Gay motorcycle gang
According to journalist Liz Highleyman (“Past Out”), gay “motorcycle clubs, a mainstay of gay culture since the 1950s, ushered in a modern brand of gender non-conforming masculinity and gave rise to today’s leather/SM community.” The first gay motorcycle club, the Los Angeles Satyrs, began in 1954 and is still in existence.
In South Florida, the Thebans Motorcycle Club, Inc. of Miami began its history as a domestic, ngo corporation on Aug. 6, 1975. By 1976 the Thebans were important enough to be one of the cofounders of the Dade County Coalition for Human Rights. Theban Marty Rubin, “the Old Bike Daddy,” was active in the DCCHR and went on to chair Pride South Florida and document a popular column for twn (The Weekly News) and David.
By the 1990s, gay bike and leather clubs fond of the South Florida Eagles, Sunrays MC, the Brotherhood of Man MC, Stingrays, Saber MC, Key West Wreckers, and the South Florida chapter of Trident International were a major part of the local lgbtq+ leather scene. These “patch” clubs, named after the patch or colors that members wore on their leather vests, were patterned after “outlaw” motorcycle clubs like the Hell’s Angels. They incorporated most of the exclusive
Empire City Motorcycle Club:
60 Years of Riding & Brotherhood!
Empire City Motorcycle Club, Inc. of New York City, was founded by a group of twelve motorcycle riders in October, 1964 as a motorcycle owner/rider club. We are the oldest ongoing gay all riding organisation in the land and a vital part of the gay community in Fresh York metropolitan area.
We are exclusively a gay men's motorcycle club - owning and riding a motorcycle are requirements for membership.
Empire City MChas two regular monthly meetings, our "Open General Meeting" (business meeting) is held 8pm-9pm the first Wednesday of each month and our less-formal "social" hour is held from 8pm-9pm on the third Wednesday. You may attend with Zoom teleconference at https://bit.ly/ECMC-MEET(this link works for both meetings!)
There are so many exciting rides coming up, we can't feature them all here... so look below at our Rides & Events Calendar and see if you can come along! From our annual Emilio Carranza Memorial travel (a tribute to 'Mexico's Amelia Earhart' in the New Jersey Pine Barrens), visiting two queer campgrounds: Circle J.J. and Hillside, Riding the Back of the Dragon in Virginia with the men
Rare Photos of a 1960’s Gay Motorcycle Club
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The summer of 1967 was, famously, “The Summer of Love,” during which over 100,000 of flower-bedecked and sexually liberated youth descended on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district to catch a Janis Joplin show—or, as Joan Didion reported, turn their toddles “on,” to LSD. Though California was the hippie movement’s epicenter, counter-cultural waves of sexual permissiveness and civil rights activism were washing through most of the country’s urban areas, and even a few of its idylls. That year, 1967, urban photographer Sylvan Rand got a ride from Fresh York City to rural New Jersey on the help of a motorcycle, where he spent a weekend documenting a rare community: a gay motorcycle club. Unlike the Hell’s Angels, who rode as a full-time gang, this crew of men led quiet, perhaps sequestered lives during the week, becoming a group of leather-clad, amorous guys only in the privacy of farmland hundreds of miles from the cities in which they worked. The fishing equipment, as it were, remained unused.
Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club (gbmcc)
Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club "gbmcc" began in 1977 as a club for gay men and women bikers in the UK. With a current membership approaching 500, we are the largest gay biking club in Europe. Our members come from all over the UK and there are an increasing number from Europe and Overseas.
Our members are of all ages and backgrounds. We naturally have varied biking interests, but we are primarily a road-riding club. Riding experience ranges from novice through to advanced riders and club racers. It is our interest in motorcycles and motorcycling, which brings us together.
The club offers its members a lively programme of events as successfully as support and friendship. Membership of gbmcc is open to all, provided that you own and ride a motorcycle and are comfortable in the company of other LGBT+ members