Editing Leather subculture

{{Short description|Subculture involving leather garments}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
[[File:Leather, Latex, and BDSM pride - Light.svg|thumb|300px|The [[Leather Pride flag]], a symbol for the leather community, designed by [[Tony DeBlase]] in 1989]]
'''Leather subculture''' denotes practices and styles of dress organized around [[Human sexual activity|sexual activities]] that involve [[leather]] garments, such as [[leather jacket]]s, [[vest]]s, [[boot]]s, [[chaps]], [[Bondage harness|harnesses]], or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many participants associate leather culture with [[BDSM]] practices and its many [[Fetish subculture|subcultures]]. For some, black leather clothing is an [[eroticism|erotic]] [[fashion]] that expresses heightened [[masculinity]] or the appropriation of sexual power; love of [[motorcycle]]s, [[motorcycle club]]s and independence; and/or engagement in [[kink (sexual)|sexual kink]] or leather [[sexual fetish|fetishism]].<ref name="Rubin">"Elegy for the Valley of Kings," by [[Gayle Rubin]], in ''In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS,'' ed. Levine et al., University of Chicago Press</ref>

==History==
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.<ref name=":16" /> While gay leather developed 20 years after heterosexual European and American fetish styles, it did so relatively isolated from those existing circles and organizations.<ref name=":18" />

Although there is some evidence of [[BDSM|BDSM activities]] among gay men before the [[World War II|Second World War]], this "pre-leather" scene has not been extensively researched. Due to pathologization and criminal prosecution of [[homosexuality]] and [[Kink (sexuality)|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.<ref name=":18" />

=== Formative Years (1940–1968) ===
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.<ref name=":18" /> A significant portion of the leather community consisted of [[queer]] servicemen and servicewomen returning from WWII, who were congregating in large US cities after [[Operation Magic Carpet|returning]] to their home country in 1945 and 1946.<ref name=":21" /><ref>{{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}}</ref>
[[File:Triumph Thunderbird from the movie "The Wild One" (1953).jpg|thumb|Triumph Thunderbird from the movie "The Wild One"]]
[[File:Physique Pictorial Vol 17 No 1 cover.jpg|thumb|Cover of the magazine Physique Pictorial volume 17 number 1 by Tom of Finland, 1968]]
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|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.<ref name="ebar.com">{{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}}</ref> ''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 did not create the symbolics of leather, it helped to standardize the masculine leather aesthetic and provided it with nationwide exposure.<ref name=":18" /> Artists such as [[Tom of Finland]] and [[Dom Orejudos|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.<ref name=":25">{{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|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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)|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 (sexual)|kink]] and [[BDSM|S&M]].<ref name="Rubin1998">[[Gayle Rubin|Rubin, Gayle]]. "The Miracle Mile: South of Market and Leather, 1962–1997" in ''Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture'' (City Light Books, 1998)</ref> 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"<ref name="OG Tradition">{{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=usurped |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}}</ref> or "buddy sexuality"<ref name="rubin OG">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="wiseman leather">{{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}}</ref> 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 [[Code (cryptography)|encoded]] [[Personal advertisement|personal ads]] in newspapers.<ref name="occupytampa.org" /> Another fixture were private parties by local players.<ref name=":16" /> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=":18" />

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 did not emerge in New York City until the 1960s, though.<ref name=":18" /> 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.<ref name=":19" /> 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.<ref name=":18" /> In 1970 Olson opened his own leather bar with his lover Don Morrison, the Eagle's Nest, later renamed the Eagle.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

{{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.<ref name=":19">{{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}}</ref>

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 code]]s.<ref name=":22" /> 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,<ref name=":23" /> Guy Baldwin,<ref>{{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}}</ref> and John Preston.<ref>{{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?}}</ref> 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 (bar)|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.<ref name=":02">{{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}}</ref><ref name=":20">{{Cite web |title=Chuck Renslow |url=https://www.chicagogayhistory.com/biography.php?id=772 |access-date=2023-10-01 |website=Chicago Gay History}}</ref>

In San Francisco, [[South of Market, San Francisco|South of Market]] became the hub of the leather subculture in the gay community in 1962 when the [[The Tool Box (bar)|Tool Box]] opened its doors as the first leather bar in the neighborhood.<ref name="BrookCarlssonPeters1998">Brook, J., Carlsson, C., and Peters, N. J. (1998). Reclaiming San Francisco: history, politics, culture. San Francisco: City Lights</ref> 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 Motorcycle Club|Satyrs]] and Oedipus.<ref name=":16">{{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.}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> The Tool Box became famous nationwide due to the  June 1964 Paul Welch ''[[Life (magazine)|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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> The article described San Francisco as "The Gay Capital of America" and inspired many gay leathermen to move there.<ref name="leatherarchives.org">{{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}}</ref> When the [[The Stud (bar)|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.<ref name="BrookCarlssonPeters1998" /><ref name=":8">Achilles, Nancy. (1967). "The Development of the Homosexual Bar as an Institution". In Gagnon, John H. and William Simon. New York: Harper & Row.</ref>

