Your Voices

I want to update you on how I am doing and the status of the Foundation that Tom and I started together in 1984.

I am writing a book that chronicles my life with Tom and the many years after he left us, during which I devoted my full attention to keeping his cultural influence alive, especially within our own gay communities. As co-founder and President of the Foundation, I worked to establish Tom’s rightful place in contemporary art and his status as a Finnish artist in his homeland.

I came into our community’s culture in 1969 and immediately started attending gay liberation dances. I am still very close with a friend I met while working at Café Figueroa in Los Angeles in 1970. I was a busboy, and he was the dishwasher, Lloyd Clayton. He went on to become the executive director of the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum, dedicated to preserving and documenting Black American History and Culture. Neither of us had a university degree, but we had plenty of passion to make a difference. Let us be an example of the power that one artist, one devoted volunteer dedicated to their community’s culture, can achieve in one’s lifetime.

I first encountered Tom’s work in 1976 on an ad for a bike run at the Spike Bar in New York. It was the first time art had evoked such a strong emotional response in me, so I rolled up the poster and slipped it into the sleeve of my leather jacket. Even when Tom’s work was pirated and reproduced poorly, his message still came through to those of us then developing our understanding of ourselves.

The next day I had a photo shoot at Target Studios, part of the prizes I received for winning Mr. Eagle’s Nest. There I met another remarkable artist, Etienne, aka Dom Orejudos, who identified the artwork for me. He told me, “Why yes, this is Tom of Finland; he is very famous,” and then asked me if I wanted his address so I could write to him. I said, “Sure, why not!” From there, a correspondence began that turned into a deeply personal relationship and business partnership, which led to, among other things, Tom copywriting his work for the first time, the creation of the Tom of Finland Company, and, later, the Tom of Finland Foundation.

The greatest hurdle was always right in front of Tom and me: how society viewed our community, judged us, and dismissed our artwork. Tom and I challenged the notion that our art and culture should be demeaned because it was sexual in nature. It has been an upward climb to get society and our own community to raise their consciousness and see that it is a gift of freedom: our ability to treasure the beauty we were naturally given, the pleasure and integration of our being, and the keenness to appreciate and celebrate who we are through art that expresses our nature.

Throughout his life, Tom remained steadfast in his mission to raise the self-esteem of gays. I have never felt this mission was reserved for gay men solely but included all marginalized sexual communities. Our artist-in-residence program has demonstrated how Tom's message transcends all social, gender, and cultural boundaries, inspiring our diverse, global community. The visual expression of sexual liberation belongs to everybody.

It took the Foundation years of relentless prodding of academia for Tom’s influence on the gay liberation movement to be recognized, in the pride and self-esteem he instilled through his art. Tom of Finland inspired a generation of gay men who came of age with his work as a model of what their lives could be. Young graduate art students, such as Richard Hawkins, and their professors, such as Mike Kelly, included Tom in their presentations and liberated themselves through his freedom and refusal to back down or make his work more acceptable to the mainstream. This same generation of young people, those twenty-something radicals, became the gay liberation front. They rejected the guilt and shame of being what we are, as Mother Nature herself made us. Who would have thought that the force that came forth was built with our artists, our shamans, who removed the shame and guilt that society had used to suppress us for countless eras of time. It took a village, but Tom of Finland truly stands out as an undying force that stood for freedom of expression and being proud of being who one was: Gay, homosexual, queer, faggot, lesbian, dyke, take your pick. It was rarely easy, but I was fortunate to have created my profession. I doubt I could have achieved many of my accomplishments if my mission had been for my own success. Being the tool for this amazing artist has always been an honor. Tom gave us the gift of seeing ourselves as whole and complete, the freedom to be out and proud, and the choice of how we wanted to present ourselves. No matter how hard things got, I never gave up. I was steadfast in my determination, first for Tom and then for the array of amazing fellow artists who followed in his footsteps. We created annual art fairs; major exhibitions of Tom's work across Europe and North America; emerging artist contests; annual art and culture weekends in Los Angeles, New York, and in recent years in London and Berlin; an artist-in-residence program; and museum tours of the Tom House, educating the public on the backstories of hundreds of artists who are part of our community’s culture.

