Gay leathermen
Beyond the sensual masculine appeal of leather, wearing leather boots, accessories and gear is an expression of ones identity with the leather community. The gay male leather culture began to emerge in the late ’s out of the post-WWII biker culture.
Each leg stands tall; one rooted in history while the other walks towards the future. Boots that have stood in the seedy, the sleazy, the sexy, and subversive cultures long misunderstood, are buffed to a military polish. The harness encompasses the heart that has struggled for identity and visibility, adorned with a vest shielding it from the elements and provide a canvas to mark its history.
To be a Leatherman is to be an individual within a collective. While we hold traditions that are stemmed from a long history with struggles both within and outside the gay community at large, we know the future belongs to the youth, the pups, the kinks.
Leather subculture has been prominent within queer culture for over eighty years. For gay men in particular, shared interest in leather was an avenue for community building at a time when finding fellow queer people was difficult. While sapphic people have their own unique relationship to the leather community and the closely related BDSM community , gay male leather subculture is heavily documented as an essential feature of sexual nonconformity.
Beyond the sensual masculine appeal of leather, wearing leather boots, accessories and gear is an expression of ones identity with the leather community. The gay male leather culture began to emerge in the late ’s out of the post-WWII biker culture.
Apologies if this isn't the right place to put this, intersectionality didn't seem right based on the description and I didn't know where else. I've been making it an annual ritual to go to San Francisco pride recently the past few years and I have to say I really like the idea of Folsom and seeing all the Leather Pride stuff in SF makes me incredibly giddy just because I love the idea of Leather community, the biker clubs and the like. But I'm a little nervous and honestly a little disappointed that I feel like I wouldn't be accepted in the leather community as a more fem-leaning gay guy who's also trans and aspec.
To be a Leatherman is to be an individual within a collective. While we hold traditions that are stemmed from a long history with struggles both within and outside the gay community at large, we know the future belongs to the youth, the pups, the kinks.
What inspired you to begin this project? This project was born out of my deep desire to explore a part of myself that has been underlying my entire life. After a year of pandemic-induced introspection, I realized that I had been denying a part of myself mostly out of self-imposed shame.