=== The Golden Age (1969–1982) ===
The 1970s are considered the heyday of leather culture, also referred to as the Golden Age.<ref>{{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}}</ref> During this time, the subculture grew by leaps and bounds worldwide, accompanied by increasing organization, diversification, improving networks and visibility.<ref name=":23">{{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}}</ref> Leather bars became sponsors of leather contests, inspired by [[beauty pageant]]s, 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.<ref name=":19" /> Another feature of US-leather bars in the 1970s were [[Bootblacking (BDSM)|bootblacks]], e.g. the Gold Coast in Chicago and the Ramrod in New York City were fitted with bootblack stands.<ref name=":17" /><ref>{{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}}</ref> Another new development was the [[hanky code]], which communicated sexual preferences through colored handkerchiefs.<ref>{{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|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
[[File:Leather Archives & Museum - Interior.jpg|thumb|Artifacts from motorcycle clubs and leather bars on display at the [[Leather Archives & Museum]] (2024)]]
The first leather contest was most likely the [[#Competitions|"Mr. Gold Coast" pageant]] held in 1972 in the Gold Coast in Chicago, which was rebranded as [[International Mr. Leather]] in 1979.<ref name=":02" /><ref name=":20" /> Notable sex clubs of the time include the [[Mineshaft (gay club)|Mineshaft]] (1976–1985) in New York City, Inferno weekend in Chicago (since 1976) and the Catacombs (1975–1984) in San Francisco.<ref name="occupytampa.org" /> The "leather daddy" archetype from the late 1970s, which has [[Sadomasochism|sadomasochistic]] associations, led to the creation of the [[Daddy (slang)|daddy]] archetype in queer culture.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{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}}</ref>

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 [[BDSM|role]].<ref name=":21" /> [[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)|Drummer]]'' magazine was published in Los Angeles, which was the most successful of the American leather magazines, and sold overseas.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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,<ref name="barobit">[http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=5158 ''Drummer magazine founder John Embry dies''].  Obituary in the ''[[Bay Area Reporter]]''</ref> accompanied by erotic foto series and illustrations, and written erotica. For example, the erotic novel Mr. Benson by [[John Preston (American author)|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.<ref name=":21">{{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}}</ref>

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,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cmen.org/leather/exploring-leather/|title=Exploring the Leather Community 2017 – CMEN}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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]]}}</ref> 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.<ref name="LHF">"2014 Leather Hall of Fame Inductee Cynthia Slater (1945–1989)", Leather Hall of Fame Inductees List [https://leatherhalloffame.com/inductees-list/21-cynthia-slater]</ref><ref name="Call">Call, Lewis. 2013. BDSM in American science fiction and fantasy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p.5</ref> Slater persuaded the management of San Francisco's [[Sadomasochism|S/M]] leather club the [[Catacombs (sex club)|Catacombs]], the most famous [[fisting]] club in the world, to open up to lesbians; it was originally a gay men's club.<ref name="occupytampa.org">[[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.</ref><ref name="Call" /> It operated from 1975 to 1981, and reopened at another location from 1982 to 1984. Slater was also an early proponent of [[sadomasochism|S/M]] safety, and one of the major [[AIDS]] activists and educators during the late 1970s.<ref name="LHF" /> 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 (sexuality)|kink]]/[[sexual fetishism|fetish]] [[Venn diagram|Venn-diagramatic]] culture.<ref name="Drummer">"THE JANUS SOCIETY: KISS AND DON'T TELL
Cynthia Slater and the Catholic Priest", Jack Fritscher. ''[[Drummer (magazine)|Drummer]]'' 27, February 1979.</ref>

[[Patrick Califia|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, [[Patrick Califia|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|Lesbian]]" below).<ref name="jeffreys130">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated126">{{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 }}</ref><ref name="rubin419">{{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}}</ref>

In 1979 the newly formed San Francisco lesbian motorcycle club, [[Dykes on Bikes]], led what was then called the [[San Francisco Pride|San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade]] for the first time<ref name="leatherarchives1979">{{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 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="avatarla1">"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.</ref> Leather and Lace had a code of conduct and a uniform that could only be worn once a member earned the right.

=== The Age of Political Mobilization (1983–present) ===
The leather community was hit hard by several effects of the [[HIV/AIDS in the United States|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.<ref name=":21" /> 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.<ref name="occupytampa.org" />

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.<ref name=":24" /> It was and still is the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture.<ref name="Cheap date - what to do">{{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}}</ref>

[[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 (magazine)|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.<ref name="nla">{{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}}</ref> Adding "International" to its name in 1991, the [[National Leather Association|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|thumb|Participants representing S/M Leather Fetish in the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation 1993]]
In 1987, Judy Tallwing McCarthey was the leather community's keynote speaker at the [[Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights]].<ref name="Judyleather">{{Cite web|url=https://dallasvoice.com/creating-change-conference-announces-awards/|title=Creating Change Conference announces awards &#124; Dallas Voice|date=14 December 2019 }}</ref>

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).<ref>{{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}}</ref> The current version of the DSM, [[DSM-5]], excludes consensual BDSM from diagnosis when the sexual interests cause no harm or distress.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

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 (sexuality)|kink]], [[sexual fetishism|fetish]], and [[BDSM]] history and culture.”<ref name="leatherarchives1">{{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 }}</ref><ref name=":leather">{{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}}</ref>

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, [[Swinging (sexual practice)|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>}}

In 2002, an article in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' publicly highlighted [[Jack McGeorge]]'s leadership in the [[Washington, D.C.]] leather and [[BDSM]] community.<ref name=":12">{{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}}</ref> 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 [[United Nations|U.N.]] Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, called [[UNMOVIC]])<ref name="wp-obit">{{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
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.leatheryenta.com/2009/08/18/jack-mcgeorge-obituary/
|author=Lolita Wolf
|title=Jack McGeorge – obituary
|date=2009-08-18
}}</ref><ref name="cv">{{Cite web|url=http://www.psgcabo.com/mcgeorge_cv.pdf|title=Harvey J. McGeorge Curriculum Vitae}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":13">{{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}}</ref>

[[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.<ref name=":14">{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

