I The LINK Magazine
"Established to inform the Fetish and BDSM community since 1986"
A bit of history!
The Link had been running since 1986, with a few hiccups in between. The Link was our quarterly publication. It keeped up with our chapter's happenings, gave our members a place to see what was happening with Int'l, gave our commercial and affiliate members a place to advertise, and much more. The Link was as old as NLA-I itself and had gone through many inceptions through the years. Please enjoy all issues from our past that we have available.
The Link has had many changes throughout the history of the NLA. Originally called The First Link, it was the newsletter for the NLA Seattle, our first chapter of the association. Oddly, in our case, this chapter existed before the larger national organization was launched. So you will notice our first newsletters were Seattle-focused. Each chapter of our association also had its own Link newsletters the concept, links in a chain.
Our Link remained that name until 1992 when we launched The Quarterly Link, which was published alongside The First Link. These Quarterly Link's were also styled like magazines, not newsletters giving it a sleek new look. This design would be discontinued in 1993. In 1994, we changed the name from The First Link to The Link. This would remain the name of the Association's newsletter for the remainder of its existence. We also attempted to move towards 4 issues per year, with only special issues for Bylaw changes or elections. There have been several variations of the Link's Logo moving forward, each a design by the editor's tastes.
Our Link remained that name until 1992 when we launched The Quarterly Link, which was published alongside The First Link. These Quarterly Link's were also styled like magazines, not newsletters giving it a sleek new look. This design would be discontinued in 1993. In 1994, we changed the name from The First Link to The Link. This would remain the name of the Association's newsletter for the remainder of its existence. We also attempted to move towards 4 issues per year, with only special issues for Bylaw changes or elections. There have been several variations of the Link's Logo moving forward, each a design by the editor's tastes.
Between 2001-2005 The Link was not published. The Association was struggling with many things, and sadly, this project fell to the side of importance. In 2006, Jan Hall would re-release the Link to the membership. In 2007, The Link would once again be put in print as a trial to see how it would do in a digital time. It was not successful, as print costs and postage were just too high. The Association then attempted a second Magazine style in 2010, with again very little outside support from chapters, and would go back to being a newsletter style.
In 2018, as part of the Living In Leather Project, the LIL Committee decided to rename The Link back to its namesake, The First Link, and launch it as a magazine-style again but keeping it only in PDF. This time our goal is to highlight our Living In Leather Award Winners, publishing their Art, stories, articles and highlighting their activities as individuals. Members were not pleased that we created The Second Link for members only, using the word “second,” putting them second to the public. To correct that, in 2020, we reversed them. The First Link would be for members, the Second Link for the public.
And now you are all caught up!