American writer and activist Larry Townsend was BOTD in 1930. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, his childhood neighbours included showbiz stars Noël Coward, Irene Dunne and Laura Hope Crews. He joined the US Air Force, and was stationed in West Germany during the 1950s. Returning to Los Angeles in 1954, he studied at the University of California Los Angeles, exploring the underground gay and leather scene and having an affair with actor Montgomery Clift. In the early 1960s, he became involved in the burgeoning gay rights movement, joining the Homophile Effort for Legal Protection, where he met his life partner Fred Yerkes. He began chronicling his experiences in Los Angeles’ leather scene, working as a writer and photographer for the gay BDSM magazine Drummer. He wrote dozens of books, published by Drummer and underground gay printing presses, notably Run Little Leather Boy in 1970, and The Leatherman’s Handbook in 1972, widely considered to be the first guidebook to gay leather and BDSM culture. His writings were refreshingly frank about the details of BDSM sex, while emphasising the importance of mutual consent. He became more widely known for his Leather Notebook column, originally published in Drummer in 1980 and continuing in Honcho magazine until his death in 2008, aged 78. Hailed as the forefather of leather culture, he was posthumously inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame in 2016.