getting gayer by the minute

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TLC: year with a leather club

a documentary by Randy A. Riddle

origins

The beginnings of the Leather/SM subculture are murky, obscured by a lack of complete documentation by the people who formed it and an aversion to it by society at large. What we do know is that SM has been practiced by individuals for thousands of years.

"SM" itself is a fairly recent term, coined by individuals within the Leather/SM community to refer to their practices since the more-traditional term "sado-masochism" attached to this form of sexuality by the larger society refers to the writings of the Marquis De Sade and von Sacher Masoch.

"Sado-masochism" refers to a pathological disorder where an individual either has a deep set desire to physically injure people or a desire to be hurt.

What do we mean by "SM"? Generally, it refers to people who play on the fringes of sexuality -"... there's a beautiful dark side to Leather and maybe that's why we like black leather," member Stuart Norman said in an interview for the documentary; "It's child's play, in a sense, translated to an adult level. Because, after all, there's sexuality involved. But children play some pretty heavy stuff, too. I mean, all the games that we played as kids - cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians - I mean, you might get tied up, you might get a few interesting things done to your body. Well, if children can be rough. I believe that adults need play just as much as children do."

SM can involve fetishes (sexual attachment for certain types of clothing or situations), the exploration of various types of body stimulation, or, in the words of member Kevin Drewery, "the exploration of power exchange issues in a sexual dynamic." Some individuals, such as TLC members Stuart Norman and Steve W., use SM as part of their spiritual practices to explore the limits of mind and body.

SM, in all cases, is conducted between consenting adults and the goal is not, as in sadomasochism, bodily injury.

There are currently over six hundred Leather/SM clubs and organizations in the United States, with a half-dozen in North Carolina alone. How did these clubs originate?

To see the beginnings of Leather clubs, one has to go back about fifty years. Before the War, individuals who were interested in SM were not organized in any recognizable (or at least historically documented) fashion - they met secretively through a network of friends or very carefully-worded personal ads. World War II uprooted millions of people all over the world. People from small towns in the United States, Canada, and European countries were uprooted and exposed to other peoples and cultures. Two threads came together to form the modern Leather community, the images associated with Leather, and the organized Leather/SM clubs - the formation of the early "outlaw" biker clubs and the coalescing of the Gay and Lesbian communities in large cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and New York.

Stuart Norman, a founding member of TLC who has been researching the origins of the Leather community noted that some men who returned home from the War did not fit into the effeminate Gay male stereotypes, so common in the fifties. These men were naturally attracted to the more "free" lifestyle of the bikers, many of whom were themselves were seeking the same type of male bonding and sense of adventure they saw during their service. The early Leather clubs were, in fact, outlaw biker clubs.

Today, Leather/SM clubs bear a striking resemblance to their "biker" cousins in the structure of their organizations; the image that combines working class tee-shirts, boots, and jeans with biker leathers; and their very independent spirit. (Leather clubs even have "colors" -- a logo patch for the club that is worn on the back of a vest and Leather club members may collect pins from various Leather events or other clubs on the vest as a kind of "personal history", similar to club "colors" and vests worn by bikers.) A few Leather/SM clubs consist of Gay bikers, but most are social clubs.

Some focus on community education about Leather/SM issues or Safe Sex, others on fundraising, and still others on political action. Some are male or female-only, primarily gay or heterosexual, others are "pansexual", open to men and women of any sexual orientation.

FrancS., active in the Leather community of New York and a costume designer for Broadway, films, and television before he moved to Greensboro and joined TLC; summed it up best - "We have everything from white, white-collar workers to blue, red-neck, collar workers, every type of profession you can think of, from hairdressers to people that pave roads for a living." The Tarheel Leather Club is an unusual model of diversity including people from a variety of professions and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Member Gil F. is a musician and composer; Stuart Norman was trained as a composer and now owns his own electronic repair business and is a free-lance writer.

College professors, school teachers, artists, and arts administrators have all been members of the club. Still others make their living as cooks or waiters or social workers; members Kevin Drewery and Steve W. worked in a bookstore. Member Bill Costomiris is a construction worker and truck driver; " ... what's really neat is that not only at the company do they know that I'm Gay, they also know I'm into leather and they also know I'm into the Tarheel Leather Club, and they are very supportive of it," Bill told me in an interview for the documentary.

