Cynthia Slater
.....Now let me tell you of Cynthia Slater. A bisexual woman who created pansexual space before there was such a word, Cynthia was responsible for opening the Catacombs to other groups. In the early 70s, Cynthia founded the Society of Janus, which became a point of connection between straight, bisexual, and gay sadomasochists in the Bay Area.
.....It was through Janus that Cynthia met and, by 1977, became lovers with Steve, who ultimately began including Cynthia at the Catacombs. Cynthia subsequently introduced some of her female lovers into the space as well and, by the summer of 1978, there were often one to five women intermingling at The Catacombs with the 60 to 80 men.
....."In a very real sense," Rubin says, "SM lesbians learned how to party from the Catacombs. The lessons of the Catacombs were transmitted to a generation of kinky gay women."
....."On March 21, 1980, Cynthia and a friend rented the Catacombs for a big mixed gender/mixed orientation SM party, marking the first time significant numbers of gay male, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual perverts partied together in the Bay Area. This party, combined with subsequent play parties, fostered " an attitude of respect for difference, creating a comfortable atmosphere in which diverse populations could observe one another, appreciate their mutual interest in kink, and discover what they did have in common."
..... On August 28, 1981 Steve died suddenly of a heart attack; within two days of his death, the Catacombs had been completely dismantled. An unsuccessful Catacombs II lasted a mere three months.
On February 13, 1982, however, Steve’s lover Fred reopened the Catacombs in a house on Shotwell Street in San Francisco. "Ultimately, the different genders and sexual populations mingled even more successfully at this location than they had at the original," Rubin tells us. At various locations over the years: "The parties still run, heirs to the traditions established by Cynthia at her mixed parties and by Steve at the Catacombs?"

HIV/AIDS… and the end
.....AIDS was in the distance when the Catacombs on Shotwell opened, and as safer sex guidelines began to surface in 1983-84, the Catacombs responded quickly and responsibly. But the landscape was changing forever, and Fred chose to close down the Catacombs. The last party was held on Saturday night, April 21, 1984.
..... The discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (then called HTLV-III) was announced on Monday morning, April 24, 1984.

Cynthia Slater died of AIDS in October 1989.

The Catacombs
..... The Catacombs celebrated a deep love for the physical body; the body and its sensate abilities were valued, celebrated, and loved. It was a friendly place, a sexually organized environment where people treated each other with mutual respect, and where they were lovingly sexual without being in holy wedlock. The Catacombs facilitated the formation of deep friendships and lasting networks of support, relationships that sustained them through time, nurtured them with affection, cared for them in sickness, and buried them in sorrow.
.....Gayle Rubin concludes the article: "The individuals who have built [successful sexual environments] should be recognized for their accomplishments. Places and events like the Mineshaft, Inferno, and the Catacombs (among others) can serve as models and provide inspiration to other times and other places. There will be a renaissance of sex. There will be new clubs, new parties, and new horizons. I hope that some of these will have the grace and verve and spunk of the Catacombs."

Dedication
.....I dedicate The Slater Society in memory of Cynthia Slater, the Catacombs, and the many, many individuals who have opened the doors for us, showed us the possibilities, and have brought us to this point in history, this point in our lives, this point in our BDSM growth. May we carry on in the tradition of Cynthia Slater and thus fulfill Gayle Rubin’s hope.