Leather subculture

[2] One facilitator of recurring parties between 1950 and 1953 was Bob Milne, who had moved from Boston to New York City after multiple altercations with law enforcement, including a conviction for homosexual acts in his home.

[3] The earliest documented bars frequented by leathermen were a cluster of venues in New York City at 50th Street and 3rd Avenue, called the "bird circuit", namely the Golden Pheasant Restaurant, the Blue Parrot Cafe and the Swan Club.

"Dedicated leather bars slowly emerged between the 1950s and the 1960s in major Cities of the US (notably New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco) and in Europe, gaining immense popularity in the 1970s.

[2][23][24] The Tool Box became famous nationwide due to the June 1964 Paul Welch Life article entitled "Homosexuality In America," the first time a national publication reported on gay issues.

[20][21] Notable sex clubs of the time include the Mineshaft (1976–1985) in New York City, Inferno weekend in Chicago (since 1976) and the Catacombs (1975–1984) in San Francisco.

[32][33] While the scene had functioned via oral tradition and personal referral in the previous decades, the rapid growth in numerous cities was accompanied by the emergence of printed publications.

This also led to greater formalization and standardization — the communities on the East and West coasts had previously developed differing traditions, such as whether S or M stood for sadist and masochist or for slave and master, or on which side keys were worn to indicate one's role.

For example, the erotic novel Mr. Benson by John Preston was first published in serialized form in Drummer magazine between 1979 and 1980 with a claimed press run of 42,000 copies per issue.

Cynthia Slater's activism for women to be accepted within the gay leather scene in San Francisco during the late 1970s brought her to mainstream attention.

[38] Slater hosted Society of Janus safety demonstrations during the late 1970s, cultivating a space for women within the 'plurality of gay men' already present within the leather/kink/fetish Venn-diagramatic culture.

In addition, leather title holders used their platform for fundraising purposes and advocacy work, and kinksters became more active in existing rights groups, joining the fight against AIDS.

On the other hand, a nationwide political campaign to close sex clubs, bathhouses and similar establishments was successful, and within a few years many institutions that had played a central role within the community were shut down.

After a period of decline around the turn of the millennium, NLA-I has become more active again and runs a series of awards for fiction and non-fiction writing.In 1987, Judy Tallwing McCarthey was the leather community's keynote speaker at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

From 1987 onwards, leathermen Race Bannon and Guy Baldwin in particular campaigned for the removal of BDSM practices from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

[51] The Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago was founded in 1991 by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase as a “community archives, library, and museum of leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM history and culture.”[52][53] In 1997 the (American) National Coalition for Sexual Freedom was founded; the NCSF's mission as described on its web page is: The NCSF is committed to creating a political, legal and social environment in the US that advances equal rights for consenting adults who engage in alternative sexual and relationship expressions.

[55] McGeorge had made no attempt to conceal his involvement in the BDSM and leather lifestyles; his full name appeared prominently on websites, and he said as much to the Post and other media.

Later, Hua Jiang, spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that being into BDSM was no more likely to be a cross-cultural problem in the Middle East than any number of other issues.

Over the decades, this early period has been so strongly romanticized and idealized, both in fictional works and by practitioners themselves, that it is considered the origin myth of the leather subculture by some, and its roots by others.

The Old Guard is usually portrayed as a secret close-knit community of like-minded men (e.g. in the form of motorcycle clubs), who developed a uniform hierarchical, high-protocol set of BDSM practices based on military models and lived according to a strict ethics, that included initiation, brotherhood, discipline and the pursuit of excellence.

This narrative often includes serious criticism of the increasing commodification and politicization of the leather scene, as well as the introduction of safety principles like sane, safe, consensual (SSC), the inclusion and further education of outsiders, which all slowly gained momentum in the 1960s and reached a peak in the 1980s.

One example of this is the anthology Leatherfolk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice by Mark Thompson, which was published in 1992 and brought together different, sometimes contradictory perspectives on leather culture.

[74][75][76] With this context in mind, today "Old Guard" is often used pejoratively to describe older members of the leather community who hold conservative views which are seen as outdated or toxic, e.g. in terms of "correct" behavior or the inclusion of different groups of people within the scene.

However, the book has been criticized as not being true to the historical facts, and incorporates practices which can be traced back to different sources, such as submissive positions of heterosexual Gorean BDSM.

In Europe, younger men have combined the aesthetic and exploration of sexual power with the gay skinhead movement and social-fraternal organizations like BLUF, from the late 1970s.

Particularly in the early days, motorcycle clubs were central social hubs, which not only provided a community for like-minded men, but also inconspicuous covers for the first BDSM associations.

[16] Usually, leather bars were found in industrial and working-class city neighborhoods, like South of Market in San Francisco and the Manhattan Meatpacking District.

"[121] Renslow founded numerous leather and LGBT institutions, many of which were once located on Clark St, including the Gold Coast bar and Man's Country bathhouse.

It aimed to bring aspects of the men's leather subculture to a wider audience, showcasing different elements and practices associated with the community.

According to Jack Fritscher, Jacques Morali drew his inspiration for the four characters of Village People from the gay BDSM leather bar and sex club the Mineshaft's dress code.

In the late 1970s, many fans of Judas Priest, AC/DC and Meat Loaf began imitating the clothing of leathermen due to the association of such fashions with toughness.