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Leather Folk
There's a new leather community in America today that is politically aware and socially active. This groundbreaking anthology looks at the history of the leather and S/M movement.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
80 people are currently reading
1185 people want to read
About the author
Mark Thompson
12 books8 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
Mark Thompson is an American writer, editor and activist. His work centers around gay issues, particularly spirituality.
Mark Thompson is an American writer, editor and activist. His work centers around gay issues, particularly spirituality.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 1, 2020
Despite being published three decades ago, this anthology is still one of the best general introductions to leather history and practice out there and lots of the writing is genuinely beautiful. There's some stuff that's not necessarily for me or hasn't aged particularly well, and Leatherfolk remains a must read.
April 7, 2019
The opening sections of this were awesome and theoretical. The last fourth of the book is all about spirituality and got a little too out there for me. Leather history fascinates me; S/M politics inspire me; Leather faerie shamans, though, make me really bored.
August 9, 2014
I had read this as part of my LGBT Studies curriculum in college. But that was back in the late 1990's, and I wanted to read the updated version. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to have been much updating. The book is interesting more for a historical perspective on the beginnings of, or the classic ("old school"), leather community. However, I get the sense that the theories behind leather and kink practice have changed since their rise in popularity in recent gay life. I could be wrong. But, in any event, the book felt dated and somewhat obsolete. Having said that, the section with essays on the historical rise of the leather scene was certainly the highlight of the book.
January 5, 2020
This was wonderful and amazing, full of personal stories where folks are raw, vulnerable, funny, and sincere in their own specific ways. Like a perzine, but longer, I'd highly recommend this to anyone who is queer for its historical stories and anyone interested in leather/BDSM.
The bad thing is that, in seeking a new way of living and a path, some of the contributors opt for cultural appropriation in lieu of creating something new. This is particularly in the final section on spirituality, which I ended up skimming toward the end.
The bad thing is that, in seeking a new way of living and a path, some of the contributors opt for cultural appropriation in lieu of creating something new. This is particularly in the final section on spirituality, which I ended up skimming toward the end.
January 18, 2016
This book is rather old and the Leather and BDSM scene has changed a lot. But this book is still a fascinating read. Some of the essays give a really interesting picture of the history behind the leather scene and how it changed through out the decades. It also has a lot of value information on the views various people had on the culture as it changed and how society view them through out their lives.
January 2, 2020
Fascinating and compelling. I appreciated the variety of perspectives offered, both with regards to the history and practices of the Leather subculture. I hope that this is a topic that will continue to be documented by current and future authors.
February 18, 2022
4.5, really. But such an enormously richly textured and well-edited collection. Almost every essay had points I viscerally adored and points that made me noticeably uncomfortable, which seems ideal for this kind of work.
July 5, 2023
i think i liked the first half more than the second, but overall really interesting.
content/trigger warnings; f slur, police brutality, homophobia, suicide, aids, explicit sexual content, blood, bdsm, ableism, racism, lesbian separatism, death, loss of loved one, nazis, antisemitism, suicide,
as always, some quotes:
“cultural conservatives, increasingly inhibited from wholesale queer bashing, narrow their target by distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ gays, the former being the nice same-sex couple next door, the latter demonized as the perverts in leather on the streets.”
“in early 1991, for instance, police busted into a boston home where members of the local leather community regularly met for private parties. no warrant was presented; words like ‘faggots’ and ‘fucking aids carriers’ were used by officers the night they brutally searched the house and the 30 men inside. three organizers were arrested, and the names and addresses of others entered into public records. one man was so traumatized by the raid that he killed himself soon thereafter by jumping off a freeway ramp. still, few in the boston gay community expressed outrage over the trespass. ‘what a colossally stupid waste of time,’ stated the editor of a local gay newspaper. ‘let’s hope our organizations spend as little time as possible on it.’ said another community leader, ‘[the raid] doesn’t seem like a gay and lesbian issue.’”
“during the early years of the health crisis, moral revisionists propagated the belief that men into leather were in some way responsible for aids; the perceived excesses of radical sexuality, in this case, were seen to equal death. leatherfolk are well aware too of their betrayal by gay leaders who distance themselves for the sake of mainstream appeal.”
“by 1954 the first gay motorcycle club, the satyrs, had formed in the united states, not surprisingly in southern california. los angeles has been a seedbed for much that now exists in the gay community, including the mattachine society, the first gay political organization in the nation. it is worth noting that when the founding circle of mattachine split apart, two of its members went on to join the satyrs. leathermen have played an important role in the modern gay movement from its very beginnings.”
