The Society of Janus – Iconic Organization
The Society of Janus, founded in San Francisco in August 1974 by Cynthia Slater and Larry Olsen, was the second BDSM education and support organization founded in the United States, bringing tops, bottoms, and negotiables of every orientation together to share information in an era when no such resource existed. Jack Fritscher profiled the group for Drummer in 1979 — writing under the pseudonym “Eric Van Meter” at his publisher’s insistence — in an article that also marked the first mainstream leather-press appearance of Pat (later Patrick) Califia and documented Janus’s fight for float privileges in the San Francisco Pride Parade. Fritscher later republished the piece with restored names and additional context in his book Profiles in Gay Courage, and returned to the subject in a 2020 interview with the Society’s own newsletter, Yellow.