An Emancipation – Or – How the L.A.P.D. Freed the Slaves

This is the paper I gave at the 2008 Eleanor Greenhill Symposium at UT-Austin
The (()) indicate where I moved forward in my powerpoint presentation (too big to include here- sad!), and the paper includes notes to myself…

 

I want to begin this paper with a curious object – Viola Johnson’s pin sash. A respected elder in contemporary leather communities, Johnson started Black Leather in Color, the first periodical dedicated to people of color within pansexual leather communities. Recently, Johnson displayed her pin sash in the ballroom of the Sterling Hotel in Dallas for the 2007 Beyond Vanilla conference, an event put on by the National Leather Association (PIN SASH LONG VIEW). Her pin sash is a visual resume, it documents (through the accumulation and display of small metal pins and buttons) her affiliations with leather groups, organizations, events, people and bars. In leather communities these pins, passed down from others, remind the wearer not only of the event (whether they were “there” or not) but of the person who gave them the pin, constructing a shared heritage and tradition while forging strong interpersonal bonds. Metal pins shaped like ribbons indicate her support for causes related to HIV/AIDS (()) and Breast Cancer (()). We can see that she is a member of the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago, Illinois,(()) and a frequent attendee of the International Mr. Leather contest(()), the International Ms. Leather contest(()), and the Annual Living in Leather Conference(()). Infamous leather bars like the Toolbox (())and The Ramrod (()) make appearances on Johnson’s sash. The pin sash is a veritable portrait of Johnson and of her involvement and dedication to leather communities. The pin sash, for this paper, serves as a metaphorical object, an entrance to begin discussing community formation and affirmation. Within the context of its display (either on Johnson’s body or off of it) Johnson’s pin sash is a bonding agent, weighed down, quite literally, with a number of  relationships, past events, and affiliations with non-leather organizations that are specific to Johnson and others with whom she chooses to associate with. Within the context of the NLA event in Dallas, an event that advertised the fact that Viola Johnson would be present and with her personal library, the pin sash acts as another kind of archive, both personal and communal. Although I will be discussing just one of these pins it is important to asses that any of the pins seen here could be the topic of this paper. To explain and properly situate each pin individually, nevertheless the ways in which pins on the sash speak to and across each other, would be more content than a presentation or dissertation could bear. 

 

 

 

Separate from the dozens of pins displayed on Johnson’s pin sash, exists another set of pins, set aside in a small display case (BOX). The case contains around fifty pins. Near the bottom right corner of the display box a crooked black button with write writing reads: The L.A.P.D. FREED the Slaves April 10, 1976. The button commemorates a raid conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department on a fundraising function held in a leather-friendly business. In 1976 the L.A.P.D. raided the Mark IV, a bathhouse, during a fundraising slave auction, in which people voluntarily auctioned themselves off to be a slave-for-a-day for the successful bidder. The complex relationship between master and slave, top and bottom, dominant and submissive (and other historically situated relationships, Nazi and Jew, policeman and incarcerated, the list could very easily go on) – these relationships are often part and parcel of sadomasochistic practices which are inherent to leather identities. The button is a send-up of local and national news media as well as the Los Angeles Police Department, extolling, tongue firmly in cheek, the L.A.P.D.’s great deed. This paper seeks to place this button and other visual material produced in the wake of the Mark IV raid within the context of the leather communities that produced them. As such this papers follows the work of other scholars, such as Douglas Crimp, who have placed similar cultural productions (also, interestingly from within queer contexts) in dialogue community formation and political activation. ((ACT UP)) Buttons and signage used by ACT-UP during the early years of the AIDS pandemic, often in the form of texts that visually enunciated a political expression as well as a community identification, are perhaps the most recognizable set of texts, postdate and perhaps are indebted to the early political organizing of gay, lesbian and leather communities.

