Preserving Houston’s Leather History
As the Gulf Coast Archive and Museum turns 25, it transitions into the nonprofit Heart of Leather Foundation.
Gulf Coast Archive and Museum of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History, Inc. (GCAM) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month. As part of the celebration, GCAM has announced that it will transform into a new entity named Heart of Leather Foundation. GCAM will then become a sub-collection of non-leather holdings within the new organization.
Judy Reeves, who has been GCAM’s curator during those 25 years, will now be the curator of both the GCAM and the leather collections. However, GCAM will no longer be accepting items into its collection, so Reeves will guide potential donors to other options in the Houston area. Leather items will be accepted into the Heart of Leather collection.
Loyd Powell, who is coordinating the transformation, says, “The heart of leather is its history, and the Foundation’s mission is to keep that history safe and alive. We will tell the stories of leather history through our extensive digital and actual archives, displays of leather of historical value, and an active leather education program with the goal of providing a welcoming space for all to gather, research, and learn.”
Beginning the Transformation
At 74, Reeves is preparing to retire from actively curating GCAM collections, so now is a good time to set these goals into motion. During the next two years, Reeves will be looking for a new home or homes for GCAM holdings at other organizations that have a mission of preserving Houston’s LGBTQ history. Meanwhile, the Foundation will be searching for a new curator to take over the leather holdings so Reeves can pass along her collected wisdom.
Reeves emphasizes that not a single GCAM item will be thrown out or left behind. Powell assures that every item given to GCAM was precious to someone, and he intends to respect that.
Continuing discussions will be held to determine where individual current holdings will be moved to. The Foundation collection will include some items which are non-leather, but have meaning to the leather community—such as the drag queens who held countless fundraisers during the AIDS crisis to help so many in the leather community who were battling the disease.
Gulf Coast Archive and Museum, a nonprofit organization, has been officially renamed Heart of Leather Foundation, and other legal papers are in process. Currently, Powell and his partner of 39 years, Robert Conn, are part of a five-member work group, two of whom are women. They are looking for more people to join them as they put together a diverse group that will include younger generations.
The work group has new ideas about fundraising. Powell says that putting together a board will be about putting the right people in the right place. People are needed who have a knowledge of Houston’s leather history and who also understand good business practices. Powell can dream big, and he hopes that one day the Heart of Leather Foundation can open a physical museum.
Gulf Coast Leather History
The Houston area has a rich history of leather. The first known beginnings are motorcycle clubs in the early 1970s, which found a home at the iconic Mary’s bar. The first Pride parades were led by members of these clubs.
Leather and denim social clubs then began to spring up, including the National Leather Association-Houston, the Misfits, and the Colt 45’s. Houston is the only city to ever have had a Council of Clubs, which kept communications going between the social clubs and offered a way to easily coordinate leather events.
One such event for years was the annual Let Us Entertain You (LUEY) weekend. LUEY was held the weekend after the end of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which always ended on a Wednesday. Party-goers were invited to Houston for a weekend of socials at several participating bars. Leather and denim clubs sponsored tables offering cocktail-party punch. At the end of the weekend, a huge show was held at Rich’s bar.
Leather and denim bars proliferated throughout the Montrose area: Different Drum, Montrose Mining Company, Silver Bullet, Mary’s, Brazos River Bottom, Ripcord, and more. Leather-oriented businesses also sprang up: Leather by Boots and Black Hawk Leather.
Perhaps the most visible element of the leather community was the iconic Mary’s mural on the outside of their east wall, illustrating leather men and their friends partying inside. The mural shocked some people and was treasured by others. It sent a message to gay bashers that Montrose belonged to the gay community.
The late Scott Swoveland, who created the mural, noted that it represented three important messages: always be yourself, treasure your friends, and have a good time even when the going gets tough.
Leather contests and bar shows also became popular. Contestants vied to win the title of Mr. Prime Choice, Daddy of Montrose, or Boy of Montrose. Bar shows were well attended—especially those organized by Don Gill Productions, which produced diverse and entertaining shows such as the annual Nights in Black Leather.
Some people mistake leather for kink, says Powell. They are two different things, and not all people in leather are into kink. The heart of leather is brotherhood, he says, also pointing out that each leather vest is a story of the owner’s life, whether it be a personal vest or a title vest. The back patch tells what club they belonged to or what title they had held. The other pins on the vest are from friends or events/runs they attended.
GCAM and the Leather Community
Over the past two and a half decades, GCAM has become more and more involved with Houston’s leather community, and their leather holdings have become sizable. Reeves remembers a Mardi Gras fundraising show by GCAM held in the early 2000s at the former EJ’s bar. Many of the guests were in leather, and Reeves was surprised that she knew so many of them, but had never realized they were part of the leather community.
In 2006, Don Gill gave GCAM a beautiful shadow box that had been built to honor the late Marvin Davis, aka Lady Victoria Lust. Davis was one of the best fundraisers in the Houston community. Don Gill Productions presented the shadow box at one of their shows at the Briar Patch bar.
Reeves eventually went to a LUEY planning meeting and asked if GCAM could sponsor a cocktail-party punch table. The request was granted and GCAM returned year after year. Reeves began to realize that the leather community was now giving GCAM more and more attention, offering help in a variety of ways.
Reeves eventually became an auxiliary member of both the Houston Area Bears (which later became Houston Bears), and a member of the Colt 45’s and NLA-Houston. When the Colt 45’s closed down their club in 2009, GCAM received everything that was in their office above the Brazos River Bottom bar: vests, awards, paperwork, and the entire contents of the huge glass awards case in the bar’s entryway.
As GCAM inventoried the Colt 45’s holdings, they realized the leather items required special care. They turned to NLA-Houston and Misfits, who helped them clean and restore many of the items, since leather can become brittle and crack without proper care.
Misfits supported GCAM with one of their annual Misfits Balls. After the death of Creath Robinson—the leader behind LUEY Weekend and the annual Wigs on Fire event—GCAM was given many items belonging to him.
In 2009, Doug Decker moved from Houston, leaving GCAM with a large collection of items including banners and posters. Reeves said two SUV-loads of materials were picked up by GCAM.
That same year, Mary’s closed and GCAM recovered the bar tops from the inside bar and the patio bar. The bartops contain photographs taken at Mary’s, covered by an acrylic sealer.
Members of the leather community have supported GCAM for decades, with donations and bar fundraising shows. Each year, Scott and Falcon Fuhr-Kenyon organize a “pie in the face” fundraiser on the Ripcord patio. Guests can put a pie in the face of volunteers who are often royalty and title holders. Reeves has been one of those volunteers, and the pie in her face was the most expensive, bringing in a $50 donation.
Over the years, some of GCAM’s leather holdings have been featured in historical exhibits in the larger Houston community, including Contemporary Arts Museum-Houston, the Health Museum, Houston Historical Society, NASA, and Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center. After discussions between the Holocaust Museum and GCAM’s Bruce Reeves, GCAM also participated in the museum’s 2004 exhibit titled Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933–1945.
About three years ago, Reeves began to realize the need for a Houston leather archive. Although GCAM has a vast assortment of pictures from the leather community, few of them identify who is in the photos or the events where they were taken. There is little documented history of the community; mostly it is stories and memories that people share.
Reeves met with Powell and Conn, and over the last year their discussions of a leather archive became more and more serious, with the two men agreeing to spearhead a movement to create a leather archive. Reeves says “I think this is one of the greatest things to happen in our community in decades.”
For more information, visit heartofleather.org
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