[[File:Leather Contingent Pride 2004.jpg|thumb|A leather contingent at the [[San Francisco Pride]] Parade.]]
In 2005 [[V. M. Johnson|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."<ref name="leatherlibrary1">{{cite web|url=http://www.leatherlibrary.org |title=Carter/Johnson Leather Library |publisher=Leatherlibrary.org |access-date= 18 May 2014}}</ref><ref name="leatherlibrary2">{{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}}</ref>

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

Leather & Grace, a (now defunct) organization of [[Unitarian Universalist]] [[Kink (sexual)|kinksters]], was founded in 2011, and combined a red [[flaming chalice]] with the stripes of the leather pride flag for their logo.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://leatherandgrace.wordpress.com/ |title=Leather & Grace &#124; Unitarian Universalists for BDSM Awareness |publisher=Leatherandgrace.wordpress.com |access-date=2020-01-07}}</ref>

[[File:Cologne Germany Cologne-Gay-Pride-2014 Parade-13.jpg|thumb|Leathermen at [[Cologne Pride]], 2014]]
The [[LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District]] was created in [[South of Market, San Francisco]] in 2018.<ref name="sabatini">{{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 }}</ref> It includes the [[San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley]], consisting of four works of art, which opened in 2017.<ref name="aaa">{{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}}</ref><ref name="Jewish2">{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ebar.com/story/334425|title=In a 1st, San Francisco park to bear name of leather leader|website=Bay Area Reporter}}</ref>

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".<ref name="crossculturebdsm">{{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}}</ref> Others do not necessarily associate their leather lifestyle with BDSM, and simply enjoy the sensory experience of leather.<ref name="Vanilla 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 }}</ref>

== The Myth of the Old Guard ==
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.<ref name=":9">[http://www.cuirmale.nl/history/magazines.htm ''Gay leather magazines''], cuirmale.nl</ref> 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.<ref name=":8" /> 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 [[Fetishism|fetish]] aspects of the scene. This narrative often includes serious criticism of the increasing [[commodification]] and [[Politicisation|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.<ref name=":10">''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.</ref><ref name=":11">{{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}}</ref><ref name="rinella OG">{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref name=":14" />

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 [[Gor]]ean BDSM.<ref name=":13" />

==Subcultures==
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.<ref name=Rubin/> These include BDSM practitioners, and people who have a preference for aggressive or masculine sexual styles; people who love motorcycles; people involved in [[kink (sexual)|kink]] or [[sexual fetish|leather fetishism]]; and people who participate in large-scale cultural and marketing events such as [[Folsom Street Fair]] or leather-themed [[circuit parties]].

===Lesbians===
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|Lesbian]]" below)<ref name="jeffreys130"/> 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,<ref name="autogenerated126"/><ref name="rubin419"/> with the first winner being Judy Tallwing McCarthey,<ref name="Judyauto5">{{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}}</ref><ref name="Judyauto1">{{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}}</ref> a lesbian.<ref name="Judyauto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lizzm7AgbU|title=Judy Tallwing McCarthy 1987|date=July 28, 2011|via=YouTube}}</ref>

In 1979 the newly formed San Francisco lesbian motorcycle club, [[Dykes on Bikes]], led what was then called the [[San Francisco Pride|San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade]] for the first time<ref name="leatherarchives1979"/> 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.<ref name="avatarla1"/> 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.

===Deaf people===
In 1986, Baltimore Leather Association of the Deaf (BLADeaf), the first [[deafness|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bladeaf.org/information.htm|title=BLADeaf &#124; Information|date=5 February 2001|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010205150100/http://bladeaf.org/information.htm |archive-date=5 February 2001 }}</ref>

In 1989, a deaf chapter of the [[National Leather Association International|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.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=History |url=http://internationaldeafleather.org/history.html |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=International Deaf Leather}}</ref> International Deaf Leather held contests for the titles International Ms. Deaf Leather, International Mr. Deaf Leather, and International Deaf Leather Boy.<ref name=":4" /> 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).<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 July 2021 |title=Awards |url=http://internationaldeafleather.org/awards.html |website=International Deaf Leather}}</ref> International Deaf Leather ended in 2021.<ref name=":5">{{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}}</ref>

Deaf leathermen have continued to compete at [[International Mr. Leather|IML]]; in 1992, IML featured three deaf contestants.<ref name="auto">{{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}}</ref>

=== Bootblacks ===
{{See also|Bootblacking (BDSM)}}
[[File:Shine (27783899525).jpg|thumb|Bootblack working the stand at [[Folsom Street Fair]].]]
With the establishment of local, regional and international bootblack contests in the 1990s and early 2000s, [[Bootblacking (BDSM)|bootblacks]] began to gain visibility as a subculture in their own right.<ref name=":17">{{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}}</ref> Nowadays, bootblack stands as well as classes on bootblacking are common fixtures at events, contests, conferences and parties. Bootblacking is rooted in [[Service (business)|service]] to the leather community and the care of the gear Leatherpeople use, such as [[leather jacket]]s, [[vest]]s, [[boot]]s, [[chaps]], [[Bondage harness|harnesses]], or items made from [[Natural rubber|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dominguez |first=Linda A. |title=The Passion of Bootblacking |year=2021 |publisher=Agar |isbn=9781956096040}}</ref> Therefore, bootblacks play a central role in the [[oral history]] of the leather scene.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

===Various age groups===
{{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 (fetishism)|BLUF]], from the late 1970s.

