Fisting—also known as fist fucking (FF), handballing, and brachioproctic or brachiovaginal insertion—is a sexual activity that involves inserting one or more hands into the rectum or the vagina. Fisting may be performed on oneself (self-fisting) or performed on one person by another. People who engage in fisting are often called "fisters".
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.
Christine Jorgensen, born George William Jorgensen Jr., was an American actress, singer, recording artist, and transgender activist. A trans woman, she was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery.
A gay bathhouse, also known as a gay sauna or a gay steambath, is a public bath targeted towards gay and bisexual men. In gay slang, a bathhouse may be called just "the baths", "the sauna", or "the tubs". Historically, they have been used for sexual activity.
Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual kink, leather subculture, and alternative sexuality street fair, held in September that concludes San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes referred to simply as "Folsom", takes place on the last Sunday in September, on Folsom Street between 8th and 13th Streets, in San Francisco's South of Market district.
Samuel Morris Steward, also known as Phil Andros, Phil Sparrow, was an American tattoo artist and pornographer.
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.
The Francis J. Dewes House is a house located at 503 West Wrightwood Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The house was built in 1896 by Adolph Cudell and Arthur Hercz for brewer Francis J. Dewes. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 1973 and designated a Chicago Landmark on June 12, 1974. The building's exterior is designed in a Central European Baroque Revival style.
Jacki Randall is an American cartoonist, tattoo artist, musician, and writer. Born in Los Angeles in 1959, Randall first garnered attention for her lesbian-focused cartoons in the Baltimore Gaypaper in 1981. Her comics have been featured in publications such as Gay Comics, The Baltimore Sun, On Our Backs, and Lesbian Connection. Randall is currently based in Baltimore, Maryland, where she works as a tattoo artist.
Charles "Chuck" Arnett was an American artist and dancer. His best-known work is the Tool Box mural (1962).
Club Baths was a chain of gay bathhouses in the United States and Canada with particular prominence from the 1960s through the 1990s.
The LGBTQ community in Chicago is one of the United States' most prominent, especially within the Midwest, alongside those of San Francisco and New York City, and holds a significant role in the progression of gay rights in the country. With a population of around 3 million, Chicago is the third biggest city in the US, and around 150,000 of those people identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, questioning, or other.
Bill Schmeling, better known by his pen name The Hun, was an American artist active in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, known for his explicit, homoerotic fetish illustrations and comics.
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 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 businessman, 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.
Tony Midnite was a female impersonator, costume designer, activist, and book reviewer.
Tomorrow's Man was a digest size physique magazine published from 1952 to 1971. It was one of the first physique magazines, debuting a year after Bob Mizer's Physique Pictorial. It was the creation of Irvin ("Irv") Johnson, a Chicago gym owner and trainer. As of 1957, it had the highest circulation of any physique magazine in the United States. It was the first of many physique magazines to feature the artwork of Dom Orejudos. Tomorrow's Man was initially edited by William Bunton, who went on to work for competing magazine VIM in May 1954.
Tracy Baim is a Chicago-based LGBT journalist, editor, author, and filmmaker. She is also a former publisher of the Chicago Reader newspaper.
Gold Coast was a leather bar for gay men in Chicago that operated from 1960 to 1988. It was one of the first bars created by and for the gay leather community in the United States. For most of its 28 year history, between 1967 and 1984, the bar was located at 501 North Clark Street adjacent to Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. This was also the period of its legendary basement, called The Pit. It was one of several gay businesses owned and operated by Chuck Renslow. The bar's founding led to the establishment of other gay businesses nearby, creating a kind of "gay district" in the area.
