leather subculture

The emergence of gay leather as a coherent subculture can be traced back to the second half of the 1940s and the 1950s in major cities of the US. Later, it also developed in other urban centers in most industrialized capitalist countries. While gay leather developed 20 years after heterosexual European and American fetish styles, it did so relatively isolated from those existing circles and organizations.

Although there is some evidence of BDSM activities among gay men before the Second World War, this "pre-leather" scene has not been extensively researched. Due to pathologization and criminal prosecution of homosexuality and kinkiness in many parts of the world, many practitioners were extremely cautious and secretive about their activities. As a result, only few sources have survived. The same is true for the early days of the leather scene after World War II. One exception is Samuel Steward (1909–1993) who lived in the US and extensively documented his kinky sexual encounters with other men. He also was part of a study of gay BDSM practices by Alfred Kinsey in 1949.

The formative period of gay leather subculture took place in the 1940s and 1950s. It mainly originated from two groups: Post-WWII California bikers in Los Angeles and "pre-leather" butch BDSM practitioners in New York City. The leather look first emerged in Los Angeles and subsequently was adopted by men in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco in subsequent years. A significant portion of the leather community consisted of queer servicemen and servicewomen returning from WWII, who were congregating in large US cities after returning to their home country in 1945 and 1946.{{Cite book |last=Magister |first=Thom |title=Leather folk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice |date=2004 |publisher=Daedalus Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-881943-20-4 |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=Mark |location=Los Angeles |pages=91–105 |chapter=One among many: The seduction and training of a leatherman}}

File:Triumph Thunderbird from the movie "The Wild One" (1953).jpg

File:Physique Pictorial Vol 17 No 1 cover.jpg

In Los Angeles, the gay leather scene developed from a broader biker-leather culture. Protective motorcycle clothing at this time was made of tough leather, usually cowhide or horsehide. Biker culture reflected a disaffection with the mainstream culture of post-World War II America, a disaffection whose notoriety — and therefore appeal — expanded after the sensationalized news coverage of the Hollister "riot" of 1947. The 1953 film The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando wearing jeans, a T-shirt, a leather jacket, and cloth biker cap that later inspired leather bike caps, played on pop-cultural fascination with the Hollister "riot" and promoted an image of masculine independence that resonated with some men who were dissatisfied with mainstream culture.{{cite web|url=http://www.ebar.com/artscolumns/artcolumn.php?sec=leather |title=Bay Area Reporter | volume= 40 No. 44—4 November 2010 |page=Page 31 Scott Brogan leather column |publisher=Ebar.com |access-date=2012-05-18}} The Wild One has been quoted numerous times as formative imagery by leathermen, who described its leather look as masculine, sexual and radical. Although the film didn't create the symbolics of leather, it helped to standardize the masculine leather aesthetic and provided it with nationwide exposure. Artists such as Tom of Finland and Etienne, whose suggestive drawings of well-endowed leather-clad muscle men were published in Physique Pictorial and elsewhere, contributed to the spread of the outlaw biker aesthetic among gay men.{{Cite journal |last=Snaith |first=Guy |date=2003 |title=Tom's Men: The Masculinization of Homosexuality and the Homosexualization of Masculinity at the end of the Twentieth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43263715 |journal=Paragraph |volume=26 |issue=1/2 |pages=77–88 |doi=10.3366/para.2003.26.1-2.77 |jstor=43263715 |issn=0264-8334}} Motorcycle culture also reflected some men's disaffection with the cultures more organized around high culture, popular culture (especially musical theater), and/or camp style.

Pioneering gay motorcycle clubs included the Satyrs Motorcycle Club, established in Los Angeles in 1954; Oedipus Motorcycle Club in Los Angeles, which split from the Satyrs in 1958. As well, the gay leather community that emerged from the motorcycle clubs also became the practical and symbolic location for men's open exploration of kink and S&M.Rubin, Gayle. "The Miracle Mile: South of Market and Leather, 1962–1997" in Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture (City Light Books, 1998) Even in those early years, different styles of gay male leather practices could be observed: Strict, formal S&M that was based on military traditions, informal "rough sex"{{cite web |author=Guy Baldwin |year=1993 |title=THE OLD GUARD (The History of Leather Traditions) |url=http://www.blackandtansociety.com/ach/gbaldwin.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105184805/http://www.blackandtansociety.com/ach/gbaldwin.html |archive-date=5 January 2010 |access-date=27 October 2010 |work=Ties that Bind |df=dmy-all}} or "buddy sexuality"{{cite web |author=Gayle Rubin |author-link=Gayle Rubin |title=Old Guard, New Guard |url=http://www.evilmonk.org/a/grubin.cfm |access-date=27 October 2010 |work=Cuir Underground}} associated with motorcycle clubs, and leather fetishism, as well as a mixture of all of those three. These varied widely between regions, causing much debate today over which traditions are the original or true traditions, or whether the "romanticized versions of leather history" ever existed at all.{{cite web |author=Jay Wiseman |title=An Essay About "the Old Days" |url=http://www.evilmonk.org/a/wiseman11.cfm |access-date=27 October 2010 |work=Submissive Women Kvetch}} Over time, the practitioners of kink and BDSM were joined by those who were primarily interested in the aesthetics and atmosphere of the leather scene.

New York City, which was a hub for queer life at the time, had a small community of gay BDSM practitioners that was already established in the 1940s. It was organized in the form of informal social networks, mostly through word of mouth and supplemented by encoded personal ads in newspapers. Another fixture were private parties by local players. 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. He was well known beyond the city limits.{{Cite web |title=Bob Milne - Leather Hall of Fame |url=https://leatherhalloffame.com/inductees-list/10-bob-milne |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=leatherhalloffame.com}}

The New Yorker community appropriated California-style biker leather got appropriated in the mid-1950s, probably around the release of The Wild One (1953). Dedicated motorcycle clubs didn't emerge in New York City until the 1960s, though. 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. Later, Shaw's (1953), the Lodge (1954) and the Big Dollar (1959) emerged as early "leather-friendly" bars. The lodge also imposed a dress code of leather, meaning mostly leather motorcycle jackets.

After Milne's departure in 1953 Frank Olson became a central player in New York City, mostly by facilitating contacts between practitioners via telephone and in leather-friendly bars, and organizing private parties in New York City and at Fire Island resort. Especially during the mid-60s crackdown on gay bars leading up to the 1964 New York World's Fair he held the loose group together. In 1970 Olson opened his own leather bar with his lover Don Morrison, the Eagle's Nest, later renamed the Eagle.{{Cite web |title=Frank Olson and Don Morrison |url=https://www.pineshistory.org/the-archives/frank-olson-and-don-morrison |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Fire Island Pines Historical Society |language=en-US}}

{{Blockquote|text="If you knew Frank Olson, it was your ticket to meeting other people who were into S&M. [...] Frank was the go-to-guy New York — in London it was Felix, Berlin it was George. It guaranteed you could always find a heavy sex night in the city. You could be pretty sure that if you got tied up, you wouldn't get killed."|author=Don Morrison|title=Fire Island Pines Historical Society|source=Interview with New York's original leather daddies: Frank Olson and Don Morrison}}

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. According to Lucas Hilderbrand, leather bars played an important role by giving the scene coherence as well as providing sites for assembly. Especially in the period before Stonewall, the patrons were regularly threatened by police raids. In contrast, the motorcycle clubs' regular bike runs provided opportunities for undisturbed partying and sex outdoors. In the 1970s, leather bars also became sponsors of leather contests, as well as sexual spaces (sex in bars was illegal, but mostly tolerated), evident in the back rooms, dark corners or basements which had become a regular feature of many establishments.{{Cite book |last=Hilderbrand |first=Lucas |title=The bars are ours: histories and cultures of gay bars in America, 1960 and after |date=2023 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-2728-7 |location=Durham}}

