I want to begin this paper with a curious object Viola Johnson’s pin sash. A respected elder in cont

I want to begin this paper with a curious object Viola Johnson's pin sash. A respected elder in contemporary leather communities, Johnson started Black Leather in Color, the first periodical dedicated to people of color within pansexual leather communities. Recently, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line Johnson displayed her pin sash in the ballroom of the Sterling Hotel in Dallas for the 2007 Beyond Vanilla conference, an event put on by the National Leather Association (PIN SASH LONG VIEW) . Her pin sash is a visual resume, it documents (through the accumulation and display of small metal pins and buttons) her affiliations with leather groups, organizations, events, people and bars. In leather communities these pins, passed down from others, remind alaskan luxury cruises radisson line the wearer not only of the event (whether they were "there" or not) but of the person who gave them the pin, constructing a shared heritage and tradition while forging strong interpersonal bonds. Metal pins shaped like ribbons indicate her support alaskan luxury cruises radisson line for causes related to HIV/AIDS (()) and Breast Cancer (()) . We can see that she is a member of the Leather Archives alaskan luxury cruises radisson line and Museum alaskan luxury cruises radisson line in Chicago, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line Illinois, (()) and a frequent attendee of the International Mr. Leather contest (()) , the International Ms. Leather contest (()) , and the Annual Living in Leather Conference (()) . Infamous leather bars like the Toolbox (()) and The Ramrod (()) make appearances on Johnson's sash. The pin sash is a veritable portrait of Johnson and of her involvement and dedication to leather communities. The pin sash, for this paper, serves as a metaphorical object, an entrance to begin discussing community formation and affirmation. Within the context of its display (either on Johnson's body or off of it) Johnson's pin sash is a bonding agent, weighed down, quite literally, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line with a number of   relationships, past events, and affiliations with non-leather organizations that are specific to Johnson and others with whom she chooses to associate alaskan luxury cruises radisson line with. Within the context of the NLA event in Dallas, an event that advertised the fact that Viola Johnson would be present and with her personal library, the pin sash acts as another kind of archive, both personal and communal. Although I will be discussing just one of these pins it is important to asses that any of the pins seen here could be the topic of this paper. To explain and properly situate each pin individually, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line nevertheless the ways in which pins on the sash speak to and across each other, would be more content than a presentation or dissertation could bear.
Separate from the dozens of pins displayed on Johnson's alaskan luxury cruises radisson line pin sash, exists another set of pins, set aside in a small display case (BOX) . The case contains around fifty pins. Near the bottom right corner of the display box a crooked black button with write writing reads: The L.A.P.D. FREED the Slaves April 10, 1976. The button commemorates a raid conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department on a fundraising function held in a leather-friendly business. In 1976 the L.A.P.D. raided the Mark IV, a bathhouse, during a fundraising slave auction, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line in which people voluntarily auctioned themselves off to be a slave-for-a-day alaskan luxury cruises radisson line for the successful bidder. The complex relationship between master and slave, top and bottom, dominant and submissive (and other historically situated relationships, Nazi and Jew, policeman and incarcerated, the list could very easily go on) – these relationships are often part and parcel of sadomasochistic practices which are inherent to leather identities. The button is a send-up of local and national news media as well as the Los Angeles Police Department, extolling, tongue firmly in cheek, the L.A.P.D.'s great deed. This paper seeks to place this button and other visual material produced in the wake of the Mark IV raid within the context of the leather communities that produced them. As such this papers follows the work of other scholars, such as Douglas Crimp, who have placed similar cultural productions (also, interestingly from within queer contexts) in dialogue community formation and political activation. ((ACT UP)) Buttons and signage used by ACT-UP during the early years of the AIDS pandemic, often in the form of texts that visually enunciated a political expression as well as a community identification, are perhaps the most recognizable set of texts, postdate and perhaps are indebted to the early political organizing of gay, lesbian and leather communities.
