Volunteer Job Description: Tour Researcher / Writer

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District is seeking volunteers to research specific aspects of SOMA / Leather / LGBTQ history, community, and culture, and to prepare extremely short writeups for our planned “Leathertown Walking Tour” .

These topics need to be written up by individuals who appreciate the specific cultural issues involved; the tour content must be by and from our communities, not just about them. Topics of special priority interest include:

        • BIPOC in Leather and in SOMA History
        • Women in SOMA (including Lesbian Bars in SOMA, and elsewhere in SF)
        • Philipino, Asian, and Pacific Islander Gays in SOMA
        • Sex Work and SOMA
        • Drag (and its relationship to Leather and Queer Culture) in SOMA
        • Trans Folks in SOMA
        • Straight Kink (heterosexual BDSM) in SOMA

We also would welcome articles on other aspects of Leather and SOMA history, especially by folks “who were there” in the early days of the Miracle Mile.   

You are also welcome to contribute your own essays on topics of personal interest, provided that they relate, somehow, to the South of Market area of San Francisco, and/or queer and kinky history, values, and culture.

All contributions should be well-researched, and authenticated as appropriate.  That is, we want direct quotes from individuals, references to publications, and personal knowledge, rather than just “stuff you read on the Internet somewhere”.

Our target audience will include visitors to San Francisco as well as locals, so please avoid assuming a lot of prior knowledge (e.g. slang, acronyms, etc.)  You may assume your reader is over 18. 

Your volunteer work may require several hours of online and in-person (when possible) research, as well as time spent writing and editing your submission.

Because these writeups are intended to be read or listened to while walking from place to place in SOMA, brevity is critical.  Each essay should be no more than 2 minutes (500 words), and shorter is even better.  Consider breaking down larger topics into multiple smaller topics or sub-topics. If you wish to write a longer version as well, we would be happy to receive it, and may post it on the Cultural District Web site, or include it in later, more focused Walking Tours.

All submissions become the Intellectual Property of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, and may be edited for length or other reasons.  All contributors will be acknowledged in the “credits” section of the Tour.    

Authors may, in some cases, be invited to prepare audio recordings of their writeups for the tour.  These will be negotiated separately, and compensation may be available.  

You can begin at any time, and submit your contributions here.  Or contact David Hyman for more information or to discuss.

Thanks very much!