From the 1960s onward, leather bars became a central fixture of gay leather life, that provided a gathering space for the community and a point of entry into the scene for newcomers. Bars also played a key role in turning leather into a consumable aesthetic and identity, often enforced by dress codes. Several influencal authors, who would later write about the leather subculture, are known to have joined the scene during the mid-1960s, among them Joseph Bean, Guy Baldwin,{{Cite book |last=Baldwin |first=Guy |title=Leather folk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice |date=2004 |publisher=Daedalus Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-881943-20-4 |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=Mark |location=Los Angeles |pages=169–178 |chapter=A second coming out}} and John Preston.{{Cite book |last=Preston |first=John |title=Leather folk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice |date=2004 |publisher=Daedalus Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-881943-20-4 |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=Mark |location=Los Angeles |pages=210–220 |chapter=What happened?}} As Guy Baldwin stated:

{{Blockquote|text="My introduction to leather life was really my introduction to leather bar life."|author=Guy Baldwin|title=A second coming out}}

The first leather bars had their origins in ordinary venues that were regularly patronized by groups of leathermen. The best-known example of this is the Gold Coast in Chicago, which became a popular meeting place for the local scene in the late 1950s. After the unexpected death of the owner, Chuck Renslow bought it and reopened as a queer-owned leather bar in 1960. An iconic feature were the murals done by Renslow's partner Dom Orejudos (pen name Etienne), who also designed its logo and posters.{{Cite web |date=2017-06-29 |title=Legendary Chicago businessman, activist Chuck Renslow dies - Windy City Times News |url=https://www.windycitytimes.com/lgbt/Legendary-Chicago-businessman-activist-Chuck-Renslow-dies-/59676.html |access-date=2023-10-01 |website=Windy City Times}}{{Cite web |title=Chuck Renslow |url=https://www.chicagogayhistory.com/biography.php?id=772 |access-date=2023-10-01 |website=Chicago Gay History}}

In San Francisco, South of Market became the hub of the leather subculture in the gay community in 1962 when the Tool Box opened its doors as the first leather bar in the neighborhood.Brook, J., Carlsson, C., and Peters, N. J. (1998). Reclaiming San Francisco: history, politics, culture. San Francisco: City Lights operated from 1962 to 1971 on the east corner of 4th Street and Harrison Street and was often frequented by motorcycle clubs like the Satyrs and Oedipus.{{Cite book |last=Rubin |first=Gayle |title=Archaeologies of Sexuality |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |editor-last=Schmidt |editor-first=Robert A. |pages=62–88 |chapter=Sites, settlements, and urban sex: archaeology and the study of gay leathermen in San Francisco, 1955-1995 |editor-last2=Voss |editor-first2=Barbara L.}}{{cite web |last=Rubin |first=Gayle |date=1998 |title=Folsom Street: The Miracle Mile |url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Folsom_Street:_The_Miracle_Mile |access-date=2016-12-28 |website=FoundSF}}{{cite web|url=http://one.usc.edu/dress-codes/|title=Dress Codes: Chuck Arnett & Sheree Rose|website=ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries|language=en-US|access-date=2017-02-02|archive-date=26 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171126025958/http://one.usc.edu/dress-codes/|url-status=dead}} 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. Life{{'}}s photographer was referred to the Tool Box by Hal Call, who had long worked to dispel the myth that all homosexual men were effeminate. The article opened with a two-page spread of the mural of life size leathermen in the bar, which had been painted by Chuck Arnett in 1962.{{cite web |url=http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2000/yax-192.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050120222835/http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2000/yax-192.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2005-01-20 |title=yax-192 Life in 1964, part 1 |publisher=Yawningbread.org |date=1964-07-27 |access-date=2012-05-18 }} The article described San Francisco as "The Gay Capital of America" and inspired many gay leathermen to move there.{{cite web |title=Leather History Timeline-Leather Archives |url=http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline1.htm#1964 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421175041/http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline1.htm#1964 |archive-date=2012-04-21 |access-date=2012-05-18 |publisher=Leatherarchives.org}} When the Stud, along with Febe's, opened up on Folsom Street in San Francisco in 1966, other gay leather bars and establishments catering to the leather subculture followed creating a foundation for the growing gay leather community.Achilles, Nancy. (1967). "The Development of the Homosexual Bar as an Institution". In Gagnon, John H. and William Simon. New York: Harper & Row.

The 1970s are considered the heyday of leather culture, also referred to as the Golden Age.{{Cite book |last=Fritscher |first=Jack |title=Leather folk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice |date=2004 |publisher=Daedalus Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-881943-20-4 |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=Mark |location=Los Angeles |pages=106 |chapter=Artist Chuck Arnett: His life/ our times}} During this time, the subculture grew by leaps and bounds worldwide, accompanied by increasing organization, diversification, improving networks and visibility.{{Cite book |last=Bean |first=Joseph W. |title=Leathersex: a guide for the curious outsider and the serious player |date=1994 |publisher=Daedalus Pub |isbn=978-1-881943-05-1 |location=Los Angeles}} Leather bars became sponsors of leather contests, inspired by beauty pageants, as well as sexual spaces (sex in bars was illegal, but mostly tolerated), evident in the back rooms, dark corners or basements which had become a regular feature of many establishments. Another feature of US-leather bars in the 1970s were bootblacks, e.g. the Gold Coast in Chicago and the Ramrod in New York City were fitted with bootblack stands.{{Cite web |title=Photograph of a bootblack at the Ramrod NYC in the Digital Collection of the Leather Archives & Museum |url=https://leatherarchives.org/ca/index.php/LoginReg/LoginForm |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=leatherarchives.org}} Another new development was the hanky code, which communicated sexual preferences through colored handkerchiefs.{{Cite journal |last1=Reilly |first1=Andrew |last2=Saethre |first2=Eirik J. |date=2013-10-01 |title=The hankie code revisited: From function to fashion |url=https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/csmf.1.1.69_1 |journal=Critical Studies in Men's Fashion |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=69–78 |doi=10.1386/csmf.1.1.69_1 |issn=2050-070X}}

File:Leather Archives & Museum - Interior.jpg (2024)]]

The first leather contest was most likely the "Mr. Gold Coast" pageant held in 1972 in the Gold Coast in Chicago, which was rebranded as International Mr. Leather in 1979. 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. The "leather daddy" archetype from the late 1970s, which has sadomasochistic associations, led to the creation of the daddy archetype in queer culture.{{Cite web |title=Larry Townsend Books List |url=https://www.ranker.com/list/larry-townsend-books-and-stories-and-written-works/reference |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=Ranker |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Albo |first=Mike |date=2013-06-14 |title=Rise of the 'Daddies': A New (and Sexy) Gay Niche |url=https://www.thecut.com/2013/06/rise-of-the-daddies-a-new-and-sexy-gay-niche.html |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=The Cut |language=en}}

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. Larry Townsend's The Leatherman's Handbook (1972) is considered the first non-fiction book about the leather scene. In 1974, the first issue of Drummer magazine was published in Los Angeles, which was the most successful of the American leather magazines, and sold overseas.{{cite web|url=https://www.augustnation.com/jack-fritscher|title=Jack Fritscher|last1=Bernadicou|first1=August|website=August Nation|publisher=The LGBTQ History Project|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714222227/https://www.augustnation.com/jack-fritscher|url-status=dead}} The publication had a major impact of spreading gay leather as a lifestyle and masculinity as a gay ideal. The magazine was focused on quality writings about leather,[http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=5158 Drummer magazine founder John Embry dies]. Obituary in the Bay Area Reporter accompanied by erotic foto series and illustrations, and written erotica. 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.{{Cite book |last=Stein |first=David |title=Our lives, our history: consensual master/slave relationships from ancient times to the 21st century |date=2016 |publisher=Perfectbound Press |isbn=978-0-9910483-5-9 |location=New York, NY |chapter=From S&M to M/s: How consensual slavery became visible in the gay leather community, 1950 to 1999}}

