It’s generally assumed that leather culture got s start the 1940s, as an offshoot to post-World War II motorcycle clubs that began poppg up around the same time. Gays had flocked drov to large ci followg Blue Discharg om the army, a way of removg homosexuals om service, as dishonourably dischargg and imprisong gays beme impractil wh the huge number of recs durg WWII. It led to large groups of homosexuals ci like Los Angel, San Francis and Chigo.
Contents:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LEATHER AND THE GAYS
* history of gay leather culture *
To some extent this posn is advanced by anti-gay reactnari on 4chan and Telegram channels (Piper, 2021), but this is not the whole story: many opposed to kk at Pri intify themselv as queer, or at least queer-iendly (Mahale, 2021).
The naive belief that sex is simply an born stct still exerts s power, but most gay men and lbians know that the sex they have was not nate or entirely of their own makg, but learned—learned by participatg, scen of talk as well as of fuckg.
It is now jeopardy even wh the gay movement, as gay men and lbians are more and more drawn to a moralizg that chim wh homophobic stereotype, wh a wizened utopianism that nf our matury wh marriage to the law, and perhaps most sidly of all, wh the privatizatn of sex the fantasy that mass-mediated belongg uld ever substute for the public world of a sexual culture. This emergg activist stance, lled gay liberatn, engaged civil prott and nstcted an unrstandg that beg “gay” was more than a medil ndn or viant sexual practice, but a distct, posive cultural inty subject to shared opprsn (Weeks, 2016). Meanwhile, mastream lbian and gay activism grew more stutnalized and creasgly emphasized morate requts for civil rights—as the 1993 March on Washgton—while leather, bisexual, and trans people ntued to ph for cln the movement (Warner, 1999).
IN HONOR OF LGBT HISTORY MONTH: GAY LEATHER HISTORY.
When I burst through the closet doors, my first expensive purchase was a leather harns. I wanted to f , and knew the harns was a staple garment for gay men. But how did we get here? How has the leather harns bee such a veted and symbolic garment among gay men? Unfortunately, the harns, like much of leather history, is one of myth and legend, and very ltle is ncretely rerd. * history of gay leather culture *
In 1979, the “Gays Unr 21” ntgent SF mand to have their rights taken serly by both straight and gay adults, who were “acceptg straights’ posn that young people have no sexualy, ” and “excludg om the larger gay muny” (Gays Unr 21 Contgent, 1979). Karla Jay of the Radilbians said “We wore Halloween stum, our bt drag, tie-dye T-shirts, or almost nothg” at NYC’s 1970 Pri (Kfman, 2020), and marchers proceed to Central Park where the Gay Activists Alliance had planned a “gay-.
The nudy ban appears to have held for several years (Berlandt, 1982; Gay Freedom Day Commtee, 1980) but 1980 and 1983 San Francis police ignored “partial nudy” and at least one “totally naked” man (Spunberg, 1983; Sun, 1980). The origs of gay leather the Uned Stat are somewhat unclear, but popular acunts discs a wave of gay men who were discharged om the ary followg World War II, bed wh a rebell, mascule image of black-clad motorcycle gangs the 1950s (Addison, 2012). The LAPD raid the Black Cat 1967 (beatg patrons and pturg one bartenr’s spleen), a Homophile Effort for Legal Protectn fundraiser at the Black Pipe 1972, and the Mark IV baths “slave ctn” fundraiser for gay chari 1976: an effort which volved roughly a hundred officers, two helipters, a dozen vehicl (Los Angel Leather History, 2021; Rub, 1982b; S.
Cg distorted media bigotry, fagbashg, and “the opprsn of our liftyle wh the larger gay/lbian muny, ” Brian O’Dell found New York’s Gay Male S/M Activists (GMSMA) 1980, and the Lbian Sex Mafia (LSM), a New York lbian S/M group, was found the followg year (Rub, 2015). Marc (1986) scribed police harassment of “leather fags” San Francis, LAPD nducted a seri of raids of leather bars 1988 (Los Angel Leather History, 2021), and 1987 Operatn Spanner began Bra: an effort which would ta hundreds of gay men and charge dozens of nsensual players wh “asslt” and “unlawful woundg”—16 were nvicted and eight imprisoned (S. Although members of New York’s Gay Liberatn Front ntt claims of her centraly Pri’s origs (San Francis Bay Tim, 2021), there is documentatn of her marchg the 1980s (Unknown, 1980s, 1987) and servg on the anizg mtee for the 1987 March on Washgton (S/M-Leather Contgent, 1987).