== Leather Pride Flag ==
{{See also|Leather pride flag}}[[File:Leather, Latex, and BDSM pride - Light.svg|thumb|258x258px|The [[Leather Pride flag]], 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.<ref name=":7">{{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}}</ref> DeBlase considered the flag to be a first draft and expected the community would suggest changes to the design.<ref name=":7" /> While some community members wanted a say in the final design,<ref>{{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}}</ref> the majority embraced DeBlase's original design as-is.<ref name=":7" /> To this day, the flag has not undergone any significant revisions.<ref name=":7" />

In June 1989 the flag was used by the leather contingent in a [[Pride Northwest|Portland, Oregon pride parade]], which was its first appearance at a [[pride parade]].<ref name="archive1989">{{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}}</ref>

== Art ==
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)|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.<ref name=":25" />
{{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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

Influential artists of the leather scene include:

* [[Chuck Arnett]]
* [[Tom of Finland]]
* [[Robert Mapplethorpe]]
* [[Dom Orejudos]]

The [[San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley]], consisting of four works of art, opened in 2017.<ref name="aaa"/><ref name="Jewish2"/>

In 2022 a leather pride [[tartan]] was registered with the [[Scottish Register of Tartans]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails?ref=13627|title=Tartan Details - The Scottish Register of Tartans|website=www.tartanregister.gov.uk}}</ref>

== Organizations ==
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.<ref name="Rubin1998" />

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.<ref name=":18" /> 
[[File:Dykes on bikes (19250309242).jpg|thumb|Dykes on Bikes during a Pride Parade]]
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 City|New York]] Motorbike Club (1967) and Cycle MC (1968).<ref name=":18" />

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About & History |url=https://ecmc.eu/about/ |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=ECMC}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref name="leatherarchives1979" /> 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, [[The Eulenspiegel Society|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|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The principle of "[[Safe, sane and consensual|safe, sane, consensual]]" (SSC) stems from GMSMA's environment.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ONYX Overview – ONYX |url=https://www.onyxmen.com/overview/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |language=en-US}}</ref> More recently, Proteus Leather Club was founded in Europe for and by trans and non-binary people in leather.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://proteusleather.club/about/proteusleather.club/about/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=Proteus Leather Club |language=en}}</ref>

==Locations==
===Bars, sex clubs and urban districts===
[[File:Warmoesstraat street skatch. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Northern Europe.jpg|thumb|Cockring, now closed, was a popular leather and sex club in [[Amsterdam]]'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.<ref name=":22">{{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}}</ref> Usually, leather bars were found in industrial and working-class city neighborhoods, like [[South of Market, San Francisco|South of Market]] in [[San Francisco]] and the Manhattan [[Meatpacking District, Manhattan|Meatpacking District]].<ref name=":16" />
[[File:Montreal on my phone, 2017 - 4.jpg|thumb|Black Eagle Bar in Montreal]]
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.<ref name=":24">{{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}}</ref>

