Baldwin, Thorn to Headline Leather Leadership Conference 12

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #332, February 15, 2008)

And check out podcasts of LLC XI

April. San Francisco. Leather. Any questions? Why would you not be there?

If you plan to be there, register soon—prices go up after Feb. 29. And whether or not you plan to attend, check out the growing library of Leather Leadership podcasts from last year’s conference (details later in this column).

Now in its twelfth year, the Leather Leadership Conference (LLC) is one of the leather/BDSM/fetish community’s premier leadership-development resources. Each year’s conference is a weekend-long program of speakers, seminars and exhibits aimed at developing the leadership, mentorship and community-building skills of the community’s members. Additionally, the conference seeks to create a greater sense of connection among community groups.

This year’s conference has a one-word theme—with a double meaning: “Arouse!” The primary aim of the conference’s San Francisco-based organizers is to arouse, excite and challenge attendees as leaders and as members of the leather/BDSM/fetish community. In addition, conference organizers hope, according to the conference website, to “bring some of the sexiness and edge of what we do into the conference.”

Both of the major conference speakers announced to date (a third speaker is still to be announced) have been known to arouse controversy on occasion. The conference’s opening keynote speech will be delivered by noted psychotherapist, author and Radical Sexuality activist Guy Baldwin. For more than 40 years Baldwin has served the community as a psychotherapist, titleholder (International Mr. Leather 1989), author (Ties That Bind, SlaveCraft, The Leather Contest Guide), lecturer and presenter of many workshops and seminars through the U.S. and Canada.

Saturday’s featured speaker will be Michael Thorn, Instigator Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief. Instigator is an outspoken and often provocative chronicle of “the next generation of global men’s fetish,” and editor Thorn is described on the magazine’s website as “a dirty fucker and relentless crusader for your right to be different. Able to burn a candle at 3 ends and still have his fist elbow-deep in yours.”

The “Arouse!” theme of this year’s conference is reflected and extended in the planned program categories (“tracks”): Evolve (organizational development/vision), Involve (event planning), Arouse (case studies/activism), Embrace (outreach/volunteer development), Ignite (high end/advanced seminars), Transform (personal enrichment/individual skills), and Influence (media/legal/professional/branding).

For more information about the conference, or to register, visit <leatherleadership.org/llc12/>. The registration fee is $109 until Feb. 29, $134 until April 10, and $145 at the conference.

Host hotel for LLC 12 is the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway, conveniently located in the center of downtown San Francisco (and steps away from the historic California Cable Car turnaround). A special conference room rate is available until March 20.

Podcast Library from LLC XI Keeps Growing

Regardless of whether or not you’re attending LLC 12 in San Francisco, how about improving your leather self while you’re working out, commuting or just relaxing? It’s as easy as downloading one or more of a growing library of free podcasts from Leather Leadership Conference XI, held last year in Minneapolis. The 10 podcasts available include speeches by Barbara Nitke, John Pendal and Laura Antoniou, plus a number of workshops. For a link, visit <leatherleadership.org>.

Welcome, Black Frost 31 (and You Know You Are a Kinky Minnesotan If . . .)

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #331, February 1, 2008)

Welcome to everyone who is in town this weekend for the Black Frost 31 run presented by the Black Guard of Minneapolis. (This year’s theme: “Boots, Bras, & Kibbles . . . Oh My!!”) Here’s hoping everyone has a great weekend of renewing old friendships and establishing new ones.

My hat is off to the Black Guard for successfully dealing with a last-minute change of location for the run. Black Frost 31’s host hotel was supposed to be the Ramada Downtown Minneapolis, which closed suddenly at the end of 2007 and is slated for demolition. The announcement of the hotel’s closing came less than two months before the run was slated to happen. That didn’t give the Black Guard much time to find a new host hotel, but they did. Good work, gentlemen!

Recent Minnesota Leather History: “The Whippersnapper”

In honor of our out-of-town guests this weekend, your humble columnist is taking this opportunity to rescue a bit of obscure local leather history, give it a wider audience and preserve it for the ages—I hope, anyway.

Last year saw the brief but merry existence of a leather publication called “The Whippersnapper,” a newsletter that existed for the sole purpose of drumming up interest in Leather Leadership Conference XI (held last year in Minneapolis). Four issues were e-mailed to various leather lists on the internet, and a final issue was printed on yellow paper and handed out at the conference.

The name for the publication was suggested by Lady Carol, its editor. Lady Carol also thought the newsletter should include some humorous items and came up with a brilliant hook upon which to hang them: “You know you are a kinky Minnesotan if . . .” She posted a message on a local listserv asking community members to complete that phrase and send her their ideas.

