Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years

PREFACE
O
ur collective, personal, and institutional histories and memories are material, embodied,
and linguistic. Objects, however, deteriorate over time. The body eventually expires.
And language is often unstable. History and memory, then, are never static or
definitive.
The stories we tell ourselves often shift and change depending on their context -- when their
told and under what circumstances. Our histories and collective memories are always dynamic
and subject to critical commentary, re/vision, and retelling.
The institutional memory of the Leather Archives & Museum is similarly complex and any attempt
to encapsulate a quarter century of institutional life will always be partial, in both senses
of the word. This catalog, Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years, is not intended as a comprehensive
account of the archival, programmatic, and exhibition history of the LA&M. The occasion
of our 25 th Anniversary, however, affords us an opportunity to pause and reflect on this
institution’s trajectory – where it’s been, where it is, and what it might become – as well as
highlight a handful of stops along its unfolding narrative.
In Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (2009), the late queer and performance
theorist Jose Esteban Munoz suggests that in order to imagine and envision a (queer)
future, we must perform the simultaneous double-optics of looking back and gazing forward in
the present moment. In this catalog we attempt to do that through its form and content. We also
recognize the importance of multiple ‘gazings’ and include the critical reflections and meditations
of various contributors.
Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years is organized into four sections. The “Introduction” includes
statements by Founder and President, Chuck Renslow, and Executive Director, Rick
Storer. “Looking Back” is a collection of essays by cultural anthropologist and founding board
member, Dr. Gayle Rubin, Toronto-based community volunteer, Dwight Skeates, and Archivist
and Collections Librarian, Jakob VanLammeren. This section also includes a photo essay by
Patron Services Representative, José Santiago Pérez. “Looking Forward” attempts to lay the
groundwork for envisioning the LA&M’s possible futures by surveying present or recent institutional
milestones and achievements. In “Gratitude” we end this ‘partial telling’ by reflecting and
acknowledging the fierce commitment, passion, dedication, and contributions of those that
support the LA&M’s mission to collect, preserve, maintain, and exhibit our leather histories.
The sections that comprise Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years are a testament of how far
we’ve come since the LA&M’s inception at the International Mr. Leather contest in 1992. What
began as Chuck Renslow’s mission to preserve the legacy and memory of Dom Orejudos/
Etienne and leather history amidst the AIDS crisis has now evolved into a respected and professional
institution at the forefront of Leather/kink/BDSM/fetish scholarship, research, and collections.
Currently these materials are comprised of artifacts, objects, letters, documents, art-
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