 

(BLANK) I will attempt to answer a central question: how do the visual objects (photographs, books, buttons, pins, re-performances, magazines) function to organize and maintain Los Angeles leather communities and broader gay and lesbian communities? Community organizers – editors, clergy, parade directors, filmmakers, artists – helped to define the visual terms in which the raid would be seen discussed, thereby situating gay and leather communities in conversation to the past, both recent and distant. Through an analysis of the various contexts in which these objects are produced, reproduced and displayed, it is my hope to unpack the structure and patterns of community formation, response and policing. Finally, I hope to present leather communities as not just a subset of gay and lesbian communities. Most accounts of gay and lesbian cultures in the 1970s fall prey to the assumption that there is an easy relationship between gay, lesbian and leather communities, or that, even worse, the leather community is a subculture within a subculture, a term I do not wish to employ (because for every sub there has to be a dom). In actuality, the historical relationships between gay, lesbian and leather communities is uneasy at best and openly hostile in some places. Instead, I want to situate leather communities as a series of overlapping entities, historically and perhaps necessarily linked, but not tied to, larger gay and lesbian political agendas.

 

First, a word on leather identity and community formation, the men who were arrested at the Mark IV baths in large part identified themselves as leathermen, an identification with its own history and origins separate from and as complicated as other contemporaneous gay male identities((Gay Semiotics). Pulling variously from beat culture, bike movies ((Marlon Brando) (specifically 1955’s The Wild One with Marlon Brando), and oppressive urban juridical systems (it was illegal for homosexuals to congregate or to be served alcohol), gays, and eventually lesbians, bought motorcycles, adopted a specific hyper-masculine style of dress, formed motorcycle clubs and rode out into the country – spending long weekends socializing, riding, and having sex. These motorcycle clubs of the 1950s were the historical foundation for the leather communities in the 1970s. As the community grew in numbers, and moved away from the organizing structure of the Motorcycle Clubs, and as liquor laws in California loosened to allow homosexuals the ability to serve and consume alcohol, members of the leather community began to establish their own spaces. Bars such as the Black Pipe in L.A. (est. 1970), or the Mineshaft in N.Y. (est. 1976) became sites of political and sexual activation. (Mineshaft Dress Code) Dress was important, and if one arrived at a leather bar improperly dressed (in sneakers, sweaters, perfume) entrance would be denied. The Mineshaft officially adopted a written dress code in 1976 to be put into effect in 1978, and it makes clear how patrons are and are not supposed to dress. In these places leather men (whether they were bikers or into s/m) could come together, socialize, and have sexual intercourse. In the acts of socializing and sex, communities were formed and established. Motorcycle clubs would have a “home bar” and the bars, in turn, began to host leather beauty contests. The winners of these contests became leaders within the community, hosting parties and charity events. This is to say that there existed reciprocity between leather communities and the bars they established and owned. (BLANK)

 

Bath houses were another site of activation, although not necessarily specific to leather communities. The Mark IV was like many other bathhouses in Los Angeles and San Francisco at the time. As a private club those who entered paid a small fee for a locker and towel. Mark IV housed a sauna and pool area, as well as a row of small rooms for sexual encounters. However, unlike other contemporaneous bathhouses, the Mark IV also maintained a dungeon and provided leather restraints to those patrons who required them. This made the Mark IV baths open to the sexual needs of the leather community. The addition of a dungeon and leather props was a savvy business decision on the part of the Mark IV ownership because it effectively increased the potential clientele, including leather men alongside broader gay and lesbian publics. (HELP ADS) Sometimes the Mark IV baths played host to fundraising events for organizations such as the Gay Community Service center or the Homophile Effort for Legal Protection (H.E.L.P.) Institutions such as H.E.L.P. were necessary because the L.A.P.D., then under the management of police Chief Ed Davis (PHOTO ED DAVIS), were well known for targeting gays and lesbians in public, semi-public, and private settings. A virulently homophobic man, police Chief Davis put forth the idea that gay people could give their gay germs to others, infecting them with homosexuality. In a 1975 letter to the president of the Christopher Street West Parade (like today’s gay pride events) police chief Davis wrote: “As you no doubt expected, I am declining your invitation to participate in the celebration of ‘GAY PRIDE WEEK’… I would much rather celebrate ‘GAY CONVERSION WEEK.’” Under the tenure of Davis the vice squad (a specialized squad of undercover cops enforcing moral laws) targeted gays, lesbians, leather folk, prostitutes and drug dealers. Above all, Davis considered it his duty to cleanse the gay out of Los Angeles. Such behavior earned him the nickname Crazy Ed amongst gay, lesbian and leather communities.