In the 1970s Berlin, Germany had a huge leather scene with several leather clubs in the area around Nollendorfplatz. The pornographic films of one of Tom of Finland's models Peter Berlin from Berlin, such as his 1973 film Nights in Black Leather, also reflected and promoted the leather subcultural aesthetic. In 1975,{{Cite web|url=https://cmen.org/leather/exploring-leather/|title=Exploring the Leather Community 2017 – CMEN}} Europe's biggest fetish event started, Easter Berlin Leather Festival, organized annually by [https://easterberlin.de/en/blf/ Berlin Leder und Fetisch e.V.] MSC Hamburg began hosting an annual "international leather-party" in Hamburg in 1972.{{Cite web |title=4th international leather-party (UC12328882) |url=https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-47277 |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=USC Libraries |date=2021 |doi=10.25549/one-c4-47277 |via=ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives}} Also in Europe younger men combined the aesthetic and exploration of sexual power with the gay skinhead movement and social-fraternal organizations, from the late 1970s.

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."2014 Leather Hall of Fame Inductee Cynthia Slater (1945–1989)", Leather Hall of Fame Inductees List [https://leatherhalloffame.com/inductees-list/21-cynthia-slater]Call, Lewis. 2013. BDSM in American science fiction and fantasy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p.5 Slater persuaded the management of San Francisco's S/M leather club the Catacombs, the most famous fisting club in the world, to open up to lesbians; it was originally a gay men's club.Gayle Rubin, "The Catacombs: A Triumph of the Butthole", in Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, Alyson Press, 1992, {{ISBN|1555831877}}, pp. 119–141; reprinted in Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader, Duke University Press, 2011, {{ISBN|0822349868}}, {{cite web|url=http://occupytampa.org/files/tristan/introfem/final/introfem%20final%20final/Gayle_S._Rubin_Deviations_A_Gayle_Rubin_Reader_a_John_Hope_Franklin_Center_Book__2011.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=September 30, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006082917/http://occupytampa.org/files/tristan/introfem/final/introfem%20final%20final/Gayle_S._Rubin_Deviations_A_Gayle_Rubin_Reader_a_John_Hope_Franklin_Center_Book__2011.pdf |archive-date=October 6, 2014 }}, retrieved September 30, 2014. It operated from 1975 to 1981, and reopened at another location from 1982 to 1984. Slater was also an early proponent of S/M safety, and one of the major AIDS activists and educators during the late 1970s. 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."THE JANUS SOCIETY: KISS AND DON'T TELL

Cynthia Slater and the Catholic Priest", Jack Fritscher. Drummer 27, February 1979.

Pat Califia, who identified as a lesbian at the time, was an activist in the San Francisco leather subculture, and is credited for defining the emergence of lesbian leather subculture. On June 13, 1978, Pat Califia, Gayle Rubin, and sixteen others co-founded Samois, a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983 and was the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States. (More under "Lesbian" below).{{cite book|last=Jeffreys|first=Sheila|title=The Lesbian Heresy|year=1993|publisher=Spinifex|location=North Melbourne, Vic., Australia|isbn=978-1-875559-17-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FFWxDu9gn0C&q=samois+%22first+lesbian+s/m%22&pg=PA130|page=130}} In recent decades the leather community has been considered a subset of BDSM culture rather than the BDSM community being considered a subset of leather culture. Even so, the most visibly organized SM community related to leather has been a subculture of leather, as evidenced by the American competition known as International Mr. Leather (IML, established 1979), and SM in the UK (established 1981). International Ms. Leather was first held in 1987.{{Cite book|isbn=9780226278568|title=In Changing Times: Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS|page=126|last1=Levine|first1=Martin P.|last2=Nardi|first2=Peter M.|last3=Gagnon|first3=John H.|date=18 August 1997|publisher=University of Chicago Press }}{{Cite book|title=The valley of the kings: leathermen in San Francisco, 1960-1990, Volume 2|last=Rubin|first=Gayle S.|publisher=University of Michigan|year=1994|page=419}}

In 1979 the newly formed San Francisco lesbian motorcycle club, Dykes on Bikes, led what was then called the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade for the first time{{cite web |url=http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline1.htm#1979 |title=Leather History Timeline-Leather Archives |publisher=Leatherarchives.org |access-date=2012-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421175041/http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline1.htm#1979 |archive-date=2012-04-21 }} and has done so ever since. Since 1994, the event has been called the San Francisco Pride Parade. The parade now has a leather contingent. By the mid-1980s, lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts in other cities besides San Francisco began to form motorcycle clubs.

Leather and Lace, a woman's leather/BDSM support and social group, was founded in Los Angeles in 1980. The women of Leather and Lace learned the "old guard" traditions from the men of Avatar."Avatar" is probably a reference to [https://www.avatarla.org/ Avatar Club Los Angeles]. From the home page:

:Welcome!

:This is the website of Avatar Club Los Angeles, Inc., a non-profit organization providing information and education about safe, sane, and consensual bondage, discipline, kinky and sadomasochistic (BDSM) sex between adults. Leather and Lace had a code of conduct and a uniform that could only be worn once a member earned the right.

The leather community was hit hard by several effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s. In the 1980s and early 1990s, lesbian leatherwomen were often involved in helping to care for gay leathermen who had been stricken with AIDS. 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 one hand, the leather community faced increased hostility—both mainstream society and the vanilla queer community blamed the allegedly "extreme" and "unsafe" sex practices of gay kinksters for the outbreak of the epidemic, with fisting being especially frowned upon. 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. The forced closing of bathhouses and increased regulation of leather bars sped up the ongoing gentrification in big cities, that already threatened their existence, so that the leather districts shrank rapidly after the explosive expansion of the 1970s.

In 1984, the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco was held for the first time, made possible by housing activists and community organizers, to provide means for fundraising, and create opportunities for members of the leather community to connect to services and vital information (e.g., regarding safer sex) that bathhouses and bars might otherwise have been situated to distribute. It was and still is the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture.{{cite news |title=Cheap date – what to do? |url=http://www.folsomstreetfair.com/photos/http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/personal/11/02/cheap.date/index.html |publisher=Cnn.com}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}

Jack Fritscher's short-story collection Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O'Malley (Gay Sunshine Press, 1984) was the first collection of leather fiction, and the first collection of fiction from Drummer. The title entry Corporal in Charge was the only play published by editor Winston Leyland in the Lambda Literary Award winner Gay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine - An Anthology of Gay History, Sex, Politics & Culture (1991).

