12/10/2025
OLD GUARD – Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. (PART 2)
The Old Guard didn’t “never exist.”
It existed before social media, before hashtags, and before visibility became validation.
Its history is preserved in record books, photographs, bar and club archives, mentorship protocols, contest lineages, and lived service—not in internet debate.
Ignorance of history is not evidence against it.
There are people who lived it and people still living who hold that history.
What We Mean by “Old Guard Leather”
Old Guard Leather refers to the original, highly structured leather/B**M subculture that emerged primarily among gay and bis*xual men in the United States in the years immediately after World War II (roughly 1945–1970s, with its peak influence in the 1950s and 1960s).
Key characteristics of Old Guard Leather:
Military influence
Many early Leathermen were WWII and Korean War veterans. The culture adopted strict, military-style hierarchy, discipline, uniforms, codes of conduct, and protocol.
Motorcycle clubs as backbone
The first formal leather organizations were gay motorcycle clubs (e.g., Satyrs MC in Los Angeles, 1954, and others that followed). Membership was earned through pledging/prospecting processes similar to outlaw biker clubs.
Master/slave and formal power exchange
Long-term, sometimes 24/7, M/s structures were governed by rules, expectations, and protocol:
how to address a Sir, how to enter a bar, when to speak, who you stood behind, how you served.
Strict dress code
• Black or brown leather (jackets, pants, vests, chaps, harnesses)
• Muir caps, tall boots, leather shirts
• Keys worn left/right indicating role
• Hanky code for interests
• No bright colors, no random “street clothes” in leather bars
Training and mentorship
Newcomers were sponsored by an established Sir or Master and underwent significant training—often a year or more—before “earning their leathers” or being recognized as a Leatherman.
Discretion and secrecy
This was a pre-Stonewall era. Being openly gay could get you arrested, fired, or institutionalized. Leather spaces were private bars and clubs with strict “members only” culture and strong expectations of discretion.
Values before slogans
Honor, loyalty, brotherhood, and what we now call “safe, sane, consensual” were practiced long before SSC or RACK became written acronyms.
Timeline Context
• 1945–1965: Classic Old Guard era
Very rigid, private, motorcycle-club centered, strongly influenced by military hierarchy.
• Late 1960s–1970s: Transition
Younger men enter post-Stonewall. S*xual liberation, hippie culture, and gay liberation shift some practices and aesthetics; things become less uniform and more diverse.
• 1980s–1990s: “New Guard” emerges
More pans*xual; more visibly inclusive of women, het couples, and broader B**M communities. Many Old Guard protocols fade, evolve, or become optional.
• Today:
“Old Guard” is largely a historical and lineage term. Some individuals and houses still practice or teach original protocols. Titles like “Old Guard Master” carry significant weight in traditional circles.
In short, when someone in today’s leather community references “Old Guard,” they’re talking about an original, highly disciplined, mostly gay male, post-WWII leather tradition that helped lay the foundation for much of modern B**M culture.
Why Some People Say “Old Guard Never Existed”
When someone insists “There never was an Old Guard,” they’re usually reacting to at least one of these:
1. The mythologized cartoon version
The internet version where every man wore full leather 24/7, every slave had a 10-page contract, and you had to wait three years to wear a harness. That’s a caricature, not history.
2. Gatekeeping and purity tests
The “You’re not real Leather unless you trained under a 1950s biker” rhetoric. That’s not stewardship; that’s weaponized nostalgia.
3. Lack of uniformity across regions
Practices varied by city, club, bar, and decade. There was no single national rulebook endorsed by every man in leather.
There absolutely was an Old Guard—really, multiple Old Guards. In the 1945–1970 era, especially in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other major hubs, gay motorcycle clubs and early leather bars operated with strict, military-derived protocols, formal mentorship, earned leathers, and M/s structures that would look extremely rigid by today’s standards.
We have:
• First-person accounts
• Club bylaws from the 1950s–60s
• Training materials and manuals
• Contest and club records
• Surviving members who lived through those eras
Was it universal? No. Not every Leatherman in 1965 was in a club or followed the same code. Regional differences were real, and some of what circulates online now is exaggerated or second-hand legend.
But saying “there was no Old Guard at all” is like saying “there was no 1%er biker culture” because not every biker followed Hells Angels’ rules. The core groups and traditions existed—and they shaped titles, hanky codes, contests, and a lot of the protocol people take for granted today.