 

Sites of community activation and engagement also included gay, lesbian, and leather presses. The work of the magazine Drummer is particularly notable in this respect. (DRUMMER ONE COVER). Drummer, at one point in its history conjoined with HELP, spoke to a specialized readership of leathermen. More explicit in its sexual imagery (EXPLICIT), the new Drummer often featured models fully nude or dressed in heavy s/m gear alongside articles about popular bars and bath houses. Subscribers to Drummer became known as the Leather Fraternity, thus promoting male bonding and ideas of brotherhood and kinship amongst its readership. These constructs of family bound the community together and perhaps made them easier to mobilize. Both John Embry, the producer of Drummer and Jeanne Barney, the editor, had extensive experience with groups like H.E.L.P. and gay community service organizations (So these people are familiar with community organization and mobilization). Barney, a straight woman with a teenage daughter, also authored a popular advice column, for California leather communities.

 

(BLANK) In March, John Embry mailed out tan invitations (none are extant to my knowledge) to the members of the Leather Fraternity for an event billed as a Slave Auction to be held at the Mark IV Baths, with proceeds going towards the Gay Community Services Center and Drummer magazine. Those who wanted to attend the slave auction could detach a coupon and send in their $5 for an official invitation. According to Barney, the initial response was underwhelming. Perhaps panicking a bit, Embry sent out additional invitations to the rest of his personal mailing list. Unbeknownst to Embry a postal worker on his personal mailing list notified the L.A.P.D. of the event. This began a large L.A.P.D. reconnaissance campaign. Embry and Barney’s home phone lines were tapped and they were followed during the weeks leading up to the raid.

 

On the evening of the Slave Auction the L.A.P.D. officially – according to police records – assembled a team of 65 police and vice squad officers to conduct the raid, but many of those present at the raid, and later on, even the police department, acknowledged that the count approached closer to 105-108 policemen. The L.A.P.D. set up command posts in a nearby park, on the roof of a neighboring building, and in a van on street level. At least four vice officers roamed inside the event, outfitted with leather gear rented from the costume department of Universal Studios. A briefing of all personnel was held at 6 pm on April 10^th and it was there that the quota of 40-50 arrestees was established. The L.A.P.D. notified local news media of the impending raid and brought along a commercial photographer. The raid included two buses to transport those arrested and two helicopters, for effect!  That night 40 people were arrested, including John Embry, Jeanne Barney, and Vallaton (Val) Martin, a pornographic film actor and star in leather communities.

 

Val Martin, who presided as an emcee over the night’s events with Fred Halsted (director of heavy s/m pornographic films), (PICTURES OF VAL AND FRED) remembers the auction thusly:

            So, that night we started the show and I started selling the slaves. It was about my seventh slave, and I was selling him; a very groovy guy comes to me with a leather jacket and a leather cap, torn jeans, very good looking. And he comes to me and asks what is the price of these slaves, so I told him. I think the first bid was thirty dollars. He asked me if he (the slave) was a good cocksucker; I said “sure” and he said, “Well, I have a big dick, do you think that he can suck my big dick?” So, I said, “Sure, as a matter of fact they call him ‘Jaws’. I was just kidding around. The sale went on and on, and the people were bidding more and finally the guy bid the highest and I said, “sold.” And then, as soon as I said “sold” and received the money from him, the whole thing comes down.