“by the late 1970s, what had once been clinically labeled as sadomasochism was often referred to as ‘sensuality and mutuality.’ the redefinition of s/m was extended even further by some in the late ’80s to mean ‘sex magic.’”
“just as the far right and the supreme court declare that gay people are too deviant to deserve full human rights, so there are gay people who claim leatherfolk and sadomasochists are too queer to be gay. the argument is well known: we have enough trouble convincing the straight world that gays are just like everybody else, with the minor exception of what we do in the privacy of our bedrooms — so why destroy this illusion by associating ourselves with leatherfolk and drag queens?”
“precisely because it is an illusion. if we fail to defend the real diversity of lesbian and gay people, we won’t just be cutting the ethical heart out of our movement; we’ll also be cutting the political ground out from under our own feet. can we convince ourselves that the supreme court would grant our right to privacy if only drag queens, leatherfolk, and other queers would stop parading in public? our right to privacy will never be secure until the public world is truly free. that’s why our annual gay parades are both a celebration and a protest. the right to privacy is well worth fighting for, but it will be a sad victory if it means nothing but the continued enforcement of sexual secrecy. we have an equal right to the public world, to be indistinguishably similar to straight people, or to be distinctly different.”
“the wider context remains a racist society. neither then nor now does censorship appeal to me. but leatherfolk cannot erase history or refuse responsibility; we must use our heads when we play with power, or by default we allow ourselves to be playthings of powers we should resist.”
“every gay parade i have ever attended in the last decade has always featured contingents of leatherfolk, either on floats for bars or on their own motorcycles, roaring down the streets. s/m, its imagery, its symbols, and its community, are an integral part of post-stonewall gay life.”
“the earliest gay male leather bars and motorcycle clubs appeared in the midfifties, in new york, los angeles, and chicago. san francisco’s first dedicated leather bar, the why not, opened in 1958 in the tenderloin neighborhood and closed soon thereafter. the first really successful local leather bar was a sixties place, the tool box.”
“leather development peaked during the seventies. in the decade after stonewall and before aids, gay communities generally underwent explosive growth in terms of population, economic power, and political self-confidence. leather communities were similarly robust.”
“in the seventies, new kinds of leather and s/m social structures emerged, and older organizational forms were infused with fresh vitality. the first explicitly political s/m organizations were formed in the seventies, as were the first publicly accessible groups for heterosexually oriented s/m and leather women and men. the eulenspiegel society held its first meetings in new york in 1971, and the society of janus began in san francisco in 1974. networking among s/m lesbians began in the midseventies. samois, the first successful lesbian s/m organization, was founded in 1978.”
“sex parties had been critical to the development of leather social life at least as far back as the late forties. before there were leather bars, there were s/m parties. these parties were usually held in private homes and apartments, hosted by one or two individuals, and populated by means of informal networks of referral. the parties in turn helped the early gay s/m networks to diversify and grow. the contacts made through these networks in the late forties and early fifties led to the establishment of the first leather bars. parties have continued ever since to be important mechanisms for building and maintaining leather and s/m communities.”
“s/m was always part of the catacombs, and it became more prevalent as the space became accessible to women and mixed-gender groups. cynthia slater was the person responsible for other groups gaining access to the catacombs. by the time she died of aids in october 1989, cynthia had changed the shape of the san francisco leather community. in 1974, she founded the society of janus, which quickly became a point of connection between straight, bisexual, and gay sadomasochists in the bay area. through janus, a lot of very different sorts of kinky people have found some common ground.”
“the world of men in and into black leather and the loosely drawn community of men who define themselves as ‘radical faeries’ both have roots in the nascent beginnings of the gay movement which emerged primarily after world war ii. the immense social mobilization required by the war sent out waves of change that would forever alter the status of women, gays, and other disenfranchised groups in american culture.”
“i know that lesbians and gay men alike will understand this because the feelings are the same as when we are just coming out into gay life for the first time. in fact, for those who are already gay or lesbian, the act of acknowledging our kinkiness is a ‘second coming out’ that is accompanied by all the same sorts of fear, stress, excitement, and hiding.”
“what most nonkinky people don’t know is that exploration of leather and s/m erotic themes can function in the same self-revealing way that any other sexuality works. it is no accident that among practitioners of this sex style, we may often describe s/m as meaning ‘sensuality and mutuality’ or ‘sexual magic.’ more and more, kinky people who enjoy these sexualities feel that they add, not subtract, to who we are as people. the absence of guilt and fear are making a big difference. sound familiar?”
