Gary Wright, a member of the New York Jacks from 1980-1989, collected this material and donated it to the Archive on November 24, 1998.

The bulk of this collection consists of newsletters from JO clubs (masturbation clubs) in the United States and Western Europe in the 1980s. There is some organizational material — a logbook of the New York Jacks attendance figures and receipts, the charter and by-laws of the Cincinnati Jacks, correspondence from various clubs, etc. The collection also includes club directories, flyers and event announcements, and some articles and informational material related to masturbation and JO clubs in general.

History or Bio

While JO clubs existed prior to the 1980s and continue to operate today, the early years of the AIDS epidemic saw increased interest in these clubs as “safer sex” environments. There is considerable attention paid to rules of behavior and safe sex guidelines in the newsletters and informational material in this collection.

Gary Wright, who helped run the New York Jacks for 10 years (1980-1989), collected this material and donated it to the Archives to “…help explain gay responses to a scary time in gay history…”