Draft:Race Bannon (BDSM educator)
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Race Bannon is an American writer, sex educator, and publisher known for his work in the BDSM and gay leather communities since 1973. He is described, along with psychotherapist Guy Baldwin, as a leading figure in a 1980s campaign to change how kink and BDSM were classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).[1] He founded Daedalus Publishing Company in 1992 and wrote Learning the Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun S/M Lovemaking (1993), an early mainstream instructional guide to BDSM practice.[2][3]
Race Bannon | |
|---|---|
| Occupations | Writer, sex educator, publisher, LGBTQ and kink-community activist |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Known for | Learning the Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun S/M Lovemaking; Daedalus Publishing Company; Kink Aware Professionals |
| Website | bannon |
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Last edited by Bearcat (talk | contribs) 15 days ago. (Update) |
Early life
Public, independently sourced material does not establish Bannon's date or place of birth, or details of his early life. He has said, on his own website, that he has been active in LGBT, leather/kink, polyamory, and HIV/STI-prevention communities since 1973.[3]
Career
Kink Aware Professionals
In 1982, Guy Baldwin created a referral list of clinicians and other professionals who were knowledgeable about, and not prejudiced against, kink and BDSM — the Kink Aware Professionals (KAP) list.[4] Bannon later took over day-to-day management of the list, digitized it, and expanded it to include medical, dental, and legal referrals; it has since been transferred to the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, which operates it today as the Kink and Poly Aware Professionals Directory.[5][3]
The DSM campaign
During the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Bannon and Baldwin are reported to have organized a grassroots coalition of psychotherapeutic professionals pressing for changes to how the DSM categorized BDSM and kink practices, sometimes referred to as "The DSM Project."[1] Bannon's own account describes the project as having contributed to a shift in how the psychotherapeutic profession approached kink.[3] Broader revisions distinguishing paraphilias from paraphilic disorders appeared in the DSM-5 in 2013; independent sourcing for Bannon's specific role in that later outcome is thin, and this connection should be treated as suggestive rather than established.
Daedalus Publishing and Learning the Ropes
In 1992, Bannon founded Daedalus Publishing Company, serving as its president and managing editor; the company describes itself as the first press dedicated to non-fiction books on leather, S/M, and fetish sexuality.[3] Daedalus published other leather-community authors as well, including Guy Baldwin's Ties That Bind (1993).[6] Bannon later sold the company.[3]
In 1993, Bannon wrote Learning the Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun S/M Lovemaking, published by Daedalus.[2] A revised edition was released as an e-book in 2011.[3]
Journalism, broadcasting, and public speaking
Bannon wrote a leather/kink column for the Bay Area Reporter for about seven years, ending in 2020.[7] He has appeared as a guest on podcasts and radio programs discussing kink and leather culture, including an Out in the Bay interview timed to the 2022 Folsom Street Fair.[7] He has also produced and hosted an internet talk show on nontraditional sexuality and relationships, and describes having given several hundred public talks on BDSM, sexual health, and non-monogamy, according to his own website.[3]
Leather community recognition
Bannon was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame in 2017 and, as of available sources, serves on its Board of Governors.[8] He received a Greater Palm Springs Pride Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021, described by that organization as recognizing his work "elevat[ing] awareness of the leather community's contributions toward LGBTQ liberation for nearly 50 years."[9] Other lifetime-achievement honors credited to him — including from the National Leather Association International (2006), the Pantheon of Leather (2010), and the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change conference (2013) — are documented on his own website; independent confirmation of these specific awards was not located.[3]
Other advocacy
Bannon has been described as involved in HIV/STI prevention advocacy, including public support for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and in organizing LGBTQ and leather-community events in San Francisco.[3] Independent reporting corroborates his general public profile as a leather-community activist and educator but does not itemize this specific advocacy work in detail.[7][9]
Personal life
Bannon lives in San Francisco. He has publicly described himself as a gay man living with HIV.[7]