 

Entrapment was a common procedure used by vice officers and it is important to point out that the experience of Martin was not singular; often vice officers goaded their targets to break moral codes. Police handcuffed the forty they chose to arrest with nylon handcuffs (then, a new technology intended for riots) and paraded the arrested in front of television and newspaper media (reports from within the leather community tell us that these members were chosen on a you, you, and you basis). These men and one woman sat in the police bus while the LAPD went through the baths confiscating leather toys and paraphernalia. (Photo of Police at Raid) According to one account, a policeman interviewed by news crews held up handcuffs as though they were foreign to his own profession. In the following days, news stories of the Mark IV raid appeared on the front pages of local and national news outlets. Papers in California, New York, Texas and Idaho all reported on the event. The Orange County Register, well known as a conservative paper sympathetic to the motives of Police Chief Ed Davis’ policies and politics, screamed “Police Free Gay ‘Slaves’” (PHOTO AD DRUMMER COVER) while a month later Drummer Magazine’s headline read (()) “Drummer goes to a Slave Auction”  The button that reads “The L.A.P.D. Freed the Slaves, April 10, 1976” can be found inside the “o” of “Auction”  Inside, an article written by Embry detailed the events of the night. (Cartoons) A page of cartoons drew attention and poked fun at incarceration, slavery, and the L.A.P.D. (()) One cartoon shows two leathermen at an MGM studios auction. The man at the information booth looks nervously at the two leather-clad men and iterates that there are no slaves from Ben-Hur available – they obviously showed up at the wrong auction.(()) (()) The second cartoon is a labyrinthine construction of chains attached to the collars of “slaves”. Towards the back of the group, a man is choking and pleading for no one to move. Although there are no references to the Mark IV raid in the cartoon, it speaks obliquely to ideas of slavery and police action “Nobody move!” (()) (()) The final cartoon on the page imagines a scenario between two prisoners, strung up by their wrists. The prisoner on the left tells the one on the right that, he too is being watched for his own good. (()) The cartoons as a group reflect the sudden predicament of leather communities in Los Angeles, as they found themselves the center of increasing media attention. Who were these men? And why are they auctioning off slaves? (MORE CARTOONS) In the coming months Drummer would feature more cartoons (()) One depicts a leatherman in his home being raided by two members of the L.A.P.D. He informs them that as they have been keeping files on him, pointing out the reconnaissance techniques of the L.A.P.D., he has also been keeping his own archive. (()) Three uniforms hang in his closet, an L.A.P.D. uniform, a N.Y.P.D. uniform and an S.S. uniform. Besides reflecting a common fetish within leather communities (uniforms of all kinds, including Nazi uniforms) the association of the repressive tactics of the L.A.P.D. with the genocidal behaviors of Nazis is intentional. Another cartoon depicting two urinals in conversation brings to light the affective relationship between gay, lesbian and leather communities and the L.A.P.D. The pun plays on the double meaning of the word “piss”, meaning both urine and to anger. Anger, here, mobilizes and maintains the leather community. Cartoons and humor played an important role in dealing with the aftermath of the Mark IV raid and spurring a community into action. Disseminated to a readership already defined in familial terms, the cartoons pointed out “family” issues, problems, and cultural misreading within broader communities.

 

Some cartoons were not meant to be as funny. ((MARK IV CARTOON) Here we see a graphic depiction of the Mark IV raid. Leathermen, handcuffed, are shuffled into a bus by police officers. Although they grovel and plead with their captors, the police simply point their guns and smirk. The text underneath reveals the intention of the image it emphatically asks the viewer “What are you going to do about it?”   

