There was a difference decades ago: heteronormatives and everyone else.

These communities
met, mingled, and fed off one another. Sex workers, drag queens, and leather doms all existed
in the same universe. As a result, the kink culture is intrinsically related to the kink community.
Non-monogamy/polyamory as notions arose directly from queer culture and the surroundings
that formed it, and the kink community was the physical place in which the LGBT community
existed.

The polyamory and kink movement occurred primarily between the 1960s and 2003. In the
1960s, it was illegal for homosexual individuals to sell alcohol, and until 2003, you could be
arrested for having or planning gay intercourse due. As a result, several mobs opened
speakeasys where a gay person could serve alcohol and LGBT people could meet in a safe
environment. Mobs and cops have a long history of being buddies (because of the money
involved), and mobs would bribe cops to not raid their bars, find out about impending raids, and
receive a pass from arrest for criminal acts. They had to strike a delicate balance between
patrons and cops, so they'd let cops raid their bars at times and inform patrons of anticipated
raids at other times. Cops could also conduct sting operations to arrest queer people by
pretending to be gay.

Since most queer locations were frequently ruled by mobs, meeting someone in a homosexual
bar could be perilous. Kink and polyamorous venues, on the other hand, were often dominated
by a large number of queer people and were not run by mobs, making them much safer places
to meet other queer people. You didn't have to be polyamorous or partake in kinks to be a part
of the community. They were also quite close-knit, and you could only attend if you knew
someone who had invited you. They wouldn't talk about it, and meet-ups were kept under wraps
because all it took was one wrong person hearing about it or being welcomed in to get everyone
arrested.

Kink communities were frequently made up of people who had undergone sexual trauma, and
most LGBT people have encountered some type of sexual trauma at some point in their lives,
with kink being one of the ways many people cope, whether it's being able to be and feel in
control, alternative acts to avoid triggering traumatic memories, or simply needing a space
where consent was highly valued and respected.

The leather community is a major subject of this discussion, although few people are familiar
with its past. It arose mostly from motorcycle communities, many of whom were also ex-military
and affected by legislation discriminating against homosexual men in the military. There was a
desire to rebel against it, as well as fight the stigma that gay men were effeminate.

In 1970, one year after the Stonewall riots, Brenda Howard (bisexual and kinkster) organised
the first pride. While the first authentic pride was not a riot, it is fundamentally a protest and a
fight against oppression as a result of the summer preceding it.
Pride is a threat to cishet normativity because it celebrates being queer, unusual, and different
while rejecting a cishet culture that only harms queer people. Leathermen and large burly dykes
with pasties have traditionally been proud of their heritage. It's why rainbows and sparkles have
appeared. Pride is a flashy and provocative demonstration of embracing and deconstructing
sexuality.