Because of the relative isolation of the Gay community in North Carolina, TLC had to be diverse to survive. "We decided to be a rather inclusive organization," David Wr. said, "we are a trans-gender organization to say it politically correct, we have all ages of people, we have Black and white, men and women, young and old, experienced and inexperienced, all put together in one Leather club." TLC was the first North Carolina club to allow female members in its ranks. During the shooting of the documentary, Janet B., a woman who was introduced to SM through her experiences in a more traditional biker club, was TLC's president. "It's mostly gay people in it right now, but we have had bisexual people and, of course, if straight people want to join, they're welcome to. It's mostly male; we've had up to as many as five women. The rest being guys, but a great bunch of guys," Janet noted.

The membership of the Tarheel Leather Club has varied greatly over the years; generally the group includes around twenty to thirty active members and, at one time, was at a high of over seventy.

Much like a biker club and like most other Leather clubs, prospective members to through a "pledge period" to get acquainted with the people of the club and goals of the group. During that period, which usually lasts three months, the prospective member completes a pledge project, assisting with a fundraiser, educational effort or another part of the club's work, attends a required number of meetings, and states in a letter their personal reasons for joining TLC. Hazing or sexual harassment of prospective members is not allowed - TLC is not a "sex club".

A common theme that cropped up during the interviews for the TLC documentary was the sense of community and shared purpose. Even though the various members have different interests expressed in the club's work and their own individual expression of the Leather/SM lifestyle, they come together for efforts that benefit not only themselves, but the community at large.

Each year, the members of TLC hold a "toy drive", staging shows at local bars to raise money and collect toys for children affected by the HIV virus. The group has raised thousands of dollars over the years through fundraisers for groups such as the local Gay and Lesbian hotline or even for individuals in the Gay community who have fallen on hard times because of a fire or other personal disaster.

Many of the individuals involved in the Tarheel Leather Club have also been active in other community organizations such as Alternative Resources of the Triad, Men of All Colors Together, or the Triad Health Project. Bill pointed out one evening during the shooting of the documentary that the club has a tendency to attract individuals who are "doers" - people who create change in the world around them rather than waiting for someone else to do it for them.

Member Kevin Drewery was a key member of Greensboro OUT, a political group similar to ACT-UP. Members David Wr. and Franc S. donated their time to the Triad Health Project, and helped the organization in its outreach to the Gay community about Safe Sex. Janet was once head of the Gay and Lesbian student group at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Stuart Norman was involved with the Gay Academic Union and, along with Bill, served on the board of directors of the National Leather Association.

Besides getting good work done, the club has been a very visible component of the Greensboro Gay and Lesbian community. During the shooting of the documentary, for example, the group was called on to help with setup of a showing of panels from the NAMES Project Quilt that took place at the Greensboro Coliseum. TLC went the extra mile - raising funds to help cover the costs of the showing, acting as ushers at the event, performed as a chorus at the event, and, in an emotional moment, donated a panel to honor seven TLC members who had succumbed to the disease. The club was even featured in a remarkable local television news report, included in the documentary, and was interviewed at length by the local press about the Project and their own losses to AIDS.

The Tarheel Leather Club was founded during the last part of the Reagan-Bush years that saw a remarkable amount of political involvement by Gays and Lesbians all over the country who were heading-off attacks by conservatives on AIDS education and treatment programs, the "morality" of the "Queer" lifestyle, and even Gay art and artists. The period left a prominent mark on the Tarheel Leather Club; shortly after the group was founded, North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms ran for re-election on the heels of his attacks on the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

TLC decided to help a local group, NC Senate Vote '90, that was distributing voter information within the Gay and Lesbian community. The club organized a "Beat Jesse" campaign, selling tee-shirts (which featured a paddle on which a whip formed the words "Beat Jesse") and organizing fundraisers in an effort that saw involvement from Leather clubs and organizations all around the country, the first time that a club had spearheaded such a national effort.

During the year that the documentary was produced, the members of TLC were heavily involved with the national March on Washington, organized by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered communities as a follow-up to a 1987 March. Janet B. served as a representative of the Southeast to the March committee and both her and Kevin participated in lobbying and organizing events during the March.

Janet also participated in a one-day Leather/SM/Fetish Contingent meeting, consisting of workshops, speeches, and a vendor space, that was held during the March weekend for members of the Leather/SM/Fetish community who were attending the larger event.

Political statements were also made by TLC members on a very personal level. In the documentary, we see member Gil F. obtain a body piercing, commemorating his first-time participation in a Gay political event and as an affirmation of his commitment to the club and the Leather/SM community. Stuart, who performed the piercing, told me that "piercing is a ritual, it's a rite of passage... or at least should be". Gil noted that getting the piercing was a "very emotional commitment" on his part and called the March on Washington "almost like a graduation exercise ... a significant statement that there are many people in our minority, that it's a very diverse minority, that there are all kinds of ways of being a gay person in America at the end of the twentieth century"

Even though the Gay community includes a wide diversity of people with very different ideas about politics or sexual behavior, Leatherfolk still have to overcome many stereotypes in the general community and, more particularly, among the Gays and Lesbians with whom they associate. The "biker" image, the Leather, chains, handcuffs, piercings, and tattoos can be a little intimidating.. "I think that's a typical stereotype," Janet said in an interview for the documentary, "that everybody who wears leather is this macho thing who's into whipping and dominating and that's all when it's definitely not that way."

