Since there is little record of any conversations of Etienne reflecting on his racial identity, I have been looking at the stories of other Men in color in Leather. Some of the articles and books I have read describe being a man of color in Leather as the equivalent of being a minority with a minority. Or as I have framed it being “inside the closet’s closet.”
The term “in the closet”has had a few different meanings over the years. When I think of the term, I think about celebrities, some of my friends talking to their parents and loved ones, and the question “Did you come out of the closet?” An article on theweek.com explains one of the most common understandings of the coming out process:
“Coming out,” however, has long been used in the gay community, but it first meant something different than it does now. “A gay man’s coming out originally referred to his being formally presented to the largest collective manifestation of prewar gay society, the enormous drag balls that were patterned on the debutante and masquerade balls of the dominant culture and were regularly held in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other cities.” The phrase “coming out” did not refer to coming out of hiding, but to joining into a society of peers. The phrase was borrowed from the world of debutante balls, where young women “came out” in being officially introduced to society.”
There was one question that permeated almost every discussion I have had about Queer and LGBTQ identity: Does an individual have to “come out of the closet” and talk about their Gay identity openly. Straight identified people are not expected to reveal their sexuality in the same way LGBTQ identified people are expected to reveal their sexual orientation. The same article also talks about the idea that I bring up with the idea of coming of a layer of “closets”:
“The gay debutante balls were a matter of public record and often covered in the newspaper, so “coming out” within gay society often meant revealing your sexual orientation in the wider society as well, but the phrase didn’t necessarily carry the implication that if you hadn’t yet come out, you were keeping it a secret. There were other metaphors for the act of hiding or revealing homosexuality. Gay people could “wear a mask” or “take off the mask.” A man could “wear his hair up” or “let his hair down,” or “drop hairpins” that would only be recognized by other gay men.”
Views of homosexuality, sexual identity, and being out changed drastically through the course of Etienne’s life and will have likely to have had an impact on what Etienne shared through his work. Much of Gay male and Leather culture that we know of now was formed after World War II. Men in the military could bond and be with other men without fear of being “outed”. Military uniforms are the model and inspiration for outfit uniformity found in Leather groups. Since Etienne was born in 1933, he lived through some of the most important times in Queer history: Stonewall, AIDS and HIV, decades long discrimination against Queer individuals, and homosexuality being classified as a mental illness.
Find a longer timeline here .