Race Bannon [Edit]
Race Bannon has been a leather activist, educator, organizer, speaker, and writer since 1973.
Bannon founded the Daedalus Publishing Company in 1992 as the first publishing company dedicated to publishing non-fiction books about leather/SM/fetish sexuality.
In 1993 Bannon published Learning The Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun BDSM Lovemaking, the first basic instructional book on BDSM sexuality for men and women of all orientations. A revised 2.0 edition was published as a Kindle e-book in late 2011.
In 2011 Bannon gave the keynote speech, “The Ultimate Tradition”, at the Master/slave Conference (MsC).
He was the 2012 San Francisco Pride Parade Men’s Leather Marshal.
Bannon also befriended Guy Baldwin and helped him with information from kink-fluent professional mental-health providers. As the volume of information Baldwin asked for and received about this became more than he could handle, Bannon came forward to collate and computerize the information and assumed responsibility for the data. Bannon eventually published it online, greatly expanding Baldwin’s initial network of therapists to include other kink-friendly medical, dental, and legal professionals, giving birth to the vital international resource now known as the Kink-Aware Professionals List. Today the list is managed by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom as a free service to all.
He was also a leather/kink columnist for the San Francisco Bay Area Reporter for over seven years.
Bannon is a member of the Leather Hall of Fame‘s Board of Governors.
Notable Awards
- Southern California Master/slave title from South Plains Leatherfest, 1991 (with Mike Pierce)
- Southern California Regional Pantheon of Leather Community Service Award, 1991 and 1993.
- Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year Pantheon of Leather Community Service Award, The DSM Project (Race Bannon, Project Leader), 1995.
- National Leather Association International’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2006.
- Mister Marcus Hernandez Lifetime Achievement Award (Man) Pantheon of Leather Community Service Award, 2010.
- San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance Philip M. Turner Lifetime Achievement Award 2011.
- National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change 2013 Leather Leadership Award.
- San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance Co-Man of the Year 2014.
- “Key to Folsom Street Fair” from Folsom Street Events, 2015
- NorCal/Northwest Regional Pantheon of Leather Award, 2016.
- Southwest Leather Conference Leatherman’s Heart Award, 2016
- Inducted into the Society of Janus‘s Hall of Fame.