Competing in the 1986 International Mr. Leather contest inspired Steve Maidhof to organize a conference for members of the growing leather, SM, and fetish community, which would focus on education and political activism. To host this conference, named Living in Leather, Maidhof recruited several friends and leading members of Seattle's leather community including: Cookie Andrews-Hunt, Wayne Gloege, Billy Jefferson, Jan Lyon, George Nelson, and Vik Stump. Together, they formed the National Leather Association (NLA), which officially incorporated in the summer of 1986. In October, they hosted the first Living in Leather (LIL) conference.{{cite web|title=Finding Aid to the National Leather Association Collection of Records|url=http://www.leatherarchives.org/collections/catalog/CONG0002.html|publisher=Leather Archives and Museum|access-date=1 April 2018}} Adding "International" to its name in 1991, the National Leather Association-International staged "Living in Leather" gatherings until 2002. 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.File:(1993) March on Washington for LGB Equal Rights and Liberation -- 57.jpg

In 1987, Judy Tallwing McCarthey was the leather community's keynote speaker at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.{{Cite web|url=https://dallasvoice.com/creating-change-conference-announces-awards/|title=Creating Change Conference announces awards | Dallas Voice|date=14 December 2019 }}

The leather community doubled down on its efforts to depathologize consensual BDSM and end the stigmatization of BDSM practitioners. 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).{{Cite web |last=Gerson |first=Merissa Nathan |date=2015-01-13 |title=BDSM Versus the DSM |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/01/bdsm-versus-the-dsm/384138/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}} The current version of the DSM, DSM-5, excludes consensual BDSM from diagnosis when the sexual interests cause no harm or distress.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Paraphilic%20Disorders%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf |title=Paraphilic Disorders |date=2013 |website=dsm5.org |publisher=American Psychiatric Association |access-date=26 August 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724010712/https://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Paraphilic%20Disorders%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf |archive-date=24 July 2016 |df=dmy }}

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.”{{cite web |title=About the LA&M - Leather Archives & Museum |url=https://leatherarchives.org/about/about-the-la-m |access-date=2019-12-16 |publisher=Leatherarchives.org |archive-date=3 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230703144039/https://leatherarchives.org/about/about-the-la-m |url-status=dead }}{{Cite journal|last=Ridinger|first=Robert|date=2005|title=Founding of the Leather Archives & Museum|journal=LGBT History, 1988–1992 [serial online]|publisher=LGBT Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost|pages=33–36}}

In 1997 the (American) National Coalition for Sexual Freedom was founded; the NCSF's mission as described on its web page is:

{{blockquote|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. The NCSF aims to advance the rights of, and advocate for consenting adults in the BDSM-Leather-Fetish, Swing, and Polyamory Communities. We pursue our vision through direct services, education, advocacy, and outreach, in conjunction with our partners, to directly benefit these communities.{{cite web|url=https://ncsfreedom.org/who-we-are/about-ncsf/ncsf-mission-statement|title=NCSFreedom - NCSF Mission Statement|first=Deb|last=Cinkus|date=23 July 2021|access-date=7 January 2020|archive-date=22 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222084129/http://www.ncsfreedom.org/who-we-are/about-ncsf/ncsf-mission-statement|url-status=dead}}}}

In 2002, an article in The Washington Post publicly highlighted Jack McGeorge's leadership in the Washington, D.C. leather and BDSM community.{{cite news |last1=Grimaldi |first1=James V. |title=Weapons Inspectors' Experience Questioned |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/11/28/weapons-inspectors-experience-questioned/09a9db3f-7dc2-4e6b-8ba8-dacca7c7dc22/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=31 January 2023 |date=28 November 2002}} 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. He did, however, offer his resignation to Hans Blix, hoping to preserve the credibility of his organization (the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, called UNMOVIC){{cite news

|url=http://www.legacy.com/washingtonpost/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=131686708

|newspaper=The Washington Post

|title=Obituaries: Harvey J. McGeorge II

|date=2009-08-22

}}{{cite web

|url=http://www.leatheryenta.com/2009/08/18/jack-mcgeorge-obituary/

|author=Lolita Wolf

|title=Jack McGeorge – obituary

|date=2009-08-18

}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.psgcabo.com/mcgeorge_cv.pdf|title=Harvey J. McGeorge Curriculum Vitae}} before the weapons inspections in Iraq. Blix refused to accept McGeorge's resignation. 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.{{cite news |last=Grimaldi |first=James V. |date=29 November 2002 |title=Inspector's Resignation Rejected by U.N.'s Blix |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/11/30/inspectors-resignation-rejected-by-uns-blix/5f7acd2a-4c07-4e9c-bcb0-fd344e7eeb7a/ |access-date=20 January 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}

Mark Leno was the first out leatherman to be a state legislator in the United States; he served in the California State Assembly from 2002 to 2008.{{Cite web|url=http://leathercolumn.blogspot.com/2004/03/envelope-please.html|title=Leather Life: The Envelope, Please|first=Steve|last=Lenius|date=March 5, 2004}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.kalw.org/post/your-call-election-special-open-line-senator-mark-leno|title=Your Call Election Special: Open line to Senator Mark Leno|first=Malihe|last=Razazan|website=www.kalw.org}}

File:Leather Contingent Pride 2004.jpg Parade.]]

In 2005 Viola Johnson started The Carter/Johnson Library & Collection, a “collection of thousands of books, magazines, posters, art, club and event pins, newspapers, event programs and ephemera showing leather, fetish, S/M erotic history."{{cite web|url=http://www.leatherlibrary.org |title=Carter/Johnson Leather Library |publisher=Leatherlibrary.org |access-date= 18 May 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.leatherlibrary.org/support.html|title=Carter/Johnson Leather Library|website=www.leatherlibrary.org|access-date=2 May 2018|archive-date=8 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508123216/http://www.leatherlibrary.org/support.html|url-status=dead}}

In 2009 the Leather Hall of Fame began inducting members.{{cite web|url=https://leatherhalloffame.com/index.php/inductees.html |title=> Inductees |publisher=Leatherhalloffame.com |access-date=2020-04-27}}

Leather & Grace, a (now defunct) organization of Unitarian Universalist kinksters, was founded in 2011, and combined a red flaming chalice with the stripes of the leather pride flag for their logo.{{cite web|url=https://leatherandgrace.wordpress.com/an-organization-for-uu-kinksters/|title=Leather & Grace: L&G's Story|date=28 August 2011|access-date=2015-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518232011/https://leatherandgrace.wordpress.com/an-organization-for-uu-kinksters/|archive-date=2015-05-18|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://leatherandgrace.wordpress.com/ |title=Leather & Grace | Unitarian Universalists for BDSM Awareness |publisher=Leatherandgrace.wordpress.com |access-date=2020-01-07}}

File:Cologne Germany Cologne-Gay-Pride-2014 Parade-13.jpg, 2014]]

The LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District was created in South of Market, San Francisco in 2018.{{cite web |last=Sabatini |first=Joshua |url=http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-expands-cultural-districts-include-somas-gay-leather-community/ |title=SF expands cultural districts to include SoMa's gay and leather community – by j_sabatini – May 1, 2018 – The San Francisco Examiner |publisher=Sfexaminer.com |date=2018 |access-date=2018-05-02 |archive-date=14 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190314205748/http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-expands-cultural-districts-include-somas-gay-leather-community/ |url-status=dead }} It includes the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, with four works of art, which opened in 2017.{{cite web|author=Cindy |url=http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/ringold-alleys-leather-memoir.html |title=Ringold Alley's Leather Memoir – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World |publisher=Artandarchitecture-sf.com |date=2017-07-17 |access-date=2019-12-29}}{{cite news |last=Paull |first=Laura |date=21 June 2018 |title=Honoring gay leather culture with art installation in SoMa alleyway – J |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2018/06/21/honoring-gay-leather-culture-with-art-installation-in-soma-alleyway/ |access-date=2018-06-23 |newspaper=J |publisher=Jweekly.com}}

In 2024, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission voted to name a park at Natoma and 11th streets Rachele Sullivan Park. As she (Rachele Sullivan) was a leather leader, this vote meant San Francisco is believed to be the first American city to name any public park after a leather leader.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=news&sc=news&id=334425&title=in_a_1st,_san_francisco_park_to_bear_name_of_leather_leader|title=In a 1st, San Francisco park to bear name of leather leader :: Bay Area Reporter}}

