Snap! Gotcha! Leather Community photographer Rich Stadtmiller has new photos of SF Pride’s Leather Contingent up on his Rich Trove site, here. For Gay Highwaymen photos of the kinky section of the parade, click here. For more photos of photographers and their big sexy cameras, click here.
Friend of this site George Wong passed away in June of 2011. George, who will be missed by many, was known for sending out sexy pics as holiday greetings. This was his offering from last year’s Independence Day. His pics were the inspiration for the sexy holidays featured on this site, and we have featured many of his little presents. For George’s obituary, click here. For some of our favorite (and most popular with readers!) of his sexy holiday pics, click here, here, here and especially here. Thanks, George!
Ride like a sleeping bag! The Koalas were a Gay Motorcycle Buddy Club from the 1960s. The Koalas would hop on behind the gay club bikers and independents. Always on the back, hugging the biker like a koala hugs a eucalyptus tree. And so the name! Peter Fiske is kneeling in the front row, on the right. More on Peter here and here. Photo by Henri Leleu. Koalas Motorcycle Buddy Club, 1967. Via Ron Williams.
Milling around before the parade, a collection of characters…bikers, new Leather, old Leather, handballers, cock-suckers and boot-lickers, old and young hippies, Sadists, masochists, Dads, boys, dogs, Leather families, Masters and slaves, cigar men, watersport lovers, Faeries, ponies, and perverts of many other stripes…
Michel Foucault described the emergence of “peripheral sexualities” from the end of the 18th century: “An entire sub-race was born, different…from the libertines of the past…They were children wise beyond their years, precocious little girls, ambiguous schoolboys, dubious servants and educators, cruel or maniacal husbands, solitary collectors, ramblers with bizarre impulses…This was the numberless family of perverts who were on friendly terms with delinquents and akin to madmen.” – from M. Foucault – The History of Sexuality
Gay marriage passes in NYC. On the same night, the Eagle NYC is raided. Some insiders think this is the beginning of the end for the bar. Will this be the latest Leather institution lost to the forces of gentrification? Jeremiah from Vanishing New York seem to think so. Unicorn Booty reports from Gotham. For the death throes of the SF Eagle, click here, here, and here. For the graffiti that sprouted after the doors shut, here.
Photo from the first-ever SF Trans March, 2004. (Photographer unknown.)
In honor of Pride, I wanted to share three Pride-related articles, two old and one new.
1. “Watching the Defectives”
Joe My God’s annual Pride column, shared on this blog a couple weeks ago. Since then I’ve heard a lot of grumbling in the community about queer queers “making the rest of us look bad,” so I decided to re-re-post this. The column provides a brilliant answer to anyone who’s ever said or thought “I don’t like that there are so many drag queens, leather people, dykes on bikes, etc. in the parade, they make us look bad and hurt our chances for mainstream acceptance.” Read it and get excited for the parade!
2. “First Successful Pride March in Moscow!!!”
Ken Coolen (of Vancouver Pride Society)’s moving firsthand account of
Moscow Pride 2008. It was a 1-block-long, flash-mob style event that
formed and dissipated before the skinheads could attack, or the police
could arrive to break it up and arrest anyone. It’s an amazing story,
and reading it from California, really a good perspective to keep in
mind.
3. “Lust for Life: The true meaning of Gay Christmas” (New – Hot off the presses!)
SF writer Gina de Vries just got a sex & culture column in the San Francisco
Bay Guardian. She’s been a queer activist since she came out at age 11
(yes), and she’s an excellent writer. Her inaugural column, in time
for Pride week, is a beautifully-written reminder of the true meaning
of Pride. (If you like it, please leave comments or share on Facebook
– this will help ensure that the Guardian continues her column.)
Friend of this site Jorge Vieto is featured in the short film Ritual, directed by Jorg Fockele. He hangs suspended by hooks, his body swinging free in a ritual of body/spirit integration. Vieto is a well-respected young Leatherman, and a Fraternal member of The 15 Association. He uses extreme physical rituals in part to process the emotions evoked by a positive diagnosis. Vieto spoke with Scott Brogan of the Bay Area Reporter about the psychology of the scene here.
Filmed in the Dungeon at Mr.S, Ritual will screen in the afternoon at 1:15 pm at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, Friday June 24th, as a part of the film compilation entitled STILL AROUND from The HIV Story Project. Brought to you by Frameline and the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.
He got onto his horse and he rode into the city. Hat, boots, bandana, duster, even spurs: this dude’s got it all. No event. He’s just riding through town. A sight seen in Willits, California. Hippies, cowboys, farmers, bikers in a Far West mix. In Mendocino County, a town with 5 stoplights qualifies as a city. Seriously. This is NorCal. Not LA. You know what they say…save a horse. Ride a cowboy!
But does it? Well-known Leatherman and friend of this site Peter Fiske has made an “It Gets Better” video and posted it on YouTube. We are, of course, re-posting. Kudos, Peter! It is fantastic. Of course. Messages of future promise are great, and can be just the thing to turn despair into hope. But. But. But. The “It Gets Better” video pep talks, started by columnist Dan Savage last year in an effort to curb high rates of suicide among queer youth, have really taken off. Cool. More on them here. Great campaign, but…it is not enough. Not nearly.
By all means, keep these positive messages coming. But. But. But. There are a few problems here. First off, it does not always get better – and we know that. If it always got better, dead friend of this site and Frameline co-founder Mark Finch would not have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. A popular, successful adult gay man kills himself. Or: youthful co-conspirator WRG, handsome, smart, set to inherit two fortunes, dead in a hotel room in Rio with a spike in his arm, the body stripped of valuables. They had to identify him by dental records. Just two examples. It did not get better for either of them, and they were pretty well set to overcome the past.
But. But. But. Another problem: The most vulnerable queer kids may be those least likely to be able to respond to these messages. Consider two scenarios:
One: You are 17, a junior in high school, with loving, educated PFLAG parents, a nice group of theatre friends, early acceptance to UC, and a problem with the school bully who taunts you with calls of “Faggot!” and elbows you in the hallways to the amusement of his toadies. It makes your stomach churn.
Two: You are 17, living on the periphery of San Francisco’s Castro district. You left Idaho and your violent Christian Identity family at 13 when your mother caught you with another boy. She broke a bottle over your head as you fled the house. See the scar? Arriving in SF, you met guys who turned you on to meth and fucked you raw. Already shell-shocked from childhood, you seroconverted at 14, have been on the streets for four years, and look really rough. Half-crazy with rage and despair, you kick trash cans and shout in frustration, sometimes sit on the curb sobbing. Everyone avoids you.
These are two pretty extreme, but true, examples. “It Gets Better” is a good message, but it is not enough. The kids need more than words. Even the UC-bound good gay kid needs more than words. And seriously damaged youth need a lot more. They also need the tools to survive a world which will continue at times to be hostile. Food. Shelter. Protection. Health care, including mental health and substance abuse help. Access to education, job-training, connections and good adult mentorship. Spiritual support, including services for survivors of religious abuse. They do not need to be encouraged in magical thinking: “Oh…if I can only get to San Francisco! It’s like Oz! Everything will be fabulous!” Yes, sometimes it gets better. But: it does not always get better, and it does not automatically get better. If we actually want to see the kids flourish, we need to open our eyes to the full scope of the horror under which some queer kids come up – and add real resources that are equal to our encouraging words. We need to get real.
Snap! Gotcha! Leather Community photographer Rich Stadtmiller has new photos of SF Pride’s Leather Contingent up on his Rich Trove site, here. For Gay Highwaymen photos of the kinky section of the parade, click here. For more photos of photographers and their big sexy cameras, click here.
gayhighwaymen
Maštíŋčala Sáŋ
The Gay Highwaymen 