Leather 101 - A San Diego Perspective
by Papa Tony
This seeking-out has been going on for a long time, but didn't lead to concentrated gathering-places outside of private homes until after World War II, when many GI's came to San Francisco looking for man-to-man sex and settled down in close proximity to many others like them. Then, a spirit of rebelliousness took hold, in the leather-clad outcast-biker style of Marlon Brando in the movie "The Wild Ones". The wearing of leather as fetish-wear became popular among gay men who rebelled against society's expectations. Men no longer had to play boy-girl roles in bed... they could revel in man-to-man sex in its most macho form. Butch lesbians also rejected the assumption that femininity was expected of them, and they had their own kinky underground in major cities.
As numbers grew through word-of-mouth, bars catering to gay leathermen began to appear in the 1960's. One (the Tool Box) was even featured on a two-page spread in Life magazine in 1964! Bathhouses started to appear in the 1970's, which attracted even more men to big cities on either coast. Gay-rights activism forced people to be more open about their lives, which led to more doors opening into the formerly secret society of hardcore kink.
Artists such as Tom of Finland glorified the masculine ideal of leather. Phrases, rules and protocols that defined the leathermen's culture began to be documented in print, allowing them to become culturally stable. Roles such as "Daddy" (mentor in a dominant role), "boy" (trainee in a submissive role) were added to the long-known terms of "Master" and "Slave" in the common language of gay men. The late 1970's were paradise for gay leathermen. Then, everything changed.
The leather community has changed greatly in the last twenty years. Behaviors that were once guaranteed to bring a prison-sentence are now commonly mentioned on television's comedy and talk shows. Garments and accessories that were once worn only by society's rebels and outcasts are now widely seen on the streets and in magazines. Teenagers can even visit "Hot Topics" stores in two local malls and purchase fetish-wear for beginners. The special "signals" that formerly identified the in-crowd to each other are now worn as fashion-statements by people who would be appalled if they knew what messages they are unconsciously broadcasting.
In the old days, only gay leathermen had organizations (secret ones) and other support-networks. In the early 1980's the Pansexual age began, leading to all varieties of kinky people getting in on the networking movement. These folks had been kinky all along, but not as well-organized as they would become. Now, every possible portion of the larger community has access to kinky-themed workshops, mentoring, social events, Internet discussion-lists and play-parties. There are seventeen local leather / kink /fetish organizations in San Diego, and only a few cater to gay men alone. The word "Leather" (generally used by gay men to denote fetishism or kink) has now become supplemented with the acronym "BDSM", standing for "Bondage Discipline Sado-Masochism".
How did things change? How did the Old Guard of Leathermen lose their exclusive use of the underground bars, support-network and secret handshake? The world itself changed, and so did we. When AIDS came to sweep away so many gay men, it killed leathermen first, and hit us hardest. Many, many of the men who had been involved in an ongoing, long-term cycle of mentoring, leadership and role-modeling were the first ones to go.
What our dear departed brothers, Daddies and Granddaddies knew was not lost - the Internet and the book-publishing industry has brought forbidden, formerly-scarce information into common view. There are tens of thousands of fetish-oriented discussion-groups and websites online, covering topics from mild to really, really wild. You can find kink & fetish books in your local Waldenbooks - the section is not marked (we don't want to scare the public), but it's always there. Everyone who has wondered about their "unusual" interests can find their own comfort-level, easily and quickly, as soon as they are ready.
Young people of all orientations now stride confidently into numerous, local well-lit, well-advertised kink / fetish stores and speak knowledgeably with the clerks. Oprah and Jerry Springer have exposed the kinky viewpoint so widely and so often that hardly anybody pays attention any more. Young folks in San Diego can easily attend gay/straight/bisexual/transsexual dance-parties every week if they choose, with fetish-play taking place onstage. Every month's calendar contains several, regularly-scheduled workshops, where a gay man can learn proper use of kinky toys from a lesbian, while they both practice technique on a heterosexual man.
These changes can be uncomfortable to an old-guard gay male, but they also show the surrounding society's slow shift away from criminalization of consensual, enjoyable, victimless acts. The formerly tight, secret (and primarily gay-male) Leather Tribe support-society has grown into a worldwide, diverse movement. The brothers of the Tribe now have sisters, aunts, uncles and in-laws, just like any other family. We also have "family reunions", with all of the pluses and minuses of any other family gathering. Even if we have personality-clashes at times, we still pull through for each other, because we're family.
This is also true of San Diego's community - When there is a common goal, San Diego's Leather Tribe really comes through. When an over-zealous local Vice squad over-stepped the law a few years ago, advice and financial support poured in from all over the world. When someone prominent and well-loved dies, we pull together and mourn them properly. As one example, Sir Alex Walter died recently, after years of active involvement in the community. She received her "Master's cap" in the 1950's, and she earned it the hard way, as they did so many years ago. Her dignity, courage and kind-heartedness are an inspiration to many who follow her path.
San Diego Leatherfest (hosted by Club X) is one of our biggest annual events, with all parts of the community sharing educational, shopping and play opportunities. Last summer's Leatherfest was held at a five-star Palm Springs resort, and featured an incredibly large, diverse team of volunteers, who were there to make sure that the event would be pleasing and well-organized.
Another large annual "family gathering" team-effort is San Diego Leather Pride 2002, which is a series of fourteen events occurring an eight-day stretch from Saturday, February 23rd through Sunday, March 3rd. The centerpiece event for San Diego Leather Pride is the Mr. San Diego Leather 2002 contest at the Hole in Point Loma on Saturday March 2nd (doors open at 5PM). Look through this issue to see a full-page ad listing all of the events in detail, or visit the San Diego Leather Pride website.
In late July, there will be a Leather Tribe contingent in the annual San Diego Pride Parade, which encourages all parts of our local community to come together in friendship. At the Pride Festival after the parade, there will be a Leather Tent for the public to gather information and watch demonstrations.
There are too many businesses, events, organizations, meeting-places, web-links and mailing-lists to mention in the space allotted to this article. For a full listing in exhaustive detail, browse through the local, online reference-library at www.sdlog.org (the website of the San Diego League of Gentlemen). The SDLOG website is possibly the largest resource-library of its kind on the West Coast, containing over 2,000 megabytes of study-materials for those who want to learn more about San Diego's vibrant, active, effective and diverse BDSM community.
Old-timers in the Tribe will always miss the "Good Old Days" when choices were fewer, life seemed simpler and exclusivity was a special thrill that folks "in the know" enjoyed. We could mourn over days gone by and friends that will never come back, but we also live in an age when we can live our lives with greater openness, choices and opportunities than ever before. San Diego's Leather/BDSM community is thriving and growing, year after year.