Lately, the leather subculture is one of many facets to semi-organized alternative sexuality. Many individuals describe long periods of introspection leading to their choice to identify as "leather".{{cite web|url=http://crossculturebdsm.com/2010/09/28/finding-leather/|title=Finding Leather|access-date=27 October 2010|year=2010|author=Cross|work=Cross Culture BDSM|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828000515/http://crossculturebdsm.com/2010/09/28/finding-leather/|archive-date=28 August 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} Others do not necessarily associate their leather lifestyle with BDSM, and simply enjoy the sensory experience of leather.{{cite web |url=http://www.liravensmc.org/About/leatherlifestyle.htm |title=What Does Wearing Leather Mean? Markup |publisher=Long Island Ravens MC |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727034528/http://www.liravensmc.org/About/leatherlifestyle.htm |archive-date=27 July 2011 |df=dmy-all }}

Today, the term "Old Guard", "Old Leather" or "Old Guard Leather" has several meanings. Originally, "Old Guard" refers to the beginnings of the leather scene, from around the end of WWII in 1945 to the mid or late 1960s. 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.[http://www.cuirmale.nl/history/magazines.htm Gay leather magazines], cuirmale.nl An example of this are the fictional works of Thom Magister. 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 "pure form" of leather culture allegedly was increasingly pushed underground in the 1960s, when the first leather bars established themselves and the leather scene received an enormous influx of newcomers, not all of whom were interested in the BDSM and fetish aspects of the scene. 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.

The discourse about the Old Guard and its historical existence has mainly been conducted since the end of 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. The term "New Guard" or "New Leather" emerged in distinction from "Old Guard", with both often being portrayed as polar opposites—casual versus strict, informal versus formal. But as Gayle Rubin, Jack Rinella and Joseph Bean have pointed out, both of those expressions existed from the start within the subculture.Berlin Leder und Fetisch e.V. Auf: easterberlin.de. Veröffentlicht von: Berlin Leder und Fetisch (BLF) e. V. URL:https://easterberlin.de/de/blf/. Last viewed: 16. September 2022.{{cite journal |last1=Chalkley |first1=A. J. |last2=Powell |first2=G. E. |year=1983 |title=The clinical description of forty-eight cases of sexual fetishism |journal=British Journal of Psychiatry |volume=142 |issue=3 |pages=292–95 |doi=10.1192/bjp.142.3.292 |pmid=6860882 |s2cid=37994356}}{{cite web |author=Jack Rinella |title=The Myth of the Old Guard |url=http://www.evilmonk.org/a/rinella.cfm |access-date=27 October 2010 |work=LeatherViews}}

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.

There have been several revival attempts of a leather culture modeled after the ideal of the Old Guard, such as John Weal's The Leatherman's Protocol Handbook (2010). The author refers to his initiation by Old Guard instructors and presents a uniform protocol that allegedly all traditional leathermen followed. 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.

Today, while some may still use the term strictly in the old-fashioned sense (i.e., the romanticized Old Guard), more than ever the leather subculture in the 21st century represents the activities of several major sub-communities. These include BDSM practitioners, and people who have a preference for aggressive or masculine sexual styles; people who love motorcycles; people involved in kink or leather fetishism; and people who participate in large-scale cultural and marketing events such as Folsom Street Fair or leather-themed circuit parties.

Although gay men are the most visible demographic of the leather community, there are numerous women who identify as leatherwomen – and women have the International Ms. Leather (IMsL) event as their corollary to International Mr. Leather (IML). An example of a leatherwoman is Joan Jett, who has a leather pride sticker prominently displayed on her guitar.

Relatively few lesbian women were visible during the early emergence of the leather subculture. Patrick Califia, a trans man who identified as a lesbian at the time, was an activist in the San Francisco leather subculture, and is credited for defining the emergence of lesbian leather subculture. On June 13, 1978, Patrick Califia, Gayle Rubin, and sixteen others co-founded Samois, a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983 and was the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States. (More under "Lesbian" below) In recent decades the leather community has been considered a subset of BDSM culture rather than a descendant of that culture. Even so, the most visibly organized SM community related to leather has been a subculture of leather, as evidenced by the American competition known as International Mr. Leather (established 1979), and SM in the UK (established 1981). International Ms. Leather was first held in 1987, with the first winner being Judy Tallwing McCarthey,{{Cite web|url=http://pockle.org/roll-out-the-red-carpet-introducing-judy-tallwing-mccarthey/|title=Roll out the RED CARPET. Introducing Judy Tallwing McCarthey.|date=August 15, 2020}}{{Cite web|url=http://leathercolumn.blogspot.com/2001/08/15-years-of-international-ms-leather.html|title=Leather Life: 15 Years of International Ms Leather|first=Steve|last=Lenius|date=August 10, 2001}} a lesbian.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lizzm7AgbU|title=Judy Tallwing McCarthy 1987|date=July 28, 2011|via=YouTube}}

In 1979 the newly formed San Francisco lesbian motorcycle club, Dykes on Bikes, led what was then called the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade for the first time and has done so ever since (since 1994, the event has been called the San Francisco Pride Parade).

Leather and Lace, a woman's leather/BDSM support and social group, was founded in Los Angeles in 1980. The women of Leather and Lace learned the "old guard" traditions from the men of Avatar. Leather and Lace had a code of conduct and a uniform that could only be worn once a member earned the right. In New York, there was LSM. Only members of the club were allowed to know that LSM stood for Lesbian Sex Mafia.

By the mid-1980s, lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts in other cities besides San Francisco began to form motorcycle clubs.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, lesbian leatherwomen were often involved in helping to care for gay leathermen who had been stricken with AIDS.

In 1986, Baltimore Leather Association of the Deaf (BLADeaf), the first deaf leather club in America, was founded. Its original name was Maryland Lambda Alliance of the Deaf and it had three name changes before its name was changed to BLADeaf. It was founded by Elwood C. Bennett, Scott Wilson, and Harry "Abbe" Woosley Jr. According to BLADeaf, the fact of the Baltimore Eagle being BLADeaf's home bar means the Baltimore Eagle is the world's first bar to home a deaf leather organization.{{cite news |last1=Burger |first1=Rodney |title=David Rink Sashed Mr. Baltimore Deaf Leather 2011 |url=http://baltimoreoutloud.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/April-22-2011-final.pdf |access-date=31 January 2023 |work=Baltimore Outloud |volume=IX|issue=24 |date=April 22, 2011}}{{Cite web|url=http://bladeaf.org/information.htm|title=BLADeaf | Information|date=5 February 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010205150100/http://bladeaf.org/information.htm |archive-date=5 February 2001 }}

In 1989, a deaf chapter of the National Leather Association called “NLA: Deaf Chapter”, which eventually became International Deaf Leather, was founded by Michael Felts, Philip Rubin, Bob Donaldson, Rolf Hagton, Jim Dunne, Bobby Andrascik and Charles Wilkinson.{{Cite web |title=History |url=http://internationaldeafleather.org/history.html |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=International Deaf Leather}} International Deaf Leather held contests for the titles International Ms. Deaf Leather, International Mr. Deaf Leather, and International Deaf Leather Boy. International Deaf Leather also bestowed the Michael Felts Lifetime Achievement Award, which in 1997 was given to Baltimore Leather Association of the Deaf (BLADeaf) cofounder Harry “Abbé” Woosley Jr., and the International Deaf Leather Recognition Award, which in 1998 was given to Baltimore Leather Association of the Deaf (BLADeaf).{{Cite web |date=4 July 2021 |title=Awards |url=http://internationaldeafleather.org/awards.html |website=International Deaf Leather}} International Deaf Leather ended in 2021.{{Cite web |last=Tramel |first=Vonn |date=2021-05-04 |title=Press Release International Deaf Leather (IDL) to dissolve the organization. - The Leather Journal |url=https://www.theleatherjournal.com/news/press-release-international-deaf-leather-idl-to-dissolve-the-organization |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=www.theleatherjournal.com |language=en-gb}}

Deaf leathermen have continued to compete at IML; in 1992, IML featured three deaf contestants.{{Cite web |last=Croix |first=Sukie de la |date=2003-05-21 |title=International Mr. Leather Hits 25th Anniversary |url=http://windycitytimes.com/2003/05/21/international-mr-leather-hits-25th-anniversary/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Windy City Times |language=en-US}}

{{See also|Bootblacking (BDSM)}}

File:Shine (27783899525).jpg.]]