In 2025, I was asked to judge IML. I never accept invitations to serve as a judge for multiple reasons, as I believe we are all potential winners of our own design. I then reflected on my first IML in 1979, when one of the producers, Dom Orejudos, known as the artist Etienne, who was a good friend, asked me to enter. I got the American Uniform Association, of which I was a member, to sponsor me. The results were interesting. It was a tie for first place between David Gloss and me. The judges decided to determine the winner by having the tally master flip a coin. Well, the rest is history: I was the first runner-up. In hindsight, I think it was a bit lame that they could not come up with a more challenging manner to honor both of us in deciding who would carry forth the first year's title of being Mr. IML. Nonetheless, I thought it was time for me to give back by volunteering with IML. I was assigned a volunteer to make sure I submitted my statement, and the four photos were three in color and one black and white.

What followed was that this individual, in coordination with two others, decided to out me without confronting me first and posted the one photo with a swastika emblem on my leather cap and put these photos on social media. They were offended that, in the photo, I was wearing a leather cap with a swastika on its brim.

I stand by the public statements I made to Facebook at the time, namely that I do not tolerate antisemitism, racism, hatred, or discrimination of any kind. I understand political tides have shifted and our communities have become vigilant in rooting out those who are hostile to our safety and well-being. However, after a long period of reflection, I feel I owe it to myself and my community to offer my own perspective.

During the seventies and into the eighties, a vital part of gay culture in the men’s community was sexual exploration. Our culture was about exploring our sexual behaviors and continuing the practice of engaging in play. We took on roles in sex play using our imaginations, something we just never saw any sense in stopping, because it was so much fun. This enjoyment really had a positive impact on becoming a well-rounded individual. This was one of the biggest differences we did not share with the heteronormative society in which we lived. As an elder in the community, I have told many young people to try on many coats in life. The ones that fit you will become part of you; the others will just fall away without any effort. Thus, the motto is to explore, to have adventures, and discover what works for you. That was the case in sexual-exploration relationships and in communal living, which is how TOM House got started. Many of the artists of that era, including Tom, were creating scenarios of masters and slaves, cops and robbers, GIs and sadistic nazis. The great part of all of this is we never gave up playing around, especially within the confines of sex play.

The Director of IML could have made a phone call or sent an email, but being publicly thrown under the bus, with no opportunity to respond, was extremely hurtful. This was the organization where I was the first IML, if I had won a coin flip to break the tie. This was the same organization that the artist Etienne, who did his share of nazi drawings, created the contest alongside his partner Chuck Renslow. Their official statement was that they did not want any nazis to be associated with the IML. I am not a nazi, nor was Etienne. We were from a generation where they were a defeated enemy, and the adoption of their aesthetics into sexual fantasies was as commonplace as dressing up like a pup, a cop, a soldier, or a cowboy.

Any deep dive into my forty-plus years at the helm would clearly demonstrate my character’s worth. I have brought trans youth, kicked out and made homeless by their parents, into my home. I have championed artists from every religious and cultural background, every gender expression and sexuality for over forty years. I am the man who will defend your right to present yourself in any fashion you feel expresses you. My mother’s quote was, "You can judge someone by the proof being in their pudding”.

This letter would not be complete without my personal disappointment with my own leather community, with some publicly stating that they would no longer support the Foundation, and others distancing themselves from activities or fundraisers on our behalf, thereby preventing me from receiving a humanitarian award at a leather function. What was needed was for queer historians to point out how sex-nazis were woven into the fabric of leather culture. It was about appropriation for our own pleasures, rather than with any connection to hateful ideology. Come on, folks. There are real-life neo-Nazis out there. Do I fit the profile?

The Foundation’s board did not do better. I was given the choice to step down from the Presidency of the Board of Directors and my paid position at the Foundation, or be fired. I was once again thrown under the bus, this time by my own board. What I did know for sure was that I would do everything I could to mitigate the damage this uninformed population had caused to the Foundation that Tom and I had created and nurtured over the past 40-plus years.

I did not want to harm the child I had raised for the past 40 years, so I did what was being asked of me. Once I was off the board and no longer an employee, I was treated as an outsider and was very rarely included in or informed about decision-making.

Over the past 17 months, as a volunteer, I continued to do what came naturally: attend to the artist’s needs, act as a docent for tours, and work on background material for Tom's work and for hundreds of other artists. As this is my home, I have maintained Tom House and the property and have been heavily involved in producing every event here. As this is my child, I have done everything I can to help support it, even as my relationship to it changed dramatically. I somehow managed to hire my own assistant and stay on top of my bills, like the mortgage. I just put on a new roof, which I had to do; otherwise, my insurance company would have dropped me.

The current situation with the Foundation is sad and hurtful. After I expressed frustration and concern about how they treated me, they told me I had to communicate through attorneys.