Yes, there was an Old Guard. Talk to anyone who came out in the leather scene before 1975, or read the historians and ethnographers who interviewed those who did.
The problem isn’t that Old Guard existed.
The problem is that some people turned it into a cartoon—or a purity test.
The Challenge Back
Are your words grounded in Leather history,
or in unfamiliarity with it?
Research precedes opinion.
Ignorance does not qualify as authority.
Leather Archives & Museum: Where the Receipts Live
If we take this conversation back to Elders and to the historical record, the appropriate authority is the Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M / LALM) in Chicago—the recognized repository of lived Leather history, created and maintained by people who were there.
Why the Leather Archives & Museum matters:
The LA&M:
Preserves primary-source material, not just opinions
Is built from donations by Elders, titleholders, clubs, houses, and organizations
Houses:
• Personal papers
• Club records and bylaws
• Bar documents
• Photographs
• Ephemera (pins, posters, programs, patches)
• Oral histories
• Original publications and manuscripts
It exists specifically so Leather history cannot be erased, rewritten, or dismissed when it becomes inconvenient to someone’s politics or ego.
This is Old Guard methodology:
We don’t debate lived history—we archive it.
Why This Shuts Down “Old Guard Never Existed”
The Leather Archives & Museum exists because Leather culture—and the Old Guard eras within it—existed.
You cannot have:
• Archived protocols
• Documented bar cultures
• Early contest records
• Personal papers from Elders
• Photographic evidence
• Community bylaws and club constitutions
…without a functioning, self-aware Leather culture operating long before modern visibility politics.
Denying Old Guard means denying the very people whose materials fill those shelves and boxes.
Elder-Aligned Conclusion
If someone wants to know who Gayle Rubin was—or whether the Old Guard existed—the answer isn’t on social media.
It lives where Leather puts its truth:
in the archives, preserved by Elders, documented by those who lived it, and guarded so history cannot be erased by ignorance or convenience.
Who Is Gayle Rubin in This Lineage?
Gayle S. Rubin (b. 1949) is a cultural anthropologist, activist, and Leather community participant whose work is deeply interwoven with the history of gay male leather in San Francisco and beyond.
From a Leather-aligned historical lens, she is:
• A Leather community participant active in San Francisco’s leather scene beginning in the late 1970s
• A scholar who documented Leather culture from the inside, not as a distant outsider
• A defender of Leather during periods of moral panic, when gay s*x, B**M, and leather bars were heavily stigmatized and targeted
• A contributor to preserving Leather social structures, protocols, and memory rather than diluting them
Her research relied on interviews and oral histories with Leathermen, club members, and community participants—from post-WWII motorcycle-club veterans to men who survived the AIDS crisis. Those voices, captured in her work, form part of the backbone of what we now call Leather history, not Leather myth.
She has been involved in broader LGBTQ+ historical projects and has worked alongside Leather archivists and institutions, helping ensure that Old Guard and early leather cultures were recorded before too many voices were lost.
Documentarians & Guardians of Memory
Alongside Rubin, Leather’s historical record has been guarded, written, and illustrated by a range of figures whose work many of us still lean on today. For example:
• Chuck Renslow (1939–2017) – Co-founder of Chicago’s Gold Coast bar, creator of International Mr. Leather, and founder of the Leather Archives & Museum. Often called the “Godfather of Leather” for his central role in building and preserving community institutions.
• Tony DeBlase (1942–2000) – Leather historian, publisher, and creator of the Leather Pride Flag. Helped translate oral history and bar culture into print and symbols.
• Larry Townsend (1930–2008) – Author of The Leatherman’s Handbook and other works that brought leather SM practices and ethics into print, giving people language and guidance shaped by mid-20th-century experience.
• Vi Johnson (“Mama Vi”) (1968-1984) – Leatherwoman, archivist, and co-creator of major archival efforts such as the Carter/Johnson Leather Library. A living griot whose work focuses on preserving leather, kink, and Black q***r histories that might otherwise be erased.