With the establishment of local, regional and international bootblack contests in the 1990s and early 2000s, bootblacks began to gain visibility as a subculture in their own right.{{Cite book |last1=Baim |first1=Tracy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/728063271 |title=Leatherman: the legend of Chuck Renslow |last2=Keehnen |first2=Owen |last3=Kelley |first3=William B. |last4=Harper |first4=Jorjet |date=2011 |publisher=Prairie Avenue Productions |isbn=978-1-4610-9602-3 |edition=1st |location=Chicago |oclc=728063271}} Nowadays, bootblack stands as well as classes on bootblacking are common fixtures at events, contests, conferences and parties. Bootblacking is rooted in service to the leather community and the care of the gear Leatherpeople use, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or items made from rubber, neoprene or other materials. They are not only preserving the physical items (many of which have been gifted, earned or inherited) but are also collecting the stories of their wearers.{{Cite book |last=Dominguez |first=Linda A. |title=The Passion of Bootblacking |year=2021 |publisher=Agar |isbn=9781956096040}} Therefore, bootblacks play a central role in the oral history of the leather scene.{{Cite web |last=Bannon |first=Race |date=2024-05-30 |title=Buck Harder on Bootblacking |url=https://bannon.substack.com/p/buck-harder-on-bootblacking |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=Love at the Edges}}

{{unreferenced section|date=June 2024}}

In the United States, men's leather culture has been associated with men above the age of 40, but recent years have seen growing numbers of younger leather men. Also, in much of the rest of the world, including Europe and Australia, there is a merging of the established older leather community with young leathermen and leatherwomen and kink/fetish/gear communities. 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.

{{See also|Leather pride flag}}File:Leather, Latex, and BDSM pride - Light.svg, a symbol for the leather community, designed by Tony DeBlase in 1989]]The leather pride flag was designed by Tony DeBlase, who first presented it at International Mr. Leather in Chicago, Illinois on May 28, 1989.{{Cite web |last=Lenius |first=Steve |date=2021-07-29 |title=Leather Life: Leather Pride Flag 101 |url=https://lavendermagazine.com/featured-home-page/leather-life-leather-pride-flag-101/ |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=Lavender Magazine |language=en-US}} DeBlase considered the flag to be a first draft and expected the community would suggest changes to the design. While some community members wanted a say in the final design,{{cite web |title=A Leather Pride Flag |url=http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/pride.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915142834/http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/pride.htm |archive-date=2008-09-15 |publisher=leatherarchives.com}} the majority embraced DeBlase's original design as-is. To this day, the flag has not undergone any significant revisions.

In June 1989 the flag was used by the leather contingent in a Portland, Oregon pride parade, which was its first appearance at a pride parade.{{cite web |title=Timeline |url=http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline2.htm#1989 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100803065539/http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline2.htm#1989 |archive-date=2010-08-03 |access-date=2018-06-24}}

Artists and photographers have played a crucial role in the leather scene. In the early days, they created works that gave the emerging subculture a face and visualized taboo sexual fantasies, whether in the form of murals in bars and clubs, drawings and photo spreads in magazines (e.g. Drummer magazine) or comics, and made a decisive contribution to its dissemination.

In oral histories, for example, the works of Tom of Finland are repeatedly described as influential for one's own sexual biography. Many men identified with his characters, who were pictured as masculine and virile, thus defeating homophobic stereotypes of effeminacy. Tom's drawings were central to the development and dissemination of a more unified gay leather aesthetic, resulting in the so-called "clone look" of the 1970s and 1980s.

{{Blockquote|text=Tom's work wasn't pornography. It was salvation.|author=Robert J. Pierce|title=Tom of Finland: The Case for Gay Art|source=The Soho News (6 February 1980)}}

Many artists who play a major cultural role in the leather scene are usually hardly known beyond this due to the erotic and pornographic content of their works. Exceptions are the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and the illustrator Tom of Finland. The Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF), which was founded in 1984, aims to promote erotic art and support erotic artists through scholarship programs.{{Cite web |title=About Foundation : Tom of Finland Foundation |url=https://www.tomoffinland.org/about-the-foundation/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=www.tomoffinland.org}}

Influential artists of the leather scene include:

• Tom of Finland
• Dom Orejudos
• Robert Mapplethorpe
• Chuck Arnett

The leather scene has thrived on its organizations and clubs, from informal networks in the 1940s and motorcycle clubs in the 1950s and 1960s to today's organizations focused on information and education.

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. Pioneering motorcycle clubs formed in Los Angeles, namely the Satyrs Motorcycle Club (1954) and Oedipus Motorcycle Club in Los Angeles, which split from the Satyrs in 1958. Early San Francisco clubs included the Warlocks (1960) and the California Motor Club.

In Chicago, the first club was Second City Motorcycle Club (1965), with Chuck Renslow as its first president. It built the foundation for Chicago Hellfire Club (1971), which had the express purpose of facilitating BDSM sex and has been sponsoring Inferno since 1976.

File:Dykes on bikes (19250309242).jpg

In New York City gay motorcycle clubs developed later than in California: Empire City MC (1964) was the first gay motorcycle club in New York, followed by the New York Motorbike Club (1967) and Cycle MC (1968).

In Europe, the first Leather Club was the Sixty Nine Club (1965) in London, other early European leather clubs include Senses (1969) in UK, MS Amsterdam (1970) and MSC Rhein-Main Frankfurt  (1970),  Loge 70 (1973) in Switzerland, MSC London (1973) and MS Belgica (c. 1974) in Brussels. The European Confederation of Motorcycle Club (ECMC) was founded as first confederation of kink and leather clubs in Europe in 1974, with leatherman Felix Jones being an important figure in that development.{{Cite web |title=About & History |url=https://ecmc.eu/about/ |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=ECMC}}{{Cite web |title=Felix Jones - Leather Hall of Fame |url=https://leatherhalloffame.com/inductees-list/26-felix-jones.html |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=leatherhalloffame.com}}

Early clubs in Sydney included the South Pacific Motor Club (SPMC).{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

In 1979 the first lesbian motorcycle club Dykes on Bikes was formed in San Francisco. It has been leading the San Francisco Pride Parade since its establishment. By the mid-1980s, lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts in other cities besides San Francisco began to form motorcycle clubs.

Over time more clubs were founded that were explicitly linked to leather and BDSM. These include Samois (1978–83) in San Francisco as the first lesbian BDSM organization in the US, Chicago Hellfire Club (1971), 15 Association in San Francisco, Eulenspiegel Society in New York and the Society of Janus in Chicago.