Dozens of leather bars are named "Eagle" or some variant thereof; although they are independently owned, these [[The Eagle (bar)|Eagle bars]] share a focus on leather, kink, and masculinity.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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]]".<ref>{{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}}</ref> On [[Warmoesstraat]], the first leather bar in the country opened around 1955.<ref name="gaybarnl">[[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]</ref><ref>About the history of the Amsterdam [http://www.leatherhistory.eu/ Leather Scene]</ref> 
* [[Berlin]]: Scheune (bar), [[Tom's Bar]], both on [[Motzstraße]], New Action on Kleiststraße and the area around [[Nollendorfplatz]]
* [[Chicago]]: The [[Gold Coast (bar)|Gold Coast]], GayLife newspaper, [[Man's Country (bathhouse)|Man's Country]] bathhouse and the Chicago Eagle all were located on a street block of [[Clark Street (Chicago)|Clark Street]] (from Ainslie to Winnemac).<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* [[New York City]]: the sexclubs [[Mineshaft (gay club)|Mineshaft]] (1976–85)<ref name="auto1">{{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}}</ref> and Anvil (1974–85)<ref>{{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}}</ref> in the [[Meatpacking District]].<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* [[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.<ref name=":16" />
*[[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.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Influential leather bars and clubs
!Name
!City
!Country
!Opening Year
!Closing Year
!Significance
!Ref.
|-
|[[The Tool Box (bar)|Tool Box]]
|South of Market, San Francisco
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1962
|1971
|First leather bar in South of Market, murals by [[Chuck Arnett]]. Featured in "Homosexuality in America", an article published by ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine 1964.
|<ref name="Rubin1998" />
|-
|[[Gold Coast (bar)|Gold Coast]]
|[[Chicago]]
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1960
|1988
|First designated leather bar in [[Chicago]], owned by leatherman [[Chuck Renslow]], murals by [[Dom Orejudos]] (Etienne). Sponsor of the "Mr. Gold Coast" pageant (1972–78), which in 1979 developed into [[International Mr. Leather]].
|<ref name=":17" />
|-
|Shaw's
|New York City
|{{Flag|United States}}
|c. 1953
|c. 1964
|First "leather friendly bar" in New York City
|<ref name=":18">{{Cite book |last=Bienvenu |first=Robert |title=The Development of Sadomasochism as a Cultural Style in the Twentieth-Century United States. Dissertation |year=1998 |pages=220–273 |chapter=Development of the Gay Leather style}}</ref>
|-
|Big Dollar
|New York City
|{{Flag|United States}}
|c. 1959
|c. 1964
|Early dedicated leather bar in New York City
|<ref name=":18" />
|-
|Lodge
|New York City
|{{Flag|United States}}
|c. 1954
|c. 1964
|First leather bar in New York City that imposed a dress code.
|<ref name=":18" />
|-
|Why Not
|San Francisco
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1961
|1961
|First leather bar in San Francisco, managed by leatherman Tony Tavarossi, closed after a vice squad arrest.
|<ref name=":18" />
|-
|Eagle's Nest (later: the Eagle)
|New York City
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1970
|
|Owned by leatherman Bob Milne, became the model for numerous [[The Eagle (bar)|"Eagle" bars]].
|<ref name=":18" />
|-
|Fe-Be's 
|Folsom Street, South of Market, San Francisco
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1966
|1986
|Most influencal leather bar in San Francisco in the second half of the 60s, part of the "Miracle Mile" on Folsom Street, also housed the shop A Taste of Leather.
|
|-
|Loreley
|[[Hamburg]]
|{{Flag|Germany}}
|1969
|
|Probably the first leather bar in Germany.
|<ref name=":26">{{Cite book |last=Tetzner |first=Thomas |title=Spielen am Rand. 60 Jahre Leben in der schwulen Leder- und Fetisch-Szene |publisher=Querverlag |year=2024 |isbn=978-3896563453 |edition=1st |language=de |trans-title=Playing on the edge. 60 years of life in the gay leather and fetish scene}}</ref>
|-
|Ochsengarten
|[[Munich]]
|{{Flag|Germany}}
|1969
|
|First leather bar in [[Bavaria]] and one of the first leather bars in Germany.
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Die Münchner LGBTIQ*-Chronik |url=https://forummuenchen.org/lgbtiq-chronik/ |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=forummuenchen.org}}</ref><ref name=":26" />
|-
|[[The Anvil (gay club)|The Anvil]]
|New York City
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1974
|1985
|[[Gay]] [[BDSM]] [[Afterhours club|after-hours]] [[sex club]] 
|<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Neil |title=Out of the past: gay & lesbian history from 1869 to the present |date=2006 |publisher=Alyson Books |isbn=978-1-55583-870-6 |edition=Rev. & updated, 1. Alyson Books |location=New York}}</ref>
|-
|[[The Backstreet]]
|[[East End of London|East End]],  [[London]]
|{{Flag|United Kingdom}}
|1985
|2022
|London's longest running, and last remaining leather bar.
|<ref>{{Cite news |last=Siddons |first=Edward |date=2018-10-04 |title=Why is the gay leather scene dying? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/04/why-is-gay-leather-scene-dying |access-date=2024-06-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
|-
|[[Atlanta Eagle police raid|Atlanta Eagle]]
|Atlanta
|{{Flag|United States}}
|c. 1985/1987
|
|Subjected to the [[Atlanta Eagle police raid]] in 2009, named a historic landmark by the City of Atlanta as the first recognized and protected LGBTQ landmark in the Deep South.
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cheves |first=Alexander |date=2020-12-21 |title=COVID Won't Stop Atlanta's Most Iconic Leather Bar From Queering the South |url=https://www.them.us/story/eagle-atlanta-historic-preservation-queer-spaces-covid-19 |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Them |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|[[Coleherne, Earl's Court|Coleherne Arms 1866]]
|Earl's Court, London
|{{Flag|United Kingdom}}
|1866
|2008
|Internationally known leather club in the 1970s and 1980s, nicknamed 'The Cloneherne'.
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=gingerman1963 |url=https://gingerman1963.wordpress.com/ |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=gingerman1963 |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|[[Mineshaft (gay club)|Mineshaft]]
|[[Manhattan]], [[New York City]]
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1976
|1985
|Members-only [[BDSM]] leather bar and [[sex club]] for [[gay men]]. Predecessor leather bars in the same building since 1968.
|<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Patrick |title=Beyond shame: reclaiming the abandoned history of radical gay sexuality |date=2004 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-7956-0 |location=Boston, Mass}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/>
|-
|Ramrod
|Folsom Street, South of Market, San Francisco
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1968
|?
|Part of the "Miracle Mile" on Folsom Street
|<ref name=":18" />
|-
|[[San Francisco Eagle]] (also SF Eagle; formerly Eagle Tavern)
|South of Market, San Francisco
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1981
|
|[[List of San Francisco Designated Landmarks|San Francisco Designated Landmark]] designated in 2021.
|<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barmann |first=Jay |date=2021-10-06 |title=SF Eagle in SOMA gets City Landmark Status |url=https://hoodline.com/2021/10/sf-eagle-in-soma-gets-city-landmark-status/ |work=Hoodline San Francisco}}</ref>
|-
|Seattle Eagle (formerly J&L Saloon)
|Seattle
|{{Flag|United States}}
|c. 1982
|
|First leather bar in Seattle.
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Randy Henson's Brief History of The Seattle Eagle: Daring To Be Different For 35 Years – Seattle Gay Scene |url=https://seattlegayscene.com/2015/06/randy-hensons-brief-history-of-the-seattle-eagle-daring-to-be-different-for-35-years/ |access-date=2024-06-27 |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|[[Ramrod (New York City)|Ramrod]]
|[[Greenwich Village]], Manhattan, New York City
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1973
|1980
|The bar was shuttered and never reopened after an act of [[Violence against LGBT people|anti-gay gun violence]] in 1980.
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ramrod – NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project |url=https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/ramrod/ |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=www.nyclgbtsites.org}}</ref>
|-
|[[The Stud (bar)|The Stud]]
|San Francisco
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1966
|
|Originally part of the "Miracle Mile" on Folsom Street, owned by George Matson and Alexis Muir (Muir was a transgender woman then known as Richard Conroy).
|<ref>{{Cite news |last=Flanagan |first=Michael |date=2024-04-23 |title=The Stud's return: historic bar's triumphant third time's a charm |url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=bartab&sc=bars&id=332777 |work=Bay Area Reporter}}</ref>
|-
|[[Catacombs (sex club)|Catacombs]]
|San Francisco
|{{Flag|United States}}
|1975
|1984
|Gay underground sex club, mostly known for [[fisting]].
|<ref name="occupytampa.org" />
|-
|Toms Saloon
|Hamburg
|{{Flag|Germany}}
|1974
|
|Murals by [[Tom of Finland]]
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tom of Finland |url=https://www.toms-hamburg.de/tom-of-finland?lang=en |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Toms Saloon Hamburg |language=en}}</ref>
|}

