User:Taraindiana/Lenny Waller

Lenny Waller (May 12, 1950 – March 26, 2011) was a prominent member of New York City's leather BDSM community, as a founder of the Hellfire Club and an activist for gay rights.

Waller began working in the city's S/M clubs in 1968 and was perhaps best known for his founding Hellfire Club in the Triangle Building, in the old Meatpacking District. The Hellfire Club officially opened by that name in 1978 and was closed in 1985 during the first Aids health crisis. Before it was Hell Fire it was the Catacombs. Before that it was the Sewer. Said Lenny, "The basement of 28 9th Avenue had a dirt floor... We put milk boxes on the floor around the bar so you wouldn't have to stand and drink in the mud.”

Waller worked closely with city officials to change the law, so that his and other Clubs could re-open legally, but be legislated to practice safe sex. Most notably to exempt anal penetration with a dildo or penetration by hands vaginally or anally from their laws because, aesthetic objections aside and condoms in use, the acts do not transmit HIV.The law was amended to include these activities. In 1993, The Hellfire Club re-opened under the new laws (no sex).

In addition, he also operated The Vault, The Manhole, Cell Block 28, The Fetish Warehouse, Kings Pleasure, and others. He gave a tour of Cell Block 28 to New York magazine in 1990. He was also was the former Chapter Liaison for NLA Metro NY, founder of Bears International, member of TES, GMSMA, Hot Ash, and Jovian Gentlemen. In addition, he was the Outreach Coordinator for "The Mothers March Against AIDS" and Advisory Board Member of "Positive Health Project."

An advocate for the LGBT and HIV communities for 25 years, he founded pet project was the AIDS Candlelight Vigil in Greenwich Village which he organized and ran every year during Gay Pride weekend.

A frequent commenter on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York having been interviewed there twice, he was also a contributor to the Huffington Post, and on many other blogs. During his interview with Jeremiah Moss, Waller then ran down an exhaustive list of places he run or been involved in from his memory: “The Mine Shaft, The Ram Rod, The Eagle, The Spike, The Anvil, The Tool Box, The Strap, Glory Hole, Kellers, The Ramp, Boots & Saddles, Cell Block, Cell Block 28, Hellfire, Chateau 19, GG Barnum, The Grape Vine, The Gilded Grape, The 82 Club, Sally's Hide Away.” To which he added, “God, I'm old.”

"Back in the day, you had to "earn your leathers" as a rite of passage. Waller explained, "Usually the novice received brown leather. He would get his boots, vest, chaps, each garment a reward of accomplishment. You knew what it was to be tied, how to be a slave, what it meant to be a Daddy's boy. You were proud to be out on Christopher Street on a Saturday or Sunday with your Daddy. Today, people go out, buy their leathers, and zap: Instant Master or Mistress." Waller continued in his interview with Jeremiah.

He regularly spoke out against the Bloomberg administration and its role in hyper-gentrification, as well as against the city's crackdown on public smoking and the installation of bike lanes.

He loved cigars and also collected teddy bears. Whenever anyone in the media or community had a question about New York's leather history, Waller was the go to person. He said in an article on his own Hellfire Club Blog, "It is my belief that to understand the present, we have to study the past." An oral historian on fetishism, he was a font of knowledge about BDSM in New York City. In an e-mail to Jeremiah Moss, he said he was at work on a book, tentatively titled "Hellfire: The Club, The Culture, The People, and The Time", shortly before his death.

He had served on the board of TES. He was a big supporter of Leather Pride Night, made donations and always attending and buying at the auction.

An Freedom Fighter and Civil Libertarian, during the 1985 anti-sex club crackdown in the midst of the AIDS crisis, Waller fought to keep places like the St. Marks Baths open. Wrote Jay Blotcher in the book "Policing Public Sex", Waller fought the sex club laws and was victorious when he convinced the city "to exempt anal penetration with a dildo from their laws because, aesthetic objections aside, the act does not transmit HIV." When the Meatpacking district became hyper-gentrified, and landlords tried to drive the Hellfire Club out of 28 9th Avenue to make way for an upscale restaurant- Waller didn't go easily. They would padlock him. He would clip the locks and re-open. The lanlord would board up His club. Waller would tear down the boards and re-open. And so it went - He fought till the end –just as he lived.

He passed away on March 26, 2011 from complications of a heart condition. The next day, his love and partner Gail Lombardo Caminiti passed away - also from a heart attack. He leaves behind his daughter and a leather family that can't be counted. Lenny Waller was 60 years old.