The Gay Male S/M Activists (GMSMA, 1981–2009) and the Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM) were founded in 1981 in New York City. Both were committed to open enrollment, as well as a focus on education for newcomers.{{Cite book |last=Stein |first=David |title=Leather folk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice |date=2004 |publisher=Daedalus Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-881943-20-4 |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=Mark |location=Los Angeles |chapter=S/M's Copernican Revolution: From a closed world to the infinite universe}} The principle of "safe, sane, consensual" (SSC) stems from GMSMA's environment.{{Cite web |title=Leather Leadership Conference, Inc. -- The Origin of Safe Sane Consensual |url=https://www.leatherleadership.org/library/safesanestein.htm |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=www.leatherleadership.org}}

There are leather clubs that are particularly committed to improving the rights of different marginalized groups within the leather scene through advocacy work and community building. The best known and most established is Onyx, which was founded 1995 for and by gay and bisexual BIPOC men.{{Cite web |title=ONYX Overview – ONYX |url=https://www.onyxmen.com/overview/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |language=en-US}} More recently, Proteus Leather Club was founded in Europe for and by trans and non-binary people in leather.{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://proteusleather.club/about/proteusleather.club/about/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=Proteus Leather Club |language=en}}

File:Warmoesstraat street skatch. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Northern Europe.jpg's Warmoesstraat.]]

Bars and clubs played a key role in the development of the gay leather scene, providing a gathering space for the community and a point of entry into the scene for newcomers, as well as turning leather into a consumable aesthetic and identity, often enforced by dress codes. They are considered the first distinct subgenre of gay bars, and with their characteristic visuals are often depicted as gay bars' most iconic form. Designated leather bars started appearing between the 1950s and 1960s in major cities, exploding in popularity in the 1970s.{{Cite book |last=Hilderbrand |first=Lucas |title=The bars are ours: histories and cultures of gay bars in America, 1960 and after |date=2023 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-2728-7 |location=Durham |pages=37–39}} Usually, leather bars were found in industrial and working-class city neighborhoods, like South of Market in San Francisco and the Manhattan Meatpacking District.

File:Montreal on my phone, 2017 - 4.jpg

Many major cities around the world had or have leather bars and clubs, and in some cases a concentration of these associated a particular district with the leather scene, with the most well known being the "Miracle Mile" on Folsom Street in San Francisco.{{Cite book |last=Rubin |first=Gayle |title=Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture |publisher=City Lights |year=1998 |chapter=The Miracle Mile: South of Market and Gay Male Leather, 1962-1997}}

Dozens of leather bars are named "Eagle" or some variant thereof; although they are independently owned, these Eagle bars share a focus on leather, kink, and masculinity.{{Cite web |last=Street |first=Mikelle |date=2017-10-24 |title=How "The Eagle" became one of the most recognized gay bar names |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/how-eagle-became-one-most-recognized-gay-bar-names-n813336 |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=NBC News |language=en}}

Leather districts include:

• Amsterdam: the Cockring (now closed) and Eagle bars and Warmoesstraat street — noting the closing of most of the leather bars once here, newspaper Het Parool stated in 2015 that "the darkroom has been consigned to history because of Grindr".{{Cite web|url=https://www.parool.nl/gs-bc8825328|title=Darkroom wordt herinnering aan vorige eeuw door Grindr|first=Hans van der Beek en Sherida van|last=IJsselmuide|date=11 January 2015|website=Het Parool}} On Warmoesstraat, the first leather bar in the country opened around 1955.Gert Hekma (Gay Studies University of Amsterdam), [https://web.archive.org/web/20050306020448/http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/gl/gaybar.html The Amsterdam Bar Culture And Changing Gay/Lesbian Identities]About the history of the Amsterdam [http://www.leatherhistory.eu/ Leather Scene]
• Berlin: Scheune (bar), Tom's Bar, both on Motzstraße, New Action on Kleiststraße and the area around Nollendorfplatz
• Chicago: The Gold Coast, GayLife newspaper, Man's Country bathhouse and the Chicago Eagle all were located on a street block of Clark Street (from Ainslie to Winnemac).{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Windy City |date=2018-05-07 |title=Chuck Renslow street dedication May 19 |url=http://windycitytimes.com/2018/05/07/chuck-renslow-street-dedication-may-19/ |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=Windy City Times |language=en-US}}
• New York City: the sexclubs Mineshaft (1976–85){{Cite web |title=Mineshaft – NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project |url=https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/mineshaft/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=www.nyclgbtsites.org}} and Anvil (1974–85){{Cite web |title=Anvil – NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project |url=https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/anvil/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=www.nyclgbtsites.org}} in the Meatpacking District.{{cite web|author=Angelo Pitillo |url=https://nymag.com/nightlife/features/gay-bar-history-2013-1/ |title=The History of Gay Bars – New York Magazine |publisher=Nymag |date=2013-01-04 |access-date=2019-12-29}}
• San Francisco: the LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District covers the area which traditionally has had a concentration of leather bars and clubs, among others Fe-Be's, SF Eagle, The Stud, The Ramrod and the In Between.
• Mexico City: in the gay-friendly Condesa neighbourhood, [http://toms-mexico.com/ Tom's Leather Bar] serves special nights for the Mexican leather community since 1995.

Many LGBT museums, archives and libraries collect material relating to leather communities, with many holding substantial collections, including the Australian Queer Archives in Melbourne and the Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago.

In 1991 Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase founded the Leather Archives & Museum “as a community archives, library, and museum of Leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM history and culture.”{{Cite journal |last=Shapiro |first=Gregg. |date=2011 |title=Leatherman's man: an interview with Chuck Renslow's biographer Owen Keehmen |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qth&AN=62807228&site=ehost-live |journal=Outlook: Columbus |publisher=LGBT Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost |volume=16 |issue=1 |page=48 |access-date=2016-06-18}} Renslow and DeBlase founded the museum in response to the AIDS crisis, during which the leather community's history and belongings were frequently lost or intentionally suppressed and discarded.{{Cite web |last=Keehnen |first=Owen |date=2008-05-21 |title=The Leather Archives and Museum: To protect and serve |url=http://windycitytimes.com/2008/05/21/the-leather-archives-and-museum-to-protect-and-serve/ |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=Windy City Times |language=en-US}}

In 2005 Viola Johnson started The Carter-Johnson Leather Library, "a non-profit [501(c)(3) pending] organization that consists of a traveling collection of thousands of books, magazines, posters, art, club and event pins, newspapers, event programs and ephemera showing leather, fetish, S/M erotic history."

The LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District was created in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco in 2018. It includes the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, with four works of art, which opened in 2017:

the four works of art are: A black granite stone etched with a narrative by Gayle Rubin, an image of the "Leather David" statue by Mike Caffee, a reproduction of Chuck Arnett's 1962 mural that was in the Tool Box (a gay leather bar),{{cite web |author=Cindy |date=2017-07-17 |title=Ringold Alley's Leather Memoir – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World |url=https://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/ringold-alleys-leather-memoir.html |access-date=2019-12-30 |publisher=Artandarchitecture-sf.com}} engraved standing stones that honor community leather institutions (one being the Folsom Street Fair), leather pride flag pavement markings through which the stones emerge, and bronze bootprints along the curb which honor 28 people who were an important part of the leather communities of San Francisco.