“in the early 1980s, i was interviewed for a key position with a national organization and there were individuals on the interview committee who knew my ‘reputation.’ a question about my involvement with leather never surfaced during the interview but — when it became clear that i was one of two finalists for the position — the rumors were surfaced. one board member asked his colleagues on the committee, ‘do we really want someone with this reputation identified with our organization?’ i didn’t get the job.”
“these days, i work directing an aids service group in san francisco. because i am open about my identity as a leather-man, some people have vented their concerns about s/m and the spread of hiv at me. i have been surprised, and at times annoyed, at the stereotypes and ignorance that many lesbians and gay men maintain toward leatherpeople. throughout this epidemic, leathermen have been a constant target for criticism about unsafe sex: ‘the fisters caused this crisis,’ ‘promiscuity and the fuck bars brought about aids,’ ‘kinky men with extreme sexuality are getting their due.’”
“the scapegoating of leathermen for aids reminds me of criticism s/m men experienced before the health crisis: we gave the community a bad name by being flagrantly erotic. our celebration of manliness and images of hypermasculinity were indications we hated women. we were responsible for everything from failures of gay rights bills to fires south of market. leathermen were the queerest of the queer during an era when respectable gay men wore lacoste shirts and khaki slacks.”
“recently it has seemed to me that a prime reason leatherpeople are feared and hated is because our open and proud existence flies in the face of many people’s sexual shame. not only do we do naughty things, but we talk about it as well. our clothing may announce the exact sex acts we enjoy. the hooks in the ceiling of our apartments proclaim our perversions. in an era of creeping conservatism and censorship, we have no shame.”
“as an organizer of the 1979 march on washington for lesbian and gay rights, i sat and listened to a respected colleague demand through a bullhorn that marchers remove their handcuffs because of local regulations. i’ve had to listen to staff members question my common sense because i served as director of a one-day leather institute at a national lesbian and gay health conference while i was employed as director of an aids organization. i’ve witnessed community centers debate whether it was acceptable for support groups of leatherpeople to rent meeting space.”
content/trigger warnings; f slur, police brutality, homophobia, suicide, aids, explicit sexual content, blood, bdsm, ableism, racism, lesbian separatism, death, loss of loved one, nazis, antisemitism, suicide,
as always, some quotes:
“cultural conservatives, increasingly inhibited from wholesale queer bashing, narrow their target by distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ gays, the former being the nice same-sex couple next door, the latter demonized as the perverts in leather on the streets.”
“in early 1991, for instance, police busted into a boston home where members of the local leather community regularly met for private parties. no warrant was presented; words like ‘faggots’ and ‘fucking aids carriers’ were used by officers the night they brutally searched the house and the 30 men inside. three organizers were arrested, and the names and addresses of others entered into public records. one man was so traumatized by the raid that he killed himself soon thereafter by jumping off a freeway ramp. still, few in the boston gay community expressed outrage over the trespass. ‘what a colossally stupid waste of time,’ stated the editor of a local gay newspaper. ‘let’s hope our organizations spend as little time as possible on it.’ said another community leader, ‘[the raid] doesn’t seem like a gay and lesbian issue.’”
“during the early years of the health crisis, moral revisionists propagated the belief that men into leather were in some way responsible for aids; the perceived excesses of radical sexuality, in this case, were seen to equal death. leatherfolk are well aware too of their betrayal by gay leaders who distance themselves for the sake of mainstream appeal.”
“by 1954 the first gay motorcycle club, the satyrs, had formed in the united states, not surprisingly in southern california. los angeles has been a seedbed for much that now exists in the gay community, including the mattachine society, the first gay political organization in the nation. it is worth noting that when the founding circle of mattachine split apart, two of its members went on to join the satyrs. leathermen have played an important role in the modern gay movement from its very beginnings.”
“by the late 1970s, what had once been clinically labeled as sadomasochism was often referred to as ‘sensuality and mutuality.’ the redefinition of s/m was extended even further by some in the late ’80s to mean ‘sex magic.’”
“just as the far right and the supreme court declare that gay people are too deviant to deserve full human rights, so there are gay people who claim leatherfolk and sadomasochists are too queer to be gay. the argument is well known: we have enough trouble convincing the straight world that gays are just like everybody else, with the minor exception of what we do in the privacy of our bedrooms — so why destroy this illusion by associating ourselves with leatherfolk and drag queens?”
