Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years (1991-2016) [digital]

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
Leather, and the subsequent “May Day”
event, in Seattle. Tony began to actively
promote the NLA in the pages of Drummer.
At the third Living in Leather (Portland, 1988),
Tony, Geoff Mains, Sheree Rose and I did a
panel on the “History of Leather/SM
Organizations. The description read: “What
are the historic roots of our current
organizations? Who were the founders, what
were the goals then, and have they been
achieved?”
The emergence of the NLA did not go
unchallenged. Regional rivalries quickly
surfaced. Some activists from New York,
primarily from GMSMA, did not recognize the
NLA as a legitimate vehicle for the national
movement. They began working to set up a
competing organization. This jockeying for
leadership of the emerging national leather
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