 

(Article)In the months following the raid Drummer published an interview with a gay vice officer and a how-to uniform guide (including locations where L.A.P.D. gear could be purchased) (Mark IV) Drummer even sponsored a Mark IV information booklet, which included a cover illustration of a leather man dragging another by his genitals. The image intends to horrify and titillate. Like the cartoon that asks “What are you going to do about it” the image makes itself available for political activation and fantasy.  Images that serve this kind of meaningful double-duty are endemic in the visual productions of leather communities.

 

Leather and gay and lesbian communities continued to produce a wealth of visual and performative material. (AD) The Mark IV hosted a Bastille Day party, with Jeanne Barney making a cameo as a towel girl. In this instance the notoriety of the raid was a marketing ploy, a way to get people into the baths and bars. Those arrested had a certain cache in leather communities and could easily draw large crowds to participate in fundraising events or parties.

 

(BOOKS)Erotic novels published in the years after the raid, sexualized and fetishized police brutality, titles like Hot Cop’s Buns and A Victim of Vice sold in gay bookstores. The narratives of these books often revolve around a team of police officers harassing, hazing, and ultimately using a young male protagonist for sexual gratification. The power relationships and dynamics of such pulp novels shift constantly, and are difficult to describe (in Victim of the Vice, the protagonist is always both in and out of control). Although not solely an erotic novel (although it certainly contains elements of it) John Rechy’s Sexual Outlaw, billed as a documentary novel, and published in 1977, dedicates an entire chapter to detailing the events of the Mark IV raid. Although Rechy is overtly hostile to s/m, denouncing the practices for fetishizing very real and dangerous power relationships, he also condemns the actions of the LAPD (although he can’t help but point out that the men who, in his mind, played at being cops suddenly found themselves inextricably bound up in the “real thing”).

 

Shortly after the Mark IV raid, the artist Sean, began a strip of cartoons titled Cellblock Sex (Cover), and published the series as a book a couple years later. The narrative of the strip seems typical of the erotic comics genre. (Sequence of images) The kinky trope of uniform sex, existed long before the Mark IV raid, and continued long afterwards, yet the erotic comics genre allows for gay and leather men to visually re-imagine, or re-assign the meanings of lived power dynamics. The image of the cop, or here, the prison guard, is re-appropriated and literally stripped down – and is, above all, a source of pleasure. Like erotic novels, which are textually visual, erotic comics provide a fantasy space referent to but secluded from potentially harmful power dynamics.

 