=== Museums, archives and libraries ===
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 (sexuality)|kink]], [[sexual fetishism|fetish]], and [[BDSM]] history and culture.”<ref name="shapiro48">{{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}}</ref><ref name="leatherarchives1" /> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

<ref name=":leather" /> In 2005 [[V. M. Johnson|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."<ref name="leatherlibrary1" /><ref name="leatherlibrary2" />

=== Official recognition ===
The [[LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District]] was created in the [[South of Market, San Francisco|South of Market (SoMa)]] neighborhood of [[San Francisco]] in 2018.<ref name="sabatini" /> It includes the [[San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley]], with four works of art, which opened in 2017:<ref name="aaa" /><ref name="Jewish2" />
the four works of art are: A black granite stone etched with a narrative by [[Gayle Rubin]], an image of the "Leather [[King David|David]]" statue by Mike Caffee, a reproduction of [[Chuck Arnett]]'s 1962 mural that was in the Tool Box (a gay leather bar),<ref name="Jewish2" /><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name="Jewish2" /><ref name="aaa" />

On May 25, 2018, the [[Chicago City Council]] voted to designate a stretch of [[Clark Street (Chicago)|Clark Street]] in [[Uptown, Chicago|Uptown]] (between Winnemac Ave and Ainslie Ave) as "[[Chuck Renslow|CHUCK RENSLOW]] WAY."<ref>{{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}}</ref> Renslow founded numerous leather and LGBT institutions, many of which were once located on Clark St, including the [[Gold Coast (bar)|Gold Coast]] bar and [[Man's Country (bathhouse)|Man's Country]] bathhouse.<ref name=":6">{{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}}</ref> The city unveiled the new street sign during the anniversary of the [[International Mr. Leather]] competition that Renslow founded.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=":6" />

== Events ==
[[File:SF Pride 2014 - Stierch 10.jpg|thumb|[[Folsom Street Fair]] 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|Folsom Street]] between 8th and 13th Streets, in San Francisco's [[South of Market (San Francisco)|South of Market]] district. The event is California's third-largest single-day, outdoor spectator event<ref>{{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}}</ref> and the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture.<ref name="Cheap date - what to do" /> Folsom Street Events now organizes many events each year<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 [[:nl:Amsterdam Leather Pride|Wikipedia article in Dutch]]) and Folsom Street East in New York City.

=== Contests ===
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.<ref>{{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]]}}</ref> The following table includes a non-exhaustive list of past and present leather contests:

