ABSTRACT
Barry Douglas of GMSMA organized a BDSM-Leather contingent for the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Its success amplified calls to unite BDSM community members in a national organization to coordinate local organizations, provide BDSM education on safe techniques, promote BDSM as a safe sexual practice and fight against harassment. At a conference in Dallas, delegates from leading BDSM organizations popularized the phrase “safe, sane, consensual” and produced Safe, Sane, Consensual Adults (SSCA), a national BDSM organization. The conference highlighted tensions among BDSM activists over class, gender, race and geography. Although only one-sixth of attendees, women encouraged working across class, gender and racial divisions to build a large, diverse national organization, which reached out to women, people of color and others traditionally excluded from BDSM institutions. The SSCA merged with the National Leather Association (NLA), which became the BDSM community's leading voice, tasked to: educate the BDSM community and combat “stereotypes, misconceptions, and media misrepresentation about the Leather/SM/fetish family.” By 1990 NLA had chapters in more than two-dozen U.S. and Canadian cities. It attracted people across the United States and Canada and provided models for local BDSM organizations and conventions, fueling the BDSM community's growth.
