During the first half of the 1990s silence came over Amsterdam’s leatherscene, not very surprising after the blow Aids had dealt to the community. In those first years, the leatherscene still lay under fire due to its free sexual moral. The losses caused by Aids even led to a decrease in leather sales and to discussions about safe sex at RoB.

Second owner of the brand, Martijn Bakker, tells about these times in 25+, 25 jaar HIV en Aids in de Nederlandse homoscene¹:
“At the beginning of the 1990s so many people died. At a certain moment, everybody was only busy with himself- and with those close to him. This led to the emergence of a generation gap. We saw it in the shops with the sales of Muir Caps. Sales were virtually non-existent between 1985 and 1990. Now there is a new generation which takes on everything again and fills the void after its own vision. We’re continuing as if nothing is the matter, as if nothing ever happened.”

In 1992 the RoB shop issued a brochure called ‘Safe sex for leathermen’. The sale of Crisco (unsafe for condom use) was abanoned for a short period of time and the discussion arose about what to do with bareback porn. Furthermore, when Mr. Bakker bought the business, he donated a large amount of money to Fight4Life, an organization which lobbied for HIV-medicin and supported HIV-patients.
The issue of safe sex was also taken on by Wim Bos, who opened Mister B. in 1994, by actively promoting safe sex through the sales and handing out of condoms and the placement of warning stickers on bareback porn videos.
Yet, Amsterdam’s leatherscene partied on,e.g. at the Factory and SandMan parties, and Henri ten Have gave a new incentive to the MSA motorclub by winning the annual International Mister Leather contest in Chicago in 1993. The club celebrated its 25th anniversary with a great party at Hotel Arena, drawing thousands of leathermen to Amsterdam. The European Conferederation of Motorcycle Clubs held its meeting there and the first editions of Mr Leather Europe and Mr Drummer Europe saw the light.
Apart from the aforementioned Mister B leather and rubber store, Richard Bolk started his business Cuts & Curls in 1994, at the time well-known for its block cuts. That same year Paul Wierks renamed his Eagle bar Dirty Dicks and started a new Eagle bar next door. Other new venues in the leather city were Black Body rubber and leather shop (1995) and the Black Tulip hotel (1997). Together with the already existing leather and leather-friendly businesses they contributed to the very first Amsterdam Leather Pride in 1996. The event was modelled after the MSA’s anniversary weekend and organized by RoB. From 1997 onwards the event was organized by Leather Pride Nederland B.V. a cooperation between RoB, Mister B and Black Body.

The second half of the 1990s was marked by the completion of the emancipation of the leatherman who was now allowed to show himself publicly. For example, local channel AT5 reported more than once on the Mr Leather elections.
The elections were organized after the American standard in which the titleholder wasn’t just required to have a handsome, but rather a smart personality and had to be a good ambassador for the Dutch leather community. Traditionally, most candidates were scouted and asked to take part, which might explain why many winners are just a name on paper and nobody knows where they are nowadays.

Opposite to the success of the Mr Leather elections and the Leather Pride events stood a changing community. The world wide web made leathermen less dependent on bars and parties to meet fellow leather souls and Amsterdam saw a rise in new fetish styles. The Web Bar saw gay skinhead meetings and leather prides now had to cater for army and rubber too. Towards the end of the decade, the community saw a rise in interest in bears and hairy men and sportswear.
The fight for the emancipation of the homosexual man as a masculine man moved to the fight for a better acceptance of sadomasochism. Following the Spanner Case in the UK, a Spanner Group was founded in The Netherlands. The group is a cooperation between several organizations and clubs involved in S&M. Especially the European Court for Human Rights’ decision in 1997, stating that any European government has the right to see sadomasochism as a criminal act and to consider its S&M acts as violence, caused a stir. Among others, Jacques Happe, an active member of the Amsterdam leather community at the time, contributed to the defence of the rights of homosexual sadomasochists. In February 1997 a conference on the subject matter was held at the COC in the presence of the Public Ministry which confirmed  that there would be no extra legal protection for sadomasochists, but also stated that the PM doesn’t see S&M as a direct cause for legal prosecution.

Another ongoing battle was the fight against the Aids-virus and the bad image of Amsterdam’s leatherscene due to its liberal sexual character. Yke Algra landed in a storm of criticism when he raised the idea to hold Jack Off parties in accordance with the US examples in which masturbation was taken as a safe alternative for anal sex. Luckily enough, the idea was taken on and carried out successfully.
The 1990s ended with the death of a special medium for leathermen: the pornographic  magazine Drummer. This American magazine landed on the gay market at the start of the 1970s and offered leathermen worldwide not only inspiring images and stories, but it also contained a contact section and opinionating articles on gay emancipation and, later on, Aids. Through the years, the magazine was published by several different publishers under pressure of the American censor. Eventually, due to American censorship, the magazine landed into the hands of Martijn Bakker who decided to give Drummer a more international character – a decision not appreciated by all readers. When the magazine lost the competition with the worldwide web and died in 1999, criticism from the US was unusually harsh.

At the end of the decade, gay emancipation seemed fullfilled with gay marriage in sight and cheaper and better medicine available for HIV-patients. The community spirit ,which was so present in the Amsterdam leatherscene during 1970s, had been lost though and was replaced by an elaborate network of men into kinky sex and a wide spectrum of fetish styles. Leather is still about masculinity and sex, but it is clear that the term refers to a diverse fetish scene rather than a homogenuous community.

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