(BLANK) I will attempt to answer a central question: how do the visual objects (photographs, books, buttons, pins, re-performances, magazines) function to organize and maintain Los Angeles leather communities and broader gay and lesbian communities? Community organizers – editors, clergy, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line parade directors, filmmakers, artists – helped to define the visual terms in which the raid would be seen discussed, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line thereby situating gay and leather communities in conversation to the past, both recent and distant. Through an analysis of the various contexts in which these objects are produced, reproduced and displayed, it is my hope to unpack alaskan luxury cruises radisson line the structure and patterns of community formation, response and policing. Finally, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line I hope to present leather communities as not just a subset of gay and lesbian alaskan luxury cruises radisson line communities. Most accounts of gay and lesbian cultures in the 1970s fall prey to the assumption that there is an easy relationship between gay, lesbian and leather communities, or that, even worse, the leather community is a subculture within a subculture, a term I do not wish to employ (because for every sub there has to be a dom). In actuality, the historical relationships between gay, lesbian and leather communities is uneasy at best and openly hostile in some places. Instead, I want to situate leather communities as a series of overlapping entities, historically and perhaps necessarily linked, but not tied to, larger gay and lesbian political agendas.
First, a word on leather identity and community formation, the men who were arrested at the Mark IV baths in large part identified themselves as leathermen, an identification with its own history and origins separate from and as complicated as other contemporaneous gay male identities ((Gay Semiotics) alaskan luxury cruises radisson line . Pulling variously from beat culture, bike movies ((Marlon Brando) (specifically 1955's The Wild One with Marlon Brando), alaskan luxury cruises radisson line and oppressive urban juridical systems (it was illegal for homosexuals to congregate or to be served alcohol), gays, and eventually lesbians, bought motorcycles, adopted a specific hyper-masculine style of dress, formed motorcycle clubs and rode out into the country – spending long weekends socializing, riding, and having sex. These motorcycle clubs of the 1950s were the historical foundation for the leather communities in the 1970s. As the community grew in numbers, and moved away from the organizing structure of the Motorcycle Clubs, and as liquor laws in California loosened to allow homosexuals the ability to serve and consume alcohol, members of the leather community began to establish their own spaces. Bars such as the Black Pipe in L.A. (est. 1970), or the Mineshaft in N.Y. (est. 1976) became sites of political and sexual activation. (Mineshaft Dress Code) Dress was important, and if one arrived at a leather bar improperly dressed (in sneakers, sweaters, perfume) entrance would be denied. The Mineshaft officially adopted a written dress code in 1976 to be put into effect in 1978, and it makes clear how patrons are and are not supposed to dress. In these places leather alaskan luxury cruises radisson line men (whether alaskan luxury cruises radisson line they were bikers or into s/m) could come together, socialize, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line and have sexual intercourse. In the acts of socializing and sex, communities were formed and established. Motorcycle alaskan luxury cruises radisson line clubs would have a "home bar" and the bars, in turn, began to host leather beauty contests. The winners of these contests became leaders within the community, hosting parties and charity events. This is to say that there existed reciprocity between leather communities and the bars they established and owned. (BLANK)
Bath houses were another site of activation, although not necessarily specific to leather communities. The Mark IV was like many other bathhouses in Los Angeles and San Francisco at the time. As a private club those who entered paid a small fee for a locker and towel. Mark IV housed a sauna and pool area, as well as a row of small rooms for sexual encounters. However, unlike other contemporaneous bathhouses, the Mark IV also maintained a dungeon and provided leather restraints to those patrons who required them. This made the Mark IV baths open to the sexual needs of the leather community. alaskan luxury cruises radisson line The addition of a dungeon and leather props was a savvy business decision on the part of the Mark IV ownership because it effectively increased alaskan luxury cruises radisson line the potential clientele, including leather men alongside broader gay and lesbian publics. (HELP ADS) Sometimes the Mark IV baths played host to fundraising alaskan luxury cruises radisson line events for organizations such as the Gay Community Service center or the Homophile Effort for Legal Protection (H.E.L.P.) Institutions such as H.E.L.P. were necessary because the L.A.P.D., then under the management of police alaskan luxury cruises radisson line Chief Ed Davis (PHOTO ED DAVIS) , were well known for targeting gays and lesbians in public, semi-public, and private settings. A virulently homophobic man, police Chief Davis put forth the idea that gay people could give their gay germs to others, alaskan luxury cruises radisson line infecting them with homosexuality. In a 1975 letter to the president of the Christopher Street West Parade (like today's gay pride events) police chief Davis wrote: "As you no doubt expected, I am declining your invitation to participate in the celebration of 'GAY PRIDE WEEK'… I would much rather celebrate 'GAY CONVERSION alaskan luxury cruises radisson line WEEK.'" Under the tenure of Davis the vice squad (a specialized squad of undercover cops enforcing moral laws) targeted gays, lesbians, leather folk, prostitutes and drug dealers. Above all, Davis considered it his duty to cleanse the gay out of Los Angeles. Such behavio