• Vincent L. Andrews – (1970’s to 1990) was an influential writer, editor, and historian within the gay Leather and B**M community, best known for documenting Leather culture, power exchange, and erotic ritual during a formative period of the community’s development. He authored Leatherfolk: Radical S*x, People, Politics, and Practice (editor / contributor). A landmark anthology bringing together essays and fiction that explored Leather s*x, identity, and community from inside the culture. In Leather (editor), A collection of erotic stories centered
• David Stein (1970’s to 21st century) – Leather author, editor, and community advocate whose work (including contributions to Leatherfolk and other writings) articulates the ethics of consensual power exchange and the lived reality of Masters, slaves, and Leatherman, rather than sensationalized fantasy.
• Alan Selby (“Mr. S”) (1970’s to present) – Leatherman and entrepreneur whose shop, Mr. S Leather, became an international hub for gear, aesthetics, and a certain style of gay leather masculinity,
• Hardy Haberman (1970’s to present) – Author, educator, and presenter whose books and teaching help bridge Old Guard values with contemporary Leather and B**M communities. He is best known as the co-author of Leatherfolk: Radical S*x, People, Politics, and Practice (1999), a groundbreaking anthology that combines personal narrative, history, and analysis to examine Leather culture from multiple perspectives, and B**M 101 (2003), one of the most widely used introductory texts on consensual power exchange, communication, and negotiated kink. He also co-authored B**M: The Leather Leader’s Guide (2004), which focuses on leadership, responsibility, and community ethics.
• Guy Baldwin (1970’s to present) – Therapist, author, and Leatherman whose writings on M/s, D/s, and power exchange deeply influenced how we talk about ethics, consent, and authority in Leather spaces.
• John D. Weal (1970’s to present) John D. Weal is an American author, educator, and influential figure in the international Leather community, best known for his work on Leather protocol, mentorship, and ethical power exchange. He is the author of The Leatherman’s Protocol Handbook: A Handbook on “Old Guard” Rituals, Traditions and Protocols, published in July 2010 and Smoke, Ash and Burning Embers: A book that details how and when ci**rs where first noted in history all the way to today and how they have changed. published in January 2010.
• Patrick Califia (1954-2013) - formerly also known as Pat Califia and by the last name Califia-Rice, is an American writer of non-fiction essays about s*xuality and of erotic fiction and poetry.
• Etienne Audet (“Etienne”) – Artist whose erotic work in the 1960s–70s visually defined Leatherman aesthetics, giving imagery to what was lived experience.
• Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, 1920–1991) – Though not an Old Guard practitioner himself, his drawings influenced self-image and provided symbols of hypermasculinity, uniforms, and s*xual confidence that resonated with Old Guard men.
• Mama Sandy Reinhardt (“Mama”) - (late 1940s – early/mid-1970s) - was a formative bar and community matriarch in the early U.S. leather and le***an motorcycle scenes, most closely associated with San Francisco. Active from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, she is remembered not as a public theorist or polemicist but as a protector, organizer, and culture-bearer—someone who helped create and hold space where leather, butch/femme, and motorcycle identities could exist safely during periods of intense social hostility.
• Joseph Bean – Leather historian, writer, and former curator of the Leather Archives & Museum, who worked to preserve Old Guard knowledge for new generations.
Unsung & Oral Tradition Keepers
For every named figure, there are countless unsung guardians:
• Unnamed mentors and Sirs – The Masters, Sirs, Daddies, Tops, and elders who trained boys, slaves, and submissives in houses, bars, and private spaces. Their names may not appear in books, but their protocols live in the bones of our culture.
• Bartenders and bar owners – Those who kept doors open and lights low at places like the Gold Coast, The Tool Box, The Cellar, The Brig, and dozens of lesser-known bars. These weren’t just watering holes—they were initiation halls, classrooms, and sanctuaries.
• Titleholders before titles – Long before sashes and pageants, “titles” were spoken quietly in the bar: the Sir everyone deferred to, the Master whose authority was earned, not voted on. Respect was a verdict on conduct, not a contest weekend.
Why So Many Remain “Unsung”
Old Guard culture valued secrecy, discretion, and lived reputation over public recognition.
Recognition was given in private spaces and quiet nods—not on social media timelines.
Many key figures will never be listed in any archive or article because their work was local, personal, and intentionally low-profile. Yet they are the reason there is nothing left to argue about.
So, when someone claims, “Old Guard never existed,” the answer is simple:
You may not have been taught it.
You may have only seen the cartoon.
You may be reacting to weaponized nostalgia.
But absence of your evidence is not evidence of absence.
The Elders, the archives, and the people who lived it say otherwise.