TLC has played a key role in overcoming those misperceptions. David Wr. is quick to point out that TLC members make an effort to be friendly and outgoing in Gay spaces such as bars - because there is not enough of a Leather community to support a true "Leather bar" in Greensboro, TLC members and other Leatherfolk share these spaces with much more mainstream Gays and learn to "live and let live" David Wh., a female impersonator and entertainer who has worked with the club on many fundraisers and is an honorary member of TLC, said that "I think they've increased awareness that, to not only the community at large, but myself, that Leather people are not to be afraid of. Because, I know when I started at first with this whole thing and some of the guys started coming around, I thought, "Jesus, Leatherpeople. Oh Lord, we'll have beatin's and whippin's and all this." But, David saw that Leather folk were "really nice people" and noted that the group has managed to overcome many of these stereotypes among members of the local Gay and Lesbian community. The club members are careful about respecting others when they are in a "non-Leather" space.

TLC also focuses on educating itself about Safe Sex and safe SM play. Some of the practices associated with SM - whipping, flogging, or even simple forms of bondage - can be harmful if done improperly. For many years, Leatherfolk in clubs have been concerned about learning and teaching proper techniques and these ideas eventually coalesced into the creed of "Safe, Sane, Consensual" that has been used extensively as a slogan within the community. The more experienced members of the club not only teach the members concepts of safety in an SM scene, but the psychological and moral issues as well through discussions, reading groups, demonstrations, and seminars. Most of the members of TLC interviewed for the documentary discussed the lifestyle not only in terms of an "image", but also as a set of moral codes that concentrate on mutual respect.

A "Run" is a term which originated among biker clubs.

"They all got on their bikes and they took off and went somewhere and had a big party," in the words of TLC member Stuart Norman. "Runs" among Leather clubs are annual events, sometimes nothing more than a big party, that can include a banquet and awards. "Some are much more involved," Stuart continued, "that really are mini-conferences, which have workshops for educational purposes and, of course, most of them offer some kind of entertainment."

The Tarheel Leather Club refers to it's "Run" as an "Anniversary Celebration" and it is an event which sums up the overall work of the group each year and provides an opportunity to invite members of other clubs - some from as far away as California or even Europe - to join with them each July 4th weekend. TLC's Anniversary Celebration is a social event, but also might include workshops and demonstrations by national figures in the Leather/SM community. The documentary combines footage from two different TLC "Runs", one featuring a workshop on constructing SM toys by member Stuart Norman and another that included a demonstration of safe flogging by International Leatherman magazine editor Joseph Bean and professional whip-maker Ruth Marks. Also seen are excerpts from a demonstration on electricity play by former Drummer magazine editor Tony DeBlase.

Discussion groups may also be a part of the TLC weekend; the documentary takes a brief look at one discussion on "SM and the Disenfranchised" that explored issues of race in the Leather/SM community and the lack of outlets for women in the community, particularly in the South. Other discussion groups at TLC Anniversary Celebrations have examined issues of role-playing in relationships or directions of political activism within the Leather/SM community.

For entertainment, the TLC Run features a staged "fantasy show" with awards given to the participants. These staged fantasy scenes provide the audience and documentary viewer with personal statements, giving a glimpse of the different many ways that individuals approach Leather/SM. Janet B. staged a "fire purification" ceremony that has roots in her pursuit of Native American spirituality. Others might involve imagery of cowboys, the military, or a number of other scenes or give someone a chance to show off an SM toy (a Saint Andrews Cross or whip, for example) that they constructed themselves. Member Kevin D. referred to the fantasies as "pieces of seven minute performance art" and Stuart Norman noted that SM has elements of theatrical performance, even when the performance is "just for two people". TLC's fantasy show is typically the way that other clubs can get involved with TLC's run, sharing their vision of Leather/SM with their brothers and sisters.

The Run ends with a banquet and awards ceremony. Plaques are given to individuals in the community who have contributed to the work of the club or to Leatherfolk in a more general way. Each year, TLC holds elections for its Executive Committee - president, vice-president, treasurer, scribe, and pledgemaster — a few weeks before the Run. At the banquet, the reins are handed from one generation to the next, as the new Executive Committee is introduced and officially recognized.