“precisely because it is an illusion. if we fail to defend the real diversity of lesbian and gay people, we won’t just be cutting the ethical heart out of our movement; we’ll also be cutting the political ground out from under our own feet. can we convince ourselves that the supreme court would grant our right to privacy if only drag queens, leatherfolk, and other queers would stop parading in public? our right to privacy will never be secure until the public world is truly free. that’s why our annual gay parades are both a celebration and a protest. the right to privacy is well worth fighting for, but it will be a sad victory if it means nothing but the continued enforcement of sexual secrecy. we have an equal right to the public world, to be indistinguishably similar to straight people, or to be distinctly different.”
“the wider context remains a racist society. neither then nor now does censorship appeal to me. but leatherfolk cannot erase history or refuse responsibility; we must use our heads when we play with power, or by default we allow ourselves to be playthings of powers we should resist.”
“every gay parade i have ever attended in the last decade has always featured contingents of leatherfolk, either on floats for bars or on their own motorcycles, roaring down the streets. s/m, its imagery, its symbols, and its community, are an integral part of post-stonewall gay life.”
“the earliest gay male leather bars and motorcycle clubs appeared in the midfifties, in new york, los angeles, and chicago. san francisco’s first dedicated leather bar, the why not, opened in 1958 in the tenderloin neighborhood and closed soon thereafter. the first really successful local leather bar was a sixties place, the tool box.”
“leather development peaked during the seventies. in the decade after stonewall and before aids, gay communities generally underwent explosive growth in terms of population, economic power, and political self-confidence. leather communities were similarly robust.”
“in the seventies, new kinds of leather and s/m social structures emerged, and older organizational forms were infused with fresh vitality. the first explicitly political s/m organizations were formed in the seventies, as were the first publicly accessible groups for heterosexually oriented s/m and leather women and men. the eulenspiegel society held its first meetings in new york in 1971, and the society of janus began in san francisco in 1974. networking among s/m lesbians began in the midseventies. samois, the first successful lesbian s/m organization, was founded in 1978.”
“sex parties had been critical to the development of leather social life at least as far back as the late forties. before there were leather bars, there were s/m parties. these parties were usually held in private homes and apartments, hosted by one or two individuals, and populated by means of informal networks of referral. the parties in turn helped the early gay s/m networks to diversify and grow. the contacts made through these networks in the late forties and early fifties led to the establishment of the first leather bars. parties have continued ever since to be important mechanisms for building and maintaining leather and s/m communities.”
“s/m was always part of the catacombs, and it became more prevalent as the space became accessible to women and mixed-gender groups. cynthia slater was the person responsible for other groups gaining access to the catacombs. by the time she died of aids in october 1989, cynthia had changed the shape of the san francisco leather community. in 1974, she founded the society of janus, which quickly became a point of connection between straight, bisexual, and gay sadomasochists in the bay area. through janus, a lot of very different sorts of kinky people have found some common ground.”
“the world of men in and into black leather and the loosely drawn community of men who define themselves as ‘radical faeries’ both have roots in the nascent beginnings of the gay movement which emerged primarily after world war ii. the immense social mobilization required by the war sent out waves of change that would forever alter the status of women, gays, and other disenfranchised groups in american culture.”
“i know that lesbians and gay men alike will understand this because the feelings are the same as when we are just coming out into gay life for the first time. in fact, for those who are already gay or lesbian, the act of acknowledging our kinkiness is a ‘second coming out’ that is accompanied by all the same sorts of fear, stress, excitement, and hiding.”
“what most nonkinky people don’t know is that exploration of leather and s/m erotic themes can function in the same self-revealing way that any other sexuality works. it is no accident that among practitioners of this sex style, we may often describe s/m as meaning ‘sensuality and mutuality’ or ‘sexual magic.’ more and more, kinky people who enjoy these sexualities feel that they add, not subtract, to who we are as people. the absence of guilt and fear are making a big difference. sound familiar?”
“in the early 1980s, i was interviewed for a key position with a national organization and there were individuals on the interview committee who knew my ‘reputation.’ a question about my involvement with leather never surfaced during the interview but — when it became clear that i was one of two finalists for the position — the rumors were surfaced. one board member asked his colleagues on the committee, ‘do we really want someone with this reputation identified with our organization?’ i didn’t get the job.”
“these days, i work directing an aids service group in san francisco. because i am open about my identity as a leather-man, some people have vented their concerns about s/m and the spread of hiv at me. i have been surprised, and at times annoyed, at the stereotypes and ignorance that many lesbians and gay men maintain toward leatherpeople. throughout this epidemic, leathermen have been a constant target for criticism about unsafe sex: ‘the fisters caused this crisis,’ ‘promiscuity and the fuck bars brought about aids,’ ‘kinky men with extreme sexuality are getting their due.’”
