Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years

of such institutions for sexually marginal
communities. It was clear that if we did not
collect and preserve our source materials, no
one else would. It was equally clear that it
was not enough for individuals to undertake
the work of accumulation, and that durable
institutions were required to guarantee the
long term survival, preservation, and usability
of such collections. Furthermore, for such
institutions to endure, they required money:
for operating funds, buildings, supplies, and
staff. At some point I realized that leather
peoples needed our own community based
archives, similar to those that had begun to
spring up for GLBT collections. So I began to
speak about the need for such a project and
to pester anyone I knew about how to make it
happen. One of those was Tony (Anthony F.)
DeBlase.
I had gotten to know Tony DeBlase in 1979,
when he first began to publish
DungeonMaster. I got to know him better
when he and Andy Charles bought Drummer
and moved to the Bay Area in 1986. Tony
was a leather activist and visionary, among
whose many accomplishments were the
introduction of the leather pride flag and the
establishment of leather pride week in San
Francisco. He was also a leather intellectual,
and was someone who thought deeply about
leather knowledge and its transmission. Tony
had a PhD in mammalogy, with a specialty in
bats. He had authored A Manual of
Mammalogy (2001) as well as a book on the
bats of Iran. Having worked in natural history
museums, including several years when he
was employed at the Field Museum in
Chicago, he had a great deal of experience
with academic research collections.
When Tony discovered his interests in SM
and Leather, he turned his well honed
scholarly habits to the intensive study of SM
technique. And once he acquired his
considerable expertise, he began a long
career of teaching it. He came up with the
idea of “SandMutopia University,” a fantasy
college of all things kinky. He conducted and
organized countless workshops and classes,
and envisioned DungeonMaster as a kind of
professional technical journal of
sadomasochism.
In 1986, a group of leather activists in Seattle
founded the National Leather Association
(NLA) and kicked off a new era of national
leather political and social mobilization.
Through its “Living in Leather” weekends, the
NLA pioneered the format of the “leather
conference,” with workshops, plenary
sessions, and dungeon parties. Such
conferences– later dubbed “leatherathons”–
were something new. There were of course
SM educational groups, but these generally
held meetings once or twice a month. The
gay motorcycle clubs sponsored weekend
bike runs featuring socializing, entertainment,
and plenty of partying. And there was the
Chicago Hellfire Club’s legendary annual
Inferno. But Inferno was by invitation only,
restricted to men, and the educational
workshops (of which DeBlase was also a
major organizer) were adjuncts to the main
event, the extensive dungeon party. By
contrast, anyone could register for Living in
Leather, which was open to both men and
women, and whose workshops were as
important as the parties.
Tony and I were among those who
enthusiastically welcomed the formation of
NLA, and participated in most of its early
events. We both attended the first Living In
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