{{Dynamic list}}
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!Title
!Organizer
!Location
!Established
!Status
!Ref.
|-
|Mr. Gold Coast
|[[Gold Coast (bar)|Gold Coast]]
|[[Chicago]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1972
|Reorganized into IML
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goldsborough |first=Bob |date=2017-06-30 |title=Chuck Renslow, Chicago gay community icon and International Mr. Leather contest founder, dies at 87 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2017/06/30/chuck-renslow-chicago-gay-community-icon-and-international-mr-leather-contest-founder-dies-at-87/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|[[International Mr. Leather]] (IML)
|International Mr. Leather Inc.
|Chicago,
{{Flag|United States}}
|1979
|Active
|<ref name="auto"/>
|-
|Mr. Drummer
|''[[Drummer (magazine)|Drummer]]'' magazine
|[[Los Angeles]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1980
|Disbanded
|<ref name=":15">{{Cite web |last=Mister Marcus |date=2006-03-28 |title=Remembrances |url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=arts__culture&id=225151 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=[[Bay Area Reporter]]}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. San Francisco Leather
|SF Bay Area Leather Alliance
|[[San Francisco]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1982
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=SF Leather Pride • Mr SF Leather Titleholders |url=http://www.sfleatherpride.com/mrsf_titleholders/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=www.sfleatherpride.com |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. D.C. Eagle
|[[D.C. Eagle]]
|[[Washington, D.C.]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1982
|Disbanded
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Salas |first=Damien |date=2015-03-24 |title=PHOTOS: Mr. D.C. Eagle |url=https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/03/24/photos-mr-d-c-eagle-2015/,%20https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/03/24/photos-mr-d-c-eagle-2015/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=[[Washington Blade]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Burger |first=Rodney |title=History is Made in DC! |url=https://baltimoreoutloud.org/wp/24636-2/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=Baltimore OUTloud |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jr |first=Lou Chibbaro |date=2020-05-05 |title=DC Eagle to close for good |url=https://www.washingtonblade.com/2020/05/05/dc-eagle-to-close-for-good/,%20https://www.washingtonblade.com/2020/05/05/dc-eagle-to-close-for-good/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=[[Washington Blade]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|SF Leather Daddy
|[[Alan Selby]]
|San Francisco,
{{Flag|United States}}
|1983
|Inactive
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brogan |first=Scott |date=2010-07-27 |title=David Meyer is SF Leather Daddy XXVIII |url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=arts_&id=224878 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=[[Bay Area Reporter]]}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Missouri Leather
|Gateway Motorcycle Club
|[[St. Louis]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1983
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Murphy |first=Colin |date=2020-02-07 |title=Mr. Missouri Leather 2020 to Celebrate 37 Years of Leathermen |url=http://boom.lgbt/mr-missouri-leather-2020-to-celebrate-37-years-of-leathermen |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Boom Magazine |language=en-us}}</ref>
|-
|[[Mister Leather Europe]] (MLE)
|European Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs
|Rotating
|1985
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr. Leather Europe |url=https://ecmc.eu/mr-leather-europe/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=ECMC}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather (MAL)
|Centaur Motorcycle Club
|Washington, D.C.,
{{Flag|United States}}
|1985
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-09-21 |title=Contest |url=https://www.leatherweekend.com/contest/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. L.A. Leather [[Bear (gay culture)|Bear]]
|Bears L.A.
|Los Angeles,
{{Flag|United States}}
|1986
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Title Holders |url=https://www.bearsla.org/title-holders |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=Bears L.A. |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harrity |first=Christopher |date=2018-01-23 |title=82 Photos to Celebrate the Fuzzy, Adorable Mr. Leather Bear 2018 |url=https://www.advocate.com/photography/2018/1/23/82-photos-celebrate-fuzzy-adorable-mr-leather-bear-2018 |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=[[The Advocate (magazine)|Advocate]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=MR LA LEATHER BEAR 2024 CONTEST |url=https://eaglela.com/events/mr-la-leather-bear-2024-contest/ |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=Eagle LA |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|[[International Ms. Leather]] (IMsL)
|IMsLBB LLC
|Rotating
|1987
|Active
|<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Lenius |first=Steve |date=2006-08-04 |title=Leather Life: International Ms Leather Celebrates 20 Years |url=http://leathercolumn.blogspot.com/2006/08/international-ms-leather-celebrates-20.html |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Leather Life}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.imslbb.org/history |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=IMsLBB |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":15" />
|-
|Mr. Leather UK
|MSC London
|[[London]],
{{Flag|United Kingdom}}
|1988
|Inactive
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holroyde |first=Jack |date=2022-06-05 |title=Mr Leather UK – The history, the current situation and our position |url=https://londonleathermen.co.uk/article/mr-leather-uk-the-history-the-current-situation-and-our-position/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=London Leathermen}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr Leather UK - History |url=https://www.mrleatheruk.com/history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225210839/http://mrleatheruk.com/history/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=25 February 2018 |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.mrleatheruk.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|International Mr. Deaf Leather
|International Deaf Leather
|Rotating
|1991
|Disbanded
|<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />
|-
|[[International Mr. Leather#International Mr. Bootblack|International Mr. Bootblack]] (IMrBB)
|International Mr. Leather Inc.
|Chicago,
{{Flag|United States}}
|1993
|Inactive
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bootblack Contest |url=https://www.imrl.com/bootblack-contest/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=[[International Mr. Leather]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Caporale |first=Micco |date=2024-01-31 |title=Leather could be for everyone |url=http://chicagoreader.com/city-life/feature-city-life/leather-could-be-for-everyone/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=[[Chicago Reader]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. GNI Leather
|Gay Naturists International
|Rotating
|1994
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr GNI Leather Contest |url=https://www.gaynaturists.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3371 |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Gay Naturists International}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Palm Springs Leather
|Palm Springs Leather Order of the Desert
|[[Palm Springs, California|Palm Springs]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1994
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr. Palm Springs Leather Contestant - PS Leather Pride 2023 |url=https://www.pslod.org/contestant |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Palm Springs Leather Order of the Desert |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Michigan Leather (MML)
|Mr. Michigan Leather
|[[Saugatuck, Michigan|Saugatuck]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1995
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Mr. Michigan Leather |url=https://mmlweekend.com/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=MML |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=History of Mr. Michigan Leather |url=https://mmlweekend.com/history/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=MML |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. San Diego Eagle
|[[The Eagle (bar)|San Diego Eagle]]
|[[San Diego]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1995
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Titleholders |url=http://www.sandiegoeagle.com/titleholders/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=San Diego Eagle |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|Mr Ramrod
|Ramrod Fort Lauderdale
|[[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1995
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr Ramrod History |url=https://ramrodbar.com/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Ramrod Leather Bar Fort Lauderdale |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Texas Leather
|Dallas Eagle
|[[Dallas]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|1996
|Inactive
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Arnold Wayne |date=2009-05-28 |title=That's MISTER Leather to you! |url=https://dallasvoice.com/thats-mister-leather-to-you/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=[[Dallas Voice]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|[[International Ms. Leather#International Ms. Bootblack Winners|International Ms. Bootblack]] (IMsBB)
|IMsLBB LLC
|Rotating
|1999
|Active
|<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />
|-
|Bavarian Mr. Leather
|Münchner Löwen Club e.V.
|[[Munich]],
{{Flag|Germany}}
|2001
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bavarian Mr. Leather |url=https://www.mlc-munich.de/web/en/bmrl/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Münchner Löwen Club e.V. |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Fire Island Leather
|Excelsior M.C.
|[[Fire Island]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|2001
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gelbert |first=Bruce-Michael |title=Mr. Fire Island Leather Contest Marks Its 20th Anniversary on May 19 |url=http://www.fireislandqnews.com/2021/0505mrfilthr/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.fireislandqnews.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr. Fire Island Leather Contest |url=https://www.excelsiormc.com/mrfireislandcontest |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.excelsiormc.com}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Eagle NYC
|[[Eagle NYC]]
|[[New York City]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|2002
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |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=2024-05-29 |website=[[NBC News]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Past Mr. Eagles NYC |url=https://eagle-ny.com/past-mr-eagles/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=[[Eagle NYC]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Chicago Leather
|Touché
|Chicago,
{{Flag|United States}}
|2004
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=MCL2024 |url=https://touchechicago.com/mr-chicago-leather-2024 |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Touché Chicago |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Stevens |first=Joseph |date=2025-01-27 |title=Contestants vie for 2025 Mr. Chicago Leather title |url=https://windycitytimes.com/2025/01/27/contestants-vie-for-2025-mr-chicago-leather-title/ |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=[[Windy City Times]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr BOLT Leather
|The BOLT Sacramento
|[[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|2006
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr. Bolt |url=https://sacbolt.com/mrbolts |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=sacbolt.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr Eagle LA Leather
|[[The Eagle (bar)|Eagle LA]]
|Los Angeles,
{{Flag|United States}}
|2007
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Title Holder Walk of Fame |url=https://eaglela.com/galleries/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Eagle LA |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mister Leather Berlin
|Berlin Leder und Fetisch (BLF) e.V.
|[[Berlin]],
{{Flag|Germany}}
|2010
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr. Leather Berlin |url=https://blf.de/easterberlin/mister-leather-berlin/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Berlin Leder und Fetisch |language=de-DE}}</ref>
|-
|Mister Leather Belgium
|MSC Belgium
|[[Antwerp]],
{{Flag|Belgium}}
|2010
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who Is Mister Leather Belgium? |url=https://www.mscbelgium.be/mister-leather-belgium |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=MSC Belgium |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Israel Mr. Leather
|32 Degrees North
|[[Tel Aviv]],
{{Flag|Israel}}
|2015
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Israel Mr. Leather Contest and Events |url=https://ilmrl.com/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Israel Mr. Leather}}</ref>
|-
|Mister Leather France
|ASMF
|[[Paris]],
{{Flag|France}}
|2016
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mister Leather France 2024 |url=https://asmf-gay.org/mrleather/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=ASMF |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Archives des 2016 - Page 2 sur 2 |url=https://asmf-gay.org/mr-leather/2016/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=ASMF |language=fr-FR}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Leather Cymru-Wales
|Leathermen Cymru
|Cardiff,
{{Flag|Wales}}
|2016
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-14 |title=Mr Leather Cymru-Wales 2024 |url=https://leathermencymru.com/mr-leather-wales/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Leathermen Cymru}}</ref>
|-
|Hong Kong Leatherman
|Hong Kong Leatherman
|[[Hong Kong]],
{{Flag|China}}
|2019
|Inactive
|<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Hong Kong Leatherman |url=https://hkleatherman.com/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=hkleatherman.com |language=en-HK}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. & Ms. Austin Eagle
|Austin Eagle
|[[Austin, Texas|Austin]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|2023
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=James |date=2023-09-15 |title=Qmmunity: Carnival of Queers |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2023-09-15/qmmunity-carnival-of-queers/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=[[Austin Chronicle]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Scott |first1=James |last2=Fri. |date=2023-04-07 |title=Qmmunity: The Queer-ster Bunny |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2023-04-07/qmmunity-the-queer-ster-bunny/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=[[Austin Chronicle]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Eagle |first=The Austin |title=The Austin Eagle |url=https://theaustineagle.com/leather-contest |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=The Austin Eagle |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Leather London
|London Leathermen
|London,
{{Flag|United Kingdom}}
|2024
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-11 |title=Mr Leather London 2024 |url=https://londonleathermen.co.uk/mr-leather-london/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=London Leathermen}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Leather Italia
|Leather Club Roma
|{{Flag|Italy}}
|1994
|Active
|<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-08-18 |title=Mr. Leather Italia 2024 |url=https://www.lcroma.com/en/mr-leather-italy-2024/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Leather Club Roma |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sito ufficiale di Mr. Leatherman Italy - Mister Leatherman Italia |url=http://www.mrleathermanitaly.it/ |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=www.mrleathermanitaly.it |language=it}}</ref>
|-
|Mr. Texas Eagle
|[[Eagle Houston]]
|[[Houston]],
{{Flag|United States}}
|
|
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=About the Houston Eagle |url=https://eaglehouston.com/about |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=[[Eagle Houston]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr Texas Eagle |url=https://houstonleatherpride.com/mr-texas-eagle/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Houston Leather Pride |language=en-US}}</ref>
|}