“the scapegoating of leathermen for aids reminds me of criticism s/m men experienced before the health crisis: we gave the community a bad name by being flagrantly erotic. our celebration of manliness and images of hypermasculinity were indications we hated women. we were responsible for everything from failures of gay rights bills to fires south of market. leathermen were the queerest of the queer during an era when respectable gay men wore lacoste shirts and khaki slacks.”
“recently it has seemed to me that a prime reason leatherpeople are feared and hated is because our open and proud existence flies in the face of many people’s sexual shame. not only do we do naughty things, but we talk about it as well. our clothing may announce the exact sex acts we enjoy. the hooks in the ceiling of our apartments proclaim our perversions. in an era of creeping conservatism and censorship, we have no shame.”
“as an organizer of the 1979 march on washington for lesbian and gay rights, i sat and listened to a respected colleague demand through a bullhorn that marchers remove their handcuffs because of local regulations. i’ve had to listen to staff members question my common sense because i served as director of a one-day leather institute at a national lesbian and gay health conference while i was employed as director of an aids organization. i’ve witnessed community centers debate whether it was acceptable for support groups of leatherpeople to rent meeting space.”
Want to read
April 19, 2009Includes chapter on Purusha, author of The Divine Androgyne, aka Christopher Larkin, director of 1974 gay film "A Very Natural Thing"
July 17, 2013
The collection of essays had a few real gems that will stick in my mind for a long time. The book allows you to see how some people got in to kink and the challenges they faced along the way.
January 6, 2016
Excellent book on different aspects of leather.
September 26, 2018
Amazing history book
October 14, 2021
I read this book in the nineties and returned to it because I was interviewing one of the authors for my podcast 'The Meaningful Life with Andrew G Marshall': Robert Hopke who writes on SM and initiative from an archetypal perspective. (On the podcast, we discuss synchronicity.) However, I realised this was probably the first time, I had read anything about Jung. What others gem ,might be lurking in this classic text? It is always interesting to re-read something from the past with today's eyes and provides a small insight into who I was almost thirty years ago.
Like last time, I enjoyed the history aspects the most - particularly the 'six decades of shadow dancing' which takes us from Samuel Steward and Dr Kinsey through to the nineties and the radical faeries. I have no memory of reading about them, first time round, but I am now a semi-detached member. I also enjoyed the Spirit and Flesh section of the book which looks at gay spirituality (which I think I rather flipped through originally). But that's different interests at different stages in life.
Not surprisingly the politics seems dated but good to have a snap shot of the debate at one moment (and thank goodness AIDS is no longer blighting our community to the same extent as when Leatherfolk was first published)
Like last time, I enjoyed the history aspects the most - particularly the 'six decades of shadow dancing' which takes us from Samuel Steward and Dr Kinsey through to the nineties and the radical faeries. I have no memory of reading about them, first time round, but I am now a semi-detached member. I also enjoyed the Spirit and Flesh section of the book which looks at gay spirituality (which I think I rather flipped through originally). But that's different interests at different stages in life.
Not surprisingly the politics seems dated but good to have a snap shot of the debate at one moment (and thank goodness AIDS is no longer blighting our community to the same extent as when Leatherfolk was first published)
September 7, 2024
This is a beautiful anthology on all things leather. The first few sections provide several written histories of early leather scenes and the friction (and connection) between leather communities and queer communities. I found myself near tears very often, and felt a strong sense of community and connection with some of these pieces. The latter few sections of the book focus on spirituality. Some oher reviewers found it a little too out there, but it absolutely got the ball rolling for me reconnecting with my own love of ritual and primal spirituality. Some of these pieces in this section are written so beautifully I teared up.
December 3, 2021
Put on some Judas Priest and learn about the biological effects and spirituality of fisting.
August 26, 2023
A beautiful anthology. Will edit this review later.
April 4, 2024
very good indeed, however in the second half some of the texts lose their power compared to their predecessors.
June 2, 2024
one of my favorite books of all time
September 4, 2025
very interesting
January 23, 2026
I love this book cause leather history and queers are fascinating. Yet YO there is some stuff in here that isn’t aging well
January 21, 2022
As with any essay collection, there were some I liked more than others, but as a whole, this was an absolute treat to read. I learned so much about the history of the community and its changes over time, and it made me think a lot about how communities are formed today, and what we have both gained and lost through the introduction of the Internet to our ability to gather.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews