ABSTRACT
By the early 1980s, so many people sought BDSM encounters they overwhelmed existing institutions. Dozens of new BDSM groups formed in cities across the United States and Canada, reorienting the community from bars and immediate sexual gratification to local BDSM organizations emphasizing safety and education. Disparagement and harassment of BDSM practitioners, highlighted by the Meese Commission Report (1986), encouraged suppression of leather bars and sex clubs. Their closures drove older practitioners to the new BDSM organizations. The AIDS crisis and growing repression encouraged BDSM organizations like Samois, Gay Men’s SM Activists (GMSMA) and Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM) to intensify political efforts. Samois and LSM members became central figures in feminist “sex wars.” Pat Califia, Gayle Rubin and others defended their sexual desires and presented nuanced critiques of the suppression of sexual minorities, particularly Rubin’s essay “Thinking Sex,” which drew on her experiences in the BDSM community. In 1986, the first national conference (Living in Leather) and organization (the National Leather Association) formed. BDSM organizations, publications and businesses flourished, encouraging safer, more sophisticated BDSM play, while providing a base for political action to protect individuals, groups and businesses from harassment.