== Representation in popular culture ==
The film ''[[Cruising (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 (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.<ref>{{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|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Some scenes are set at the [[Mineshaft (gay club)|Mineshaft]] (although filming took place in the Hellfire Club<ref>{{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}}</ref>), with extras recruited from the Mineshaft's patrons. Among other things, the movie features a fisting scene. The filming in 1979 massively hindered by [[Cruising (film)|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 [[Mineshaft (gay club)|the Mineshaft]]'s dress code.<ref>[[Jack Fritscher]], ''[[Robert Mapplethorpe]]: Assault with a Deadly Camera'', p. 509.</ref> [[Glenn Hughes (Village People)|Glenn Hughes]], the original leather biker of the group, frequently attended there.<ref>[[Jack Fritscher]], ''[[Robert Mapplethorpe]]: Assault with a Deadly Camera'', p. 466.</ref> 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.<ref>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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="books.google.com">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Typical [[heavy metal fashion]]s in the UK, US and Australia included leather [[battle jacket]]s, [[combat boot]]s, studded belts, and black [[leather jacket]]s<ref>{{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}}</ref> like the [[Schott Perfecto]].

[[Freddie Mercury]] of [[Queen (band)|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 [[International Mr. Leather|IML]]).<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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 | 
 | alt5=
| File:2024 ColognePride, Parade-10130.jpg
 | 
 | alt6=
| File:Service (52164433094).jpg
 | 
 | alt7=
| File:Gmsma2 (183830072).jpg
 | 
}}

{{Clear}}

==See also==
* [[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]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
*{{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:Leather subculture| ]]
[[Category:BDSM]]
[[Category:LGBTQ culture]]
[[Category:Fetish subculture]]
[[Category:Gay masculinity]]
[[Category:Gay male BDSM]]