Following are the responses she collected and included in various issues of “The Whippersnapper.” I reprint them here, taking no credit whatsoever for their creation, and thanking Lady Carol for her service in collecting them and various members of the community (you know who you are) for coming up with them in the first place.

Please note that, while a few items on this list very clearly relate to preparations that were underway for the conference, most of the list items are timeless. Also, please note that much of this list also will resonate with our kinky friends from Wisconsin.

You know you are a kinky Minnesotan if . . .

• The term “hot dish” can be used to describe both your potluck contribution and your date for the evening.

• Boot worship might involve salt residue.

• You check the temperature before you wear vinyl.

• The bearskin rug in front of your cabin’s fireplace is splattered with wax drippings.

• Knife play involves cleaning Bambi during hunting season.

• You take up fire play just for the warmth.

• You’re at a play party and everyone is excited because there are lemon bars.

• You’re at a play party and people are knitting.

• You’re at a kinky party and people are swapping recipes.

• You go to a play party and half the people there are talking about LLC instead of playing.

• Kinky includes Leather and Flannel instead of Leather and Lace.

• Leather and Levis turns into Leather and Long Underwear.

• Patterned wool socks are not part of a humiliation scene.

• Your date has so many layers on you can’t tell if they are crossdressing.

• You call them condoms because if you ask for a rubber your partner gets out the hip waders.

• You power your dungeon with solar panels—and you write it off on your tax form to get the Energy Credit.

• You keep the current Ace Hardware catalog in the stack with your other pornography.

• You have ever planned to use mosquitoes in your outdoor scenes.

• You have included mosquito play on your list of hard limits.

• You realize you have spent more time working on LLC in the last few months than you have doing kinky stuff.

And, finally:

• The safeword is “Uffda!”

Our Continuing Crystal Meth Mess

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #330, January 18, 2008)

For some time I’ve wanted to say something in this column about the use of crystal meth in the leather and gay male communities. No, I’ve never used it, but I’m still affected by it. It affects all of us, users and non-users alike.

Like California in the 1960s, the leather and gay male communities have developed their own drug subcultures. And, like California in the 1960s, methamphetamine (also known as crystal, crank, Tina, Crissy or tweak) is one of its stars. Users today take the drug orally, snort it, smoke it, inject it or do “booty bumps” (squirting the drug into the rectum, where it is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream). Online profiles advertise a willingness to “PNP” (party and play), where the drug-taking is an integral part of the sex.

Meth is a powerful stimulant that heightens euphoria and lowers inhibitions. It gives users the freedom to do sexual things they otherwise might not do, and the energy to do those things for hours.

But this freedom and energy come at a very high price. Large doses of meth often make users mean, paranoid and psychotic. In the rush of the high, users lose sight of such simple things as eating, drinking and sleeping. They also tend to be too high to be concerned about HIV prevention, which often results in adding the devastation of HIV infection to that wrought by meth use.

How to deal with it? The U.S. government’s decades-long “War on Drugs” has been a failure that would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. (Outlawing alcohol made us a nation of scofflaws in the 1920s—why did anyone think it would be different with meth and other drugs?)

One current way of addressing the problem is “harm reduction.” Advocates of harm reduction take the tack that if people are going to use drugs, they should know how to use them in ways that minimize as much risk as possible. Thus, websites and counselors stress the importance of managing drug use by managing the rest of one’s life. Sample suggestions: Stock the refrigerator with food and beverages before you start partying; meth is a powerful appetite suppressant, so eat while you’re high even if you’re not hungry; drink all the water you can; have a financial plan in place and pay your rent before you pay your meth dealer, because it’s worse to be high when you’re homeless.

In one sense this seems like a finger-in-the-dike strategy, because for many people the time will come when their addiction will overwhelm their best-laid plans. These strategies attempt to control an addiction that, by definition, ultimately cannot be controlled.

But in another sense harm reduction is buying time. It might slow the downward spiral. And perhaps an addict won’t have to spiral so far down before deciding they need help.

Recovery from meth addiction is possible, but not easy. An indication of how powerfully addicting meth can be is the fact that success is often defined as spending more total time not under meth’s influence, and longer and longer periods of time between relapses and episodes of meth use. And then, even if a person is no longer using, there are still consequences of past use to be dealt with—problems ranging from damaged teeth to ongoing struggles with HIV infection.

Beyond setting up harm-reduction counseling, the leather and gay male communities must continue to voice their disapproval of meth abuse. Our own voices have a credibility that voices outside these communities do not have. Our message, to both current meth users and those who might start, must be: We love you. We value you as community members. We want you to remain alive, strong and healthy. Please don’t sabotage your potential by using meth.