On May 25, 2018, the Chicago City Council voted to designate a stretch of Clark Street in Uptown (between Winnemac Ave and Ainslie Ave) as "CHUCK RENSLOW WAY."{{Cite web |title=Record No. O2018-3236 - Office of the City Clerk |url=https://chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Matter/?matterId=5F18AB4A-E10D-ED11-82E3-001DD80693B4# |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=City of Chicago, Office of the City Clerk}} 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.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2018-05-07 |title=Chuck Renslow street dedication May 19 |url=http://windycitytimes.com/2018/05/07/chuck-renslow-street-dedication-may-19/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Windy City Times |language=en-US}} The city unveiled the new street sign during the anniversary of the International Mr. Leather competition that Renslow founded.{{Cite web |date=2020-10-31 |title=Chuck Renslow Way |url=http://www.honorarychicago.com/blog/chuck-renslow-way |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Honorary Chicago |language=en-US}}

File:SF Pride 2014 - Stierch 10.jpg float at San Francisco Pride, 2014]]

The Folsom Street Fair, begun in 1984, is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held in September, that caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes simply referred to as "Folsom", takes place on Folsom Street between 8th and 13th Streets, in San Francisco's South of Market district. The event is California's third-largest single-day, outdoor spectator event{{cite web |last1=Holcomb |first1=Courtney |date=30 September 2016 |title=A Brief History of San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair |url=https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/a-brief-history-of-san-franciscos-folsom-street-fair/ |access-date=6 February 2023 |website=Culture Trip |language=en}} and the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture. Folsom Street Events now organizes many events each year{{Cite web |title=Folsom Street Events - Leather Events For A Good Cause |url=https://www.folsomstreetevents.org/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626192259/https://www.folsomstreetevents.org/ |archive-date=26 June 2018 |access-date=26 June 2018 |website=Folsom Street Events - Leather Events For A Good Cause}} including Folsom Europe.

Other large events include Easter Berlin (the largest leather event in Europe), International Mr. Leather and Mister Leather Europe, Amsterdam Leather Pride (see Wikipedia article in Dutch) and Folsom Street East in New York City.

Many leather bars and organizations hold annual pageant contests, some of which serve as feeder contests for larger regional, national, or international competitions such as International Mr. Leather and Mister Leather Europe.{{Cite web |last=Mister Marcus |date=2007-02-27 |title=Too Many Leather Titles? |url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=arts_&id=225199 |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Bay Area Reporter}} The following table includes a non-exhaustive list of past and present leather contests:

{{Dynamic list}}

The film Cruising (1980), directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, represents a paradigm shift in the treatment of gay sexuality in Hollywood. It is based on the novel Cruising (1970) by Gerald Walker and explores the world of men's leather subculture within the context of a murder mystery. It aimed to bring aspects of the men's leather subculture to a wider audience, showcasing different elements and practices associated with the community. At the same time, it provided outrageous insights into gay leather sexuality to satisfy curiosity of the heterosexual mainstream society. Homosexual desire and violence were presented as two sides of the same coin.{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=D. A. |date=1983 |title=Cruising |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3697087 |journal=Film Quarterly |volume=36 |issue=4 |doi=10.2307/3697087 |jstor=3697087 |issn=0015-1386}} Some scenes are set at the Mineshaft (although filming took place in the Hellfire Club{{Cite book |last=Fritscher |first=Jack |title=Mapplethorpe: assault with a deadly camera; a pop culture memoir; an outlaw reminscence |date=1994 |publisher=Hastings House |isbn=978-0-8038-9362-7 |location=Mamaroneck, NY}}), with extras recruited from the Mineshaft's patrons. Among other things, the movie features a fisting scene. The filming in 1979 massively hindered by protests from the gay community.

A band associated with leather culture is Village People, which began in 1977. 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.Jack Fritscher, Robert Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera, p. 509. Glenn Hughes, the original leather biker of the group, frequently attended there.Jack Fritscher, Robert Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera, p. 466. He sported an extravagant horseshoe moustache and wore his trademark leather outfit on and off stage. As he was the band's "biker" and a real-life fanatic, he kept his motorcycle parked inside his home. Eric Anzalone was the Leatherman/Biker of Village People from 1995 to 2017, replacing original member Glenn.Holly George-Warren, Patricia Romanowski, Patricia Romanowski Bashe, Jon Pareles. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll. (2001: Rolling Stone Press) p. 1037. {{ISBN|978-0-7432-0120-9}} However, Glenn continued with management of the band. During his later years, he was known for storming the streets of New York City with his custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Glenn, who was also referred to by the masses as "Leatherman", was named on People Magazine's 1979 list of most beautiful people.

Distinct aspects of heavy metal fashion can be credited to various bands, but the band that takes the most credit for revolutionizing the look is Judas Priest, primarily with its singer, Rob Halford, who openly identifies as gay and wears black leather.{{cite book |last1=Weinstein |first1=Deena |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6tGaphXVlEC&q=%22heavy+metal+fashion%22+biker&pg=PA127 |title=Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture – Deena Weinstein – Google Boeken |date=5 August 2009 |publisher=Hachette Books |isbn=9780786751037 |access-date=18 May 2014}} Halford wore a leather costume on stage as early as 1978 to coincide with the promotion for the Killing Machine (Hell Bent for Leather in the United States) album. In a 1998 interview, Halford described the leather subculture as the inspiration for this look. Shortly after appropriating the leather look, Halford started appearing onstage on a roaring motor bike. Soon, the rest of the band followed.

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.{{cite book |last=Weinstein |first=Deena |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6tGaphXVlEC&q=%22heavy+metal+fashion%22+biker&pg=PA30 |title=Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture |date=5 August 2009 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=9780786751037 |access-date=5 December 2017 |via=Google Books}} Typical heavy metal fashions in the UK, US and Australia included leather battle jackets, combat boots, studded belts, and black leather jackets{{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52hFCQAAQBAJ&q=heavy+metal+fashion&pg=PA123 |title=Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music |last2=Cogan |first2=Brian |date=20 March 2009 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9780313348013 |access-date=5 December 2017 |via=Google Books}} like the Schott Perfecto.

Freddie Mercury of Queen began incorporating leather into his stage costumes during the band's 1978 News of the World Tour. By their 1979 Jazz Tour, Mercury was wearing a full leather outfit, which he explained was inspired by clubs he frequented. Leather jackets, trousers, and accessories would feature prominently in his wardrobe for the rest of his touring career.

Joan Jett has a leather pride sticker prominently displayed on her guitar.

The satirical mystery novel The Killer wore Leather (2013) by Laura Antoniou is about the murder of a leather titleholder during an international leather convention (fictional event based on IML).{{Cite web |last=Kelly |date=2013-10-17 |title=The Killer Wore Leather: A Mystery |url=https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/reviews/the-killer-wore-leather-a-mystery/ |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=Rainbow Round Table Book and Media Reviews |language=en-US}}

{{Gallery

| title =

| align = center

| footer =

| style =

| state =

| height =

| width =

| perrow = 4

| mode =

| whitebg =

| noborder =

| captionstyle =

| File:Castle party 2012 0 12 (cropped).JPG

|

| alt1=

| File:ColognePride 2006, Parade-7165509.jpg

|

| alt2=

| File:ColognePride 2014 - Straßenparade-2791.jpg

|

| alt3=

| File:Halloween 2010 - Austin TX Kinky Costume.jpg

|

| alt4=

| File:Tina (9839008253).jpg

|

| alt5=

| File:2024 ColognePride, Parade-10130.jpg

|

| alt6=

| File:Service (52164433094).jpg

|

| alt7=

| File:Gmsma2 (183830072).jpg

|

}}

{{Clear}}

• BDSM
• Catsuits and bodysuits in popular media
• Fetish fashion
• FetLife
• Hanky code
• Latex clothing
• Leather Archives & Museum
• National Leather Association International
• Pup play
• PVC clothing
• Southeast Leatherfest

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{commons category-inline|Leather subculture}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100803004858/http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline.htm Leather Archives & Museum Leather History Timeline]

{{leather}}

{{BDSM}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leather Subculture}}

Category:BDSM

Category:LGBTQ culture

Category:Fetish subculture

Category:Gay masculinity

Category:Gay male BDSM