F.I.S.T.

F.I.S.T. (Females Investigating Sexual Terrain) is a leather/BDSM, service, educational, and social organization centered on women, based in Baltimore with members nationwide. F.I.S.T. is open for membership to people who feel a connection to and a desire to participate in the women’s leather community. This includes: women (transgender and cisgender), intersex persons, transgender persons, genderqueer persons, gender non-conforming persons, genderfluid persons, agender persons, and non-binary persons who feel they have a place in the women's BDSM community. Our Associate memberships are not gender limited. We have memberships available for all genders.

Our language and understandings continue to evolve. We seek to create a leather club that is radically welcoming while simultaneously holding space for our history. To that end, we will be continually working to use more inclusive language. But as our goal is to center women while being inclusive of others who identify with women’s community, all mentions of “women” in F.I.S.T. materials and communications should be interpreted inclusively to apply equally to include all identities described above.

The panel carries F.I.S.T.s original backpatch with the Baltimore/Washington DC location indicator. F.I.S.T. was started in 1993 as a direct result of the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights in 1993 where a small group of leatherwomen decided there was a need for a women's leather/BDSM educational and social backpatch group in the area. That need still exists.