Sep 18, 2021, 7:58 PMThis work is far from comprehensive, but I sincerely hope that it helps people who may be new to discussions around public sexuality develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of our history and present-day exuberance.
- Sep 18, 2021, 7:58 PM
Replies
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:05 PM
San Francisco Pride monitors attempted to expel the first organized SM contingent (Soc. of Janus) in 1978, and moved to ban attendees from even wearing leather *clothing* at Pride in 1979. Lesbian S/M group group Samois successfully fought that ban.
https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#san-francisco-pride-1978
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:05 PM
Leather individuals and motorcycle clubs joined the first Pride marches in 1970. Organized S/M groups participated in New York and Chicago Pride by 1972, and full-blown exhibitions of whips, chains, and boot-licking were well-documented by 1975.
https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#leather-at-pride
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:05 PM
Leather people helped organize the 1978, 1987, and 1993 Marches on Washington; SM/Leather had a seat on the committee for the latter two marches. Video of the 1987 MoW shows organizer Brenda Howard wearing leather and leading a smiling person on a leash.
https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#march-on-washington-1
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:05 PM
When New York Pride experienced a budget crisis in 1983, the local leather community organized a kinky fundraising event at The Spike. Leather Pride Night contributed a sixth of NY Pride's budget by 1985, and became their largest sponsoring event.
https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#leather-in-support-of-queer-life
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:06 PM
Infants, toddlers, kids and teenagers have been marching in and attending Pride since its inception in 1970. SF Pride started offering childcare in 1978. The first kids to be exposed to kinksters at Pride were literally boomers.
https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#young-people-at-pride
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:06 PM
From at least the 1970s through the mid-1990s leather, drag, and trans people were commonly lumped together as forms of sexual deviance which hurt the cause of lesbian and gay rights--both by religious conservatives and by more normative gay people.
https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#reaction-3
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:06 PM
During the Lesbian Sex Wars, anti-porn feminists developed a critique of BDSM as fundamentally degrading to women and inimical to lesbian feminism. That rhetorical framework provided a powerful tool for conservatives who moved to censor SM and queer art.
https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#obscenity-laws
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:17 PM
For anyone who asked for a reading list: I got you. https://aphyr.com/posts/358-a-history-of-leather-at-pride-1965-1995#further-reading
- Sep 18, 2021, 9:25 PM
Honestly unsure whether I'm gonna get dogpiled for this or not. Should be interesting once it starts percolating into the more stigmaphobic parts of queer twitter.
- Sep 19, 2021, 4:38 PM
There's an EPUB now too, for those of you on phones/tablets/e-readers etc.
- Sep 19, 2021, 6:23 PM
Oh Jesus fucking Christ it's top ten on HN now.
This isn't FOR you.
hairylarryhairylarry@gamerplus.orgApr 27, 2025, 12:45 PM
