Welcome to my blog.  I am in St. Petersburg, Florida this weekend for the Tampa Leather Club’s Leather SIR/boy contest which will be taking place in a little over 2 hours. My Leather wolfdog, Spike, gave me the idea to start an interactive weblog. The reason that I decided to begin this new adventure is my personal feeling that there are so many out there who throw around the words “Old Guard” without any of them ever being IN that lifestyle, or from stories they have heard from others who weren’t there either.  There was NO Old Guard.

IT was leather. PERIOD.

The term emerged as that first wave of men were dying of AIDS VERY quickly. At First it was called the Saint Disease (taken from the mega disco in NYC) since everyone who got sick and died went there (including myself, though I remain HIV-). Then the name changed to Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID) and then to AIDS/HIV. This was the dividing line between what is now known as New Guard (or No Guard, from all I hear out there), and what was.

There seems to be miscommunication, misinformation and downright lies about what it was and wasn’t. Principles have been slanted to reflect personal points of view rather than the realities of what it was. As much as the families had different rules and protocols, there was much that we shared in common. The differences were not stark in comparison to today, where guys make up their own names and labels then claim it was Old Guard or similar to it.

I want this to be an interactive blog. I want it to be about your questions and comments — your ideas and your input.  I can only give you my insights and perceptions as to what I have seen and experienced AS a leather boy in NYC in the 70s and 80s. I don’t qualify myself as an expert: just as an observer who WAS there and lived it on a day-to-day basis. I want to add a ton of content, videos and comments, and share this as far as I can reach so that I can affect those coming into this, those who are curious about it and those who are already involved and wish to know more.