What I can share is public knowledge. They laid everyone off almost everyone except the social media person, and now there is no staff at the Foundation. They eliminated the positions of archivist & registrar, artist coordinator, donor and membership coordinator, and multiple director positions. My fear is that, historically, we will lose the knowledge base.

Over 40 years of organizing exhibitions and programming, we have always been able to stay afloat. Now, over the past five years, the board has hired four executive directors; each was paid $100,000, and not one of their contracts was renewed. Frankly, they lacked the training to run a nonprofit gay cultural organization.  In the past 17 months, the board has spent our existing cash reserves, which is why they had to lay off staff. They also committed to funding an offsite storage unit, which did cost approximately $7000 to move and inventory Tom of Finland's original art, plus a monthly rental fee of $2700, with a ten-year lease and a one-year penalty if they decide to leave. Just think, that could have paid for our archivist to continue documenting and cataloging Tom's work, leading to the creation of a catalog Raisanen’.

The board is not being transparent with me or the public about their agenda for the Foundation. What was the real reason they moved Tom’s original art off-site to a private storage facility? They did not pay the July, August, or September rent for the TOM House and property, which would have been paid to me, as I am the landlord, and I depend on the rental income to pay for the mortgage, utilities, and maintenance on the property; since I was let go, I also depend on it to support myself. Word has spread that they are suspending all activity at TOM House. They canceled the monthly drawing classes, run by volunteers, and the artists who paid to attend covered the cost of live models and refreshments. They also canceled the TOM House tours, which volunteers led, and each guest paid $25. Even without the ability to make reservations, 7 guests showed up this past Saturday hoping for a tour, and we felt a responsibility to provide one. Some guests also purchased products in our gift store.

They also canceled the Artist in Residence program, allowing the last two artists currently in residence to complete their full term. Another artist scheduled for September contacted us and said they received a letter from the board stating their residency had been canceled without explanation. This artist, who is from the UK, was given only two 'weeks' notice, and they had taken three months off work to attend, rented out their flat, bought their plane tickets, and all they received was a letter of form.

The Artist in Residence program does involve more attention from whoever is operating the program. Nonetheless, it has been our most popular program, with over 30 artists attending. This past February, we fulfilled a long-overdue project by presenting an exhibition of all past artists-in-residence in cooperation with the City of West Hollywood. Richard Villani, our contract point person, needed to conduct intensive fundraising to cover all production costs. He is the only staff person who has successfully raised revenue for the Foundation; he was also laid off. The Foundation had committed to doing this project under a previous director, and we felt a real obligation to fulfill our commitment to all previous participating artists-in-residence. Artists from many international locations attended this hallmark exhibition. Two New York board members came to Los Angeles: Robert Knox, the chairman, and Brooke Wise, the curator. They both attended other functions related to Frieze L.A. yet did not make the time to view or attend the Artist in Residence exhibition or opening, which was very disappointing to all the artists in attendance.

Here stands another issue that the board lacks the time or awareness to address. We have a Finnish scholar who has a reservation to spend three months here starting in November. He has been awarded a two-year scholarship from the largest philanthropic foundation in Finland to study, investigate, and document Tom's early history with his fanbase, including his personal correspondence, cataloging the canceled stamps he saved and the many photographs he received from potential models and fans.

This Finnish scholar also received a fellowship from Oxford University to conduct interviews with gay men who were cruising the streets of Los Angeles in the seventies and eighties. This scholar has received no communication from the board about the program's cancellation, and since he is a friend and applied for a scholarship in Finland through my sharing of this trove of materials. I made a commitment to him that we would keep his room for him at TOM House and, potentially with the cooperation of the board of directors, he would still have access to the materials needed for his research and documentation, thus fulfilling his ability to do and complete his scholastic project this late fall to winter. To complicate matters further, one of our library volunteers has been hired by this scholar as his assistant.

Regarding the artist from the UK who received a two-week notice of his residency cancellation. Upon contacting TOM House directly, we assured him he would also have a room here and that we would do our best to provide him with access to materials, if available. But unfortunately, his desire to study Tom's process by examining his original preliminary sketches is now out of our hands, since they have moved off-site and no one locally in Los Angeles has access to the works.

Even when we are alienated by the controlling body of the Tom of Finland Foundation, we have moved forward and granted the artist from the UK full residency at TOM House.

If you are concerned about any of these developments, please write to the board; their contact information is below. If anyone wants to speak to me about this further, please reach out. We are presently setting up an interactive website, Savetomhouse.info

Yours,