where gay people were forced to live the shadows. They were one of the few plac where gay men uld e together. As society embraced the tough biker image — movi like Rebel Whout a Cse were popular — the clubs also served to unter homophobic stereotyp that qutned gay men’s masculy.

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

“Motorcycle clubs were a way of sayg gay men n be more mascule than straight men, ” Hawks said.

That’s when placloth Los Angel police officers filtrated a Silver Lake gay bar and beat patrons as they celebrated New Year’s Eve. Had more than 20 gay motorcycle clubs.

The clubs also helped cultivate some of the early seeds of gay activism Los Angel, years before the Stonewall rts New York Cy.

’s gay motorcycle clubs raised money to feat Proposn 6, which would have ma illegal for LGBTQ people to work California’s public schools. For example, s llectn of six s of activists’ posters tells the story of the gay rights movement while also providg a lens on the history of graphic sign. We also know the clubs had l about who uld jo: gay men 21 or olr who were sponsored by at least one member good standg and received affirmative vot om three-quarters of the members.

"- John Laird, member of the Satyrs Motorcycle ClubIn this chapter, we hope to explore the history and tradn of Los Angel gay motorcycle clubs (MCs), one of which is the olst ntuo gay anizatn the untry. We seek to theorize and unrstand how such gathergs of people om across the cy created a distctly mobile subculture based on a batn of post-WW2 road culture and uniquely gay mos of sexual and athetic belongg.

Toward this latter pot, we will vtigate the MC scene's overlap wh leather and BDSM muni through publitns and archiv at the ONE and LA's Tom of Fland many gay subcultur that saw their heyday the twentieth century, motorcycle club membership is clg; th, we are forced to ask whether archivg this history will volve simply llectg the ephemera of a dyg breed, spirg a revival, or rmg new queer subcultural forms. Our origal tentn was to trace the genealogy of the Satyrs and other gay MC's ma sectns while cludg a lk "off the beaten path" by followg a "Detour" in for further historil ntext and alternative urs through the leather the current eratn of this work progrs, we clu two photo galleri. This llectn giv viewers a peak to a post-WW2 ethos of optimism and raship ntrast to the secretive nature of 1950s homophile anizatns and before the LGBT liberatn movements of begng the late 1960s.