By 1993, Toner would be dead from AIDS, and the precursor organization SMMILE (South of Market Merchants and Individuals Lifestyle Events) was now in charge of both events.ĭr. Gayle Rubin has done history lectures about the fairs over the years for the LGBT Center and other organizations, and as she explained to SFist in 2015, even though these fairs were not necessarily the money-makers they are now, the leather community continued to fund and support them as a means of keeping the culture alive. 'On those days, the streets of South of Market belong to the leather folk.' Photo from Up Your Alley 2017 by Dragomedia 'The leather communities needed these fairs so much so that they kept them going and continually revitalized them, and kept them their own in ways the founders would have understood even if they never would have anticipated,” Dr. Rubin is referring to the often declared death of the leather community, which has managed to endure as a gay subculture despite the fact that many of its early proponents are gone. The internet has in many ways helped the community grow and survive, bringing enthusiasts from parts of the country with no leather bars to big annual events like Folsom and the International Mr.
