LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District works to help residents, workers and visitors appreciate the history and importance of the Cultural District’s buildings and streets.

Leather Legacy Landmarks (aka the Leather History Cruise) is a project to install bronze plaques at key historic locations around SoMa, in cooperation with the SF Arts Commission, Public Works, and the SFMTA, with funding provided by local developers and the community.  You can read about it in a September 2020 Bay Area Reporter article, also available in a pdf version.

A Resolution authorizing the plaques was unanimously approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (as reported in a Bay Area Reporter article) and signed by the Mayor on April 16, 2021.

Additional design reviews and approvals are still required.  Your presence and comments (via Zoom, or by email in advance) will be much appreciated.  Please consider signing up for our SOMA Action Network so we can let you know when we need that help. 

The first plaques will be installed as part of the Department of Public Works’ upgrade to Folsom Street, now under way.

Meanwhile, we invite you to view this presentation about the plaque project.  

View Presentation (PDF file)

Thanks!

We are delighted to have completed the Cultural History, Housing, and Economic Sustainability Strategies (CHHESS) Report of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District.

The Report was presented at a Board of Supervisors Committee hearing  on June 13, 2024, and received a unanimous Committee endorsement.  It was then unanimously approved by the full Board of Supervisors.  The resolution adopting the CHHESS Report was signed by the Mayor on July 3, 2024.

At that Committee hearing, Bob Goldfarb, the Executive Director of the Cultural District, was presented with a Certificate of Honor by Supervisor Matt Dorsey, to recognize Bob’s “unwavering dedication and exceptional leadership” as a “steadfast champion for the city’s vibrant leather community”.

We invite you to read the report in full; however, the contents of the report were also presented at an open community forum on November 29, 2023.  You can view the presentation video, the presentation slideshow, or the presentation slideshow as a PDF.

The CHHESS Report is the result of years of research and community engagement, and the Board extends its thanks to everyone who took part in creating it, including the organizers and participants in the focus groups and surveys, the research and drafting of the Report’s recommendations, and the extensive work with City departments to make it a reality!

Friends of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, and all members of the kink community, are invited to march with the Leather Pride Contingent in the Pride Parade on Sunday, June 30, 2024.

The latest info we have is that the Leather Contingent will be right in the middle of the parade.  Marchers should arrive between 11 am and 12 noon, and should gather in area N2, on Main Street between Mission and Howard Streets.  

Sign up for the Leather Contingent

Parade Update as of 6/20/2024:

Parade Plans as of 6/17/2024

Be sure to get your pin when you arrive at the start of the parade.
It will let you skip the line when you go to Leather Alley

Be sure to greet our distinguished Leather Marshals:

Please contact robert@sfbunny.com with questions about the Leather Contingent.

See you at the parade!

San Francisco Pride and Folsom Street will join forces to present The Root of Pride, the Adults Only area for the 2024 Beacon of Love Celebration.

The San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance is back with Leather Alley — a walled off area within that adults-only section of Pride.

On Saturday, from about 1 to 5 pm, the space will be called “Leather Alley is Lit“ and it will feature erotic readings curated by LCD’s Erotic Storytelling Hour & Sumiko Saulson.

On Sunday June 30, 2024, from noon to 6 pm, Leather Alley will feature demos and performers, in a full range of kink and BDSM areas, on the Leather Alley Stage.  Also visit the booths presented by the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, the Exiles. the K-9 Unit, BOBA Munch, Plura, Wicked Grounds, the Yellow and Black Group, After Dark Events, PlayxLand, and the Society of Janus.

Come get information, pose for pictures, bottom for our House Tops, acquire your own rope harness, contribute to the piss pool, and much more.

Bootblacks will also be on duty both days, to keep your leathers shiny and soft.

Leather Alley is the Alliance’s biggest fundraiser, helping them to provide grants to help those in the leather community impacted by illness or injury, and to produce the Mr. and Mx. San Francisco Leather contests.  The Alley also helps educate and entertain a broader Pride audience.

Volunteers are still needed to work shifts on both Saturday and Sunday.  Please sign up on the Leather Alley Volunteer Signup Sheet, check out the Leather Alliance Facebook page or the Leather Alley page,  or contact Al or Rio.

NOTE:  
The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District
will have an information table
and a kinky photo booth inside Leather Alley!
We will need volunteers for that!
Sign up on the Cultural District’s Volunteer Signup Form,
or learn more on our Volunteer Page.