The process of turning the tide could take years. Nevertheless, it can be done. We’ve done it before—a generation of gay men reinvented the way they had sex in the 1980s to counter the AIDS threat. The current generation needs to reinvent sex yet again, to clean up the party and make both crystal meth and HIV tragic relics of our community’s past.

Crystal meth abuse: Do something about it

Read: Licit and Illicit Drugs by Edward M. Brecher and the editors of Consumer Reports Magazine. Published in 1972 and now out of print, it remains required reading for anyone interested in the most objective and comprehensive book ever on street drugs such as meth—and legal drugs like alcohol, tobacco and caffeine. (Available in libraries and on the web at <www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cumenu.htm>.)

Visit: <www.CrystalClearMN.org>, a website with crystal meth info, resources and support for gay and bi guys in the Twin Cities. There’s information here for current and former users, or for those concerned about a partner’s or friend’s meth use. The site is a collaboration of the HIM Program of the Red Door Clinic, the PrideAlive men’s community initiative of Minnesota AIDS Project, and AccessWorks.

Sign: the Gay Men & Crystal Meth Manifesto at <www.gaymeth.org>. Put together by the Crystal Meth Working Group, a part of New York’s HIV Forum, the Manifesto is an example of our community giving itself a clear and unequivocal message about crystal meth use and what we all must do to deal with the problem.

Leather Celebrates the Holidays: Atons Holiday Fundraiser 2007

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #328, December 21, 2007)

Continuing a long-standing tradition, The Atons of Minneapolis held their annual Holiday Fundraiser Sunday, December 2, at the Bolt Underground in Minneapolis. A food drive collected food for The Aliveness Project’s Holiday Basket Program, which was also the beneficiary of the door proceeds. Silent and live auctions benefited Open Arms of Minnesota.

The Atons gave this year’s fundraiser a carnival atmosphere. Tickets could be used for a haircut, a photo with Leather Santa, getting your boots shined, a session in a latex vacuum bed, or to bid on varied and plentiful silent-auction items.

Enjoy the photos, and—whatever you celebrate, however you celebrate it—Happy Holidays from Leather Life!

PHOTOS: Two Zip files of high-res photos have been uploaded to Lavender’s server.

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Brian Spence inspecting some Silent Auction merchandise.

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B.D. Chambers getting his boots shined by bootblack Pup.

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Keith Cheetham getting his boots shined by bootblack Pup.

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Leather barber Brian Preston gives John Warner a haircut.

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Randy Hornstine of The Aliveness Project doing his best Vanna imitation.

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Some of the food and other items donated for The Aliveness Project’s Holiday Basket Program.

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Dan Porter posing for a photo with Leather Santa (Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2007 Dan Beach).

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Photographer Andrew Bertke (with camera in hand) and photo stylist Angel Rodriguez made sure all the photos with Leather Santa were top-notch.

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Rick Burgess, left, and Mark Christ, right, flank Leather Santa (Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2007 Dan Beach).

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What’s a carnival without a thrill ride? Overheard: “Nothing says ‘holidays’ like a latex vacuum bondage bed.”

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The evening’s auctioneer, B.D. Chambers, getting ready to sell a leather harness.

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The evening’s auctioneer, B.D. Chambers, taking bids on a leather tank top.

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Caterers for the evening, John Christensen (left) and Tim Forte (right), flank Bob Fischer, the evening’s bartender.

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Representing The Aliveness Project at the event: Board chair Bill Schlichting, left, and Development Director Tim Marburger, right.

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David Coral, Mark Gibson and Donavan Cummings of the Knights of Leather.

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John Hustad and Ed Skjaret.

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Atons pledge Rick Burgess showing off his pledge vest.

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Atons pledge Rick Burgess.

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Jon Sipe in seasonally appropriate red leather.

Getting into Leather, 1993

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #323, December 7, 2007)

Tales Around the Holiday Fire

The holidays are a time for gathering around a warm, glowing fire and telling stories—not just holiday stories, but also family stories, stories of times gone by.

So gather around whatever fire you currently are near, be it a roaring fireplace or the glow of fifty-six candles in the dungeon just waiting for a hot-wax scene, and let your humble columnist tell you of some of his experiences in leather before he became your humble columnist—in 1993, when he was as fresh and as green as your Christmas tree.

When I came out as a gay man in 1974 the idea of leathersex intrigued me. In the ensuing years I thumbed through the leather magazines at Shinder’s, but I never went so far as to actually buy any. Over the years, though, the sense of intrigue only got stronger, and by 1993 I was ready at least to explore the idea of being a leatherman.

I bought my first piece of leather, a black biker vest, on a Saturday afternoon in August and wore it that evening to a concert performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at