(BLANK) However, it wasn’t just printed material that leather communities produced. The events of the Mark IV slave auction and raid were re-performed numerous times and in a variety of settings. Less than two weeks after the Mark IV raid, a second slave auction was held to raise money to pay for the legal fees accrued as a result of the Mark IV raid. (Photo of Pat) Pat Rocco, a film director and photographer as well as a community organizer, emceed the event, along with (Photo of Sharon) Sharon Cornelison, president of the Chirstopher Street West parade. Trouper’s Hall, a small venue used for community musicals and revues, hosted the event, which included an opening dance number entitled “Free the Slaves” (Photos of the Slaves Dance) and a skit “Crazy Ed Goes to the Baths” (featuring “forty two faggots and a drag queen”) (Photos of Skit), of course referring to the homophobic and short-tempered police chief. The main event, of course, was the Slave Auction. Many of those involved in the Mark IV raids agreed to be auctioned off. (Photo) Al Gordon, chief legal counsel, was auctioned off with a large “Slave” sign placed around his neck. Gordon, identified with the community only insomuch as he provided legal counsel, puts himself in the position of those who were recently arrested. (Photos) Michael Kearns, columnist for NewsWest and the Advocate, Terry “Spider” Luton, board member of CSW,  Jeanne Barney, editor of Drummer, Val Martin, pornographic film star, and members of the audience chose to be auctioned off as well. (VAL PHOTO) Those whose chose to be auctioned off, arrived on stage through a set of prison bars, manned by a leather woman in police uniform, making reference to the incarceration of those arrested at the Mark IV. Although many of these people do not “look” like leather community members, and perhaps were not directly involved in the leather scene, they play a vital role in formulating the leather community’s response to the Mark IV raid. The second slave auction, then, proved a visible sign of solidarity, and could be seen as an affirmation of leather practices from broader communities. The L.A.P.D. did not raid this slave auction, partly because in the larger press, the L.A.P.D. had already become a source of outrage and ridicule. Letters sent to the editor of the Los Angeles Times by Los Angelinos expressed contempt for the raid and held Davis accountable for the gross waste of time, energy and money (estimated at $150,000). Some who complained, pointed to the fact that, separate from the night’s events, an older senior woman was raped and murdered in her own home blocks away from the Mark IV – it was one of several grisly serial murders. Ed Davis defended his actions until the end of his long tenure as police chief. (Button) Seen in this context the L.A.P.D. Freed the Slaves button, and the more succinct Free the Slaves button overtly attacks the policies and procedures of Ed Davis and the L.A.P.D. In a department well known for its human rights abuses (choke hold was officially endorsed, blacks and gays were consistently the primary targets of police brutality and violence), a button reading the L.A.P.D. Freed the Slaves provides a falsely jubilant message, and one that ultimately indicts the raiders, rather than promote the raid. The message to Free the Slaves works in a similar way, imploring the L.A.P.D. to free those they arrested. Within the contexts of leather communities at this historical moment, Free the Slaves questions the actions of Ed Davis’ department by using their own directives, which we will discuss later, against them. ((BUTTONS ON Jeanne Barney) Produced specifically for the Trouper’s Hall slave auction, the buttons were consistently worn by those present at the Mark IV arraignments and trials. ((Buttons in Gallery) In a situation where members of the gallery were prevented from talking, the buttons showed visible support for the release of the four persons ultimately tried, thereby structuring a community around the first Mark IV and Trouper’s Hall slave auction.

      

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Until now I have avoided the use of the term emancipate/emancipation, mostly because the term doesn’t really surface in the myriad responses to the Mark IV raid. Emancipate, from the Latin Emancipare means “to declare (someone) free, give up one’s authority over”. The term emancipation has had many modern incarnations and usages: It refers to the discussion of religious tolerance in the 17^th c., and becomes identified with the abolition of slavery and the suffragette movement in the 19^th century. In an American context, emancipate, and the noun iteration, emancipation, is a powerful word – young school children are taught the meaning of emancipation when they learn about the Emancipation Proclamation. So why bring this powerful word into play here? “Operation Emancipation” was the code name the L.A.P.D. gave the Mark IV raid. Vice officers at the scene would identify each other through the code-phrase, “Emancipate me.” In other words, the specific language of emancipation doesn’t originate from the leather community’s, or the general populace’s, responses to the raid. Emancipate, and all the history the word engenders, enters discursively via the L.A.P.D, and essentially recasts their tactics of targeting and attacking gay, lesbian and leather communities as a benevolent act. Following this line of thought, they are saving leather men and women from themselves. It is salvation. It wasn’t until 1978, almost two years after the Mark IV raid, the four persons arrested and tried were let go by an appellate judge.

 

There may have been two emancipations here: the first being the emancipation of gay slaves by the L.A.P.D. The second emancipation occurred, in the minds of the leather community, with the release of the Mark four. But perhaps, no one was ultimately emancipated. Imbalanced power relationships were sustained between gay, lesbian, and leather publics and the L.A.P.D. – bar raids, busts, and arrests for lewd conduct continued years after the Mark IV raid. Contrary to what the term, emancipate, suggests, no one gave up their authority. For those attending the Mark IV slave auction, there was no authority to give up! Equally, the L.A.P.D. did not relinquish their authority to arrest and try leatherfolk on vice laws. If anything, the opposite was true; Police Chief Davis became Senator Davis. In Los Angeles, at least, change was slow and painful.