Leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities that involve leather garments, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many participants associate leather culture with BDSM practices and its many subcultures. For some, black leather clothing is an erotic fashion that expresses heightened masculinity or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycles, motorcycle clubs and independence; and/or engagement in sexual kink or leather fetishism.
The Washington Blade is an LGBT newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area. The Blade is the oldest LGBT newspaper in the United States and third largest by circulation, behind the Philadelphia Gay News and the Gay City News of New York City. The Blade is often referred to as America's gay newspaper of record because it chronicled LGBT news locally, nationally, and internationally. The New York Times said the Blade is considered "one of the most influential publications written for a gay audience."
The leather pride flag is a symbol of leather subculture as well as kink and fetish subcultures more broadly, including BDSM. The flag was designed by Tony DeBlase in 1989.
Ziegfeld's/Secrets was a dual-themed nightclub in Washington, D.C., with Ziegfeld's featuring drag queens, and Secrets featuring strippers. The entertainment venue first opened in 1980, was forced to close in 2006, then reopened in a new location in 2009. The second location was closed permanently in 2020.
The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) is a community archives, library, and museum located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991, its mission is "making leather, kink, BDSM, and fetish accessible through research, preservation, education and community engagement." Renslow and DeBlase founded the museum in response to the AIDS crisis, during which the leather and fetish communities' history and belongings were frequently lost or intentionally suppressed and discarded.
International Mr. Leather(IML) is a multi-day conference and competition celebrating the leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM communities. Established in 1979, IML is held annually in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, drawing thousands of contestants and spectators from around the world. As of 2024, 27 countries spanning six continents have competed.
Capital Pride is an annual LGBT pride festival held in early June each year in Washington, D.C. It was founded as Gay Pride Day, a one-day block party and street festival, in 1975. In 1980 the P Street Festival Committee formed to take over planning. It changed its name to Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1981. In 1991, the event moved to the week prior to Father's Day. Financial difficulties led a new organization, One In Ten, to take over planning of the festival. Whitman-Walker Clinic (WWC) joined One In Ten as co-sponsor of the event in 1997, at which time the event's name was changed to Capital Pride. Whitman-Walker became the sole sponsor in 2000. But the healthcare organization came under significant financial pressures, and in 2008 turned over producing duties to a new organization, Capital Pride Alliance.
Robert Eric Wone was an American lawyer who was murdered in the Washington, D.C., home of a college friend, Joseph Price, in August 2006. Wone was living in suburban Oakton, Virginia, but had been working as general counsel at Radio Free Asia in downtown Washington. He had stayed the night at the home of friends located about one mile from his office. According to police affidavits, Wone was believed to have been "restrained, incapacitated, and sexually assaulted" before his death. The residents of the home – Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward – contended that the murder was committed by an intruder unknown to them; the trial judge found this unbelievable. Wone's official cause of death was attributed to knife wounds.
Mister Leather Europe (MLE) is a pan-European contest of leathermen held annually around October in Europe, organized by the European Confederation of Motorsport Club (ECMC) and hosted each year by a different member club.
Lou Chibbaro Jr. is an American journalist best known for his efforts as senior news writer for the Washington Blade to chronicle the gay rights movement in the Washington metropolitan area and nationwide in the United States.
International Ms. Leather (IMsL) is an annual leather subculture fetish convention and competition, originally focused on women but now inclusive of all genders. Since 1999, the convention has also included a Ms. Bootblack (IMsBB) contest.
Eagle Houston, also known as The Eagle, is a gay bar in Montrose, Houston, Texas. It is one of many unaffiliated gay bars in dozens of different cities using the "Eagle" name, and caters to the leather and bear subcultures. It sponsors the Mr. Texas Eagle leather competition.
Domingo Francisco Juan Esteban "Dom" Orejudos, Secundo, also widely known by the pen names Etienne and Stephen, was an openly gay artist, ballet dancer, and choreographer, best known for his ground-breaking masculine gay male erotica beginning in the 1950s. Along with artists George Quaintance and Touko Laaksonen – with whom he became friends – Orejudos' leather-themed art promoted an image of gay men as strong and masculine, as an alternative to the then-dominant stereotype as weak and effeminate. With his first lover and business partner Chuck Renslow, Orejudos established many landmarks of late-20th-century gay male culture, including the Gold Coast bar, Man's Country bathhouse, the International Mr. Leather competition, Chicago's August White Party, and the magazines Triumph, Rawhide, and Mars. He was also active and influential in the Chicago ballet community.
Charles "Chuck" Renslow was an American businessperson, known for pioneering homoerotic male photography in the mid-20th-century US, and establishing many landmarks of late-20th-century gay culture and leather culture, especially in the Chicago area. His accomplishments included the cofounding with Tony DeBlase of the Leather Archives and Museum, the co-founding with Dom Orejudos of the Gold Coast bar, Man's Country bathhouse, and the International Mr. Leather competition, and the founding by himself alone of Chicago's August White Party, and the magazines Triumph, Rawhide, and Mars. He was a romantic partner of Dom Orejudos as well as Chuck Arnett, Samuel Steward, David Grooms, and Ron Ehemann.
Seattle Eagle, or The Eagle, is a gay bar in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, in the U.S. state of Washington.
In Washington, D.C., LGBT culture is heavily influenced by the U.S. federal government and the many nonprofit organizations headquartered in the city.
Annie Kaylor was an American restaurateur known for running Annie's Paramount Steakhouse and for her support of the LGBT community in Washington, D.C.
Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, also known as Annie's, is a restaurant in Washington, D.C., known for its role in the city's LGBT culture.
The Eagle is a name used by multiple gay bars. It is not a franchise or chain of gay bars, but rather a name adopted by bars inspired by The Eagle's Nest, a leather bar in New York City. Bars that use the name "Eagle" typically cater to a clientele of gay men in leather and other kink subcultures. As of 2017, over 30 gay bars in locations around the world operate under the name "Eagle".
Bootblacks take care of the boots, and garments such as leather jackets, vests, chaps, harnesses, as well as other gear of Leatherpeople and the BDSM community. With the establishment of local, regional and international bootblack contests in the 1990s and early 2000s, bootblacks have gained visibility as a subculture in their own right. Nowadays, bootblack stands as well as classes on bootblacking are common fixtures at events, contests, conferences and parties. Bootblacks are not only preserving the physical items but are also collecting the stories of their wearers. Therefore, bootblacks play a central role in the oral history of the leather scene. While outsiders often link bootblacking to service-oriented submission, Bootblacks might take on any role in a BDSM dynamic.
