Durk Dehner was a latecomer to the Tom of Finland phenomenon. Raised in Canada, the cofounder of Tom of Finland Foundation didn’t even begin to live life as a gay man until he wound up in New York City, where he discovered Tom’s artistry posted on a bulletin board at the Spike bar on the lower west side of Manhattan. “In a flash it was in my pocket for me to stare at and covet,” he recalls. “I didn’t get to see Tom gracing the covers of any muscle mags in Canada, [but his art inspired me] to become this image of a beautiful sexy leather man who wore queer right on his lapel.”

Dehner’s story is not the only one of its kind. Indeed, many gay men first experienced their attraction to uber-macho men through the drawings and scribbling of Tom of Finland, whose racy illustrations depicted an array of blue-collar men, wartime sailors and leather daddies engaging in sweaty, aggressive sex. “Tom’s role was that of a liberator,” Dehner remarks. “He redefined what it was to be homosexual. He created visual archetypes of masculine homosexuals indulging freely in sex together that these men could identify with for themselves. He set the proud love of man-on-man in full motion.”

Given his intense reaction to Tom’s work, it comes as no surprise that Dehner would come to be so involved with the man who had inspired him. Born and raised in and around Calgary, Dehner grew up idolizing the “rockers and Hell’s Angels” he saw on television. “Bored with school and teenage stuff,” he was doing transcendal meditation by 15 and hitchhiking across the continent at 16. Though he got one girl pregnant (his son lives in Europe), Dehner knew he was gay. By the time he reached New York after a stay in Montreal, Dehner was ready to “commence my gay education and development session of my life.” He modeled for photographers like Ken Haak and Bruce Weber, and appeared on the covers of many magazines. After discovering Tom’s work, his friend, Etienne, gave Dehner Tom’s address, and the two men began a romantic and creative relationship that would last until Tom’s passing from emphysema. Dehner was initially hired on as Tom’s public relations liaison in an attempt to bring Tom out of the underground and into mainstream consciousness. During their time together, the two men created the Tom of Finland Foundation, which celebrates 25 years this month.

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