Origins When the NLA was formed, prosecutions against
sadomasochistic media and even individuals who practiced it consensually and in private, such as in the 1990 UK
Operation Spanner case, had increased. Organisations such as the National Leather Association were a response to this environment, and the NLA played a leading role in raising funds for the Spanner defendants. Competing in the 1986
International Mr. Leather (IML) contest inspired Steve Maidhof to organize a conference for members of the growing SM, leather, and fetish community. Unlike IML, this conference would focus on education and political activism. To host this conference, named Living in Leather, Maidhof recruited several friends and leading members of
Seattle's leather community including: Cookie Andrews-Hunt, Wayne Gloege, Billy Jefferson, Jan Lyon, George Nelson, and Vik Stump. Together, they formed the National Leather Association (NLA), which officially incorporated in the summer of 1986. In October, they hosted the first Living in Leather (LIL) conference in Seattle. It was a rousing success that inspired SM/leather activism around the country. LIL became an annual event and sparked the formation of NLA chapters in
Vancouver and
Portland. While publicly described as a gay/lesbian organization, a growing number of heterosexuals attended LIL conferences and joined the NLA, which became a
pansexual organization. From its origins, the NLA was a meeting place for a diverse array of people exploring the boundaries of their sexuality. At the request of members living outside the United States, the organization changed its name to "National Leather Association - International" in 1991.
Later events The NLA helped organize the leather conference that preceded the
1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Along with the creation of the NLA itself, that conference sparked the infamous Dallas Conference, which met in February 1988 to discuss creating a national SM/leather/fetish organization. Best remembered for vitriolic arguments that exposed divisions in the community between men and women, the East Coast and West Coast, old clubs and new, and those not affiliated with any club, the conference created a new organization named Safe Sane Consensual Adults (SSCA). Burdened by the political infighting of Dallas, the SSCA failed to gain support and merged with the NLA, the only functioning, national
BDSM organization. The first co-chairs of NLA after the merger were Jim Richards and Judy Tallwing McCarthy. Over the past 26 years, roughly three dozen NLA chapters formed, though only about a dozen of these are currently active. International Deaf Leather ended in 2021. The merger with the SSCA sparked a tremendous increase in the NLA's membership, which by the end of 1991 had grown to 827 members scattered across 46 US states and parts of Canada. Chapters increased from three to 16 and new ones continued to form, giving the NLA a presence in practically every major U.S. city. At its peak, the NLA (later NLAI) had chapters in every major American city including New York, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles, as well as Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. The NLA aimed to bridge gaps of geography, experience, gender, and sexual orientation. As
Laura Antoniou recently noted: "It was NLA that dared to believe we could call ourselves a 'community,' 25 years ago. Today, we use the term as if we’ve always thought of all the myriad parts of our BDSM/kink/rubber/leather/fetish/whoozits groups as somehow connected. But it was NLA that gave us that truly radical notion--that the kinksters in Butte had something in common with the players in Raleigh, and with the clubs in New York City." Living in Leather thrived as an event, attracting more people each year as it moved from Seattle (LIL 1, 2, and 3) to Portland (LIL 4 and 5), and then Chicago (LIL 6 and 7). Attendance topped 700 and LIL became the premier event for SM education and organizing and attracted the community's best-known speakers and leaders. A particularly notable LIL event was held on October 11, 1991; at the opening ceremonies of that event, a Canadian version of the
leather pride flag was presented, which added to the original flag's design a row of red maple leaves running horizontally through the white stripe. In 1994 Living in Leather VIII received the Large Event of the Year award as part of the
Pantheon of Leather Awards. The NLA fought against censorship, raised awareness about domestic violence, supported SM/leather clubs and people harassed by the police, and raised funds for local and national political causes. Chuck Higgins led the NLA's best known initiative of these years: raising funds for the appeal of the
Operation Spanner defendants, 18 British men convicted and imprisoned for engaging in consensual SM activities. NLA members demonstrated outside the British consulate in Chicago and spearheaded American fundraising activities that raised more than $50,000 and paid more than half the
Operation Spanner defendants' legal expenses. Befitting the recent name change to NLA-International, the NLA began acting internationally.
Decline and revival In the late 1990s, the NLA's leaders increasingly struggled to redefine their organization to meet the changing needs of the SM/leather/fetish community. New organizations filled needs previously met by the NLA. The
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (which the NLA was one of the founding coalition partners of) helped members of sexual minorities with legal problems, while the Leather Leadership Conference provided a forum for political discussion and activism. Attendance at both LIL 14 (Fort Lauderdale, 1999) and LIL 15 (Seattle, 2000) proved disappointing, and the latter event left the NLA deeply in debt. Membership fell, and LIL 16 was canceled for lack of registration. Morale plummeted. A ballot initiative to dissolve the NLA failed, but solutions to the NLA's problems proved elusive. However, one notable relevant positive event occurred at this time, when on December 12, 2000, NLA Florida presented a suggested pledge of allegiance to the
leather pride flag at its holiday party in
Fort Lauderdale, which reads, “I pledge allegiance to the Leather Pride flag, and the union of Leather people for which it stands, with safety, sanity and consent for all.” Past recipients include, among others,
Laura Antoniou,
Gloria Brame,
Rachel Kramer Bussel,
Jack Fritscher,
Gayle Rubin, David Stein,
Cecilia Tan,
Tristan Taormino and
L M Somerton. ==Awards and recognition==