Keeping you abreast of breaking news at the Pride Parade:
This Sunday in a Wells Fargo bank parking lot near San Francisco's City Hall, August Knight will demonstrate for any adult who cares to stop by what it's like to be flogged -- and enjoy it.
An Oakland hairstylist by day and co-owner of a South of Market dungeon popular with the whip-cracking crowd by night, Knight, 46, is an ambassador of kink. She and about 70 other volunteers will staff Leather Alley, one of the fastest-growing niches at the annual San Francisco Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade and Celebration. . .
Born a decade ago just after the peak of the AIDS crisis, Leather Alley offers a vista into a subculture that largely stays out of plain view. Members of San Francisco's gay biker community were mourning the death of a generation; the dozen clubs they used to frequent had dwindled to three.
Thomas said many leathermen in their 50s at first couldn't figure out how they would reach 20-year-olds. But that changed as they realized their numbers were diminishing.
"People started to realize that if you're not out there, who is going to mentor this next generation?" he said. "We still have conversations today. 'How do we put our best foot forward?' 'Can we speak the language?' "
And there were worries about acceptance from "sweater gays," Johnson said, referring to the nonleather crowd. But the leather booth quickly became popular, doubling in size its second year. By 2001, it had grown enough to be granted the lot next to the bank.
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