Coming to Power, The Second Coming, are you coming?
Join the Exiles on Sunday morning over coffee and leather readings with Gayle Rubin! The structure of this program is an informal reading group.
Prior to the event, you will have access to read the two chapters so that we can jump into discussion!
We will read one chapter from each book by THE Gayle Rubin herself. These two books are historical pieces to the lineage of Exiles history starting in the late 1970s with Samois.
Reserve your tickets today and receive a free PDF copy of The Outcasts: A Social History, Coming To Power and The Leather Menace, The Second Coming through Eventbrite!
A Bit Of History:
Gayle was a founding member of Samois in 1978, the Outcasts in 1984, and the Exiles in 1997.
Samois was the first known lesbian SM group in the country and the publisher of “Coming to Power.” Samois defined itself as a lesbian feminist S/M organization focusing on political activism, challenging limiting ideas about lesbian sexuality and misinformation about BDSM. In 1981, Samois published the book Coming to Power, a groundbreaking collection of stories of BDSM dykes. It was a huge success, but it was a strain on the club, causing a lot of tension and conflict, and by 1983 the group disbanded.
Soon a group of women came together to discuss having a new group. Amid a discussion of how to define those who would qualify for membership, Gayle stood up and invited all the “faggot-identified dykes, bisexuals, transsexuals, and other weirdos and perverts who wanted a more inclusively defined organization to gather together.” This group became The Outcasts. They identified themselves as part of the lunatic fringe, which is how the Outcasts (and later Exiles) newsletter got its name.
The Exiles can trace how our business meetings are run, the name of our newsletter, the fact that we do orientations, and even where we meet to these roots.
The Exiles is an inclusive and sex positive space for all people who are women, intersex, nonbinary, genderqueer, gender variant, or gender-nonconforming. People who are men are asked not to attend.
This is a virtual event. Please click the link below to register the event.
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About Our Presenters:
Gayle Rubin is a widely published and noted scholar of gender and sexuality studies, and of leather history and social life. She has been deeply involved in the preservation of LGBTQ and Leather archives and artifacts. She was a founding member of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society, and was involved in the early establishment of the Leather Archives & Museum, on whose Board she currently serves. She is also on the Board of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District in San Francisco. Rubin was one of the founders of Samois, the first lesbian SM organization, in 1978, and helped found the Outcasts in 1984. She has been a member of the Exiles since it was formed, and was honored with an Exiles patch in 2017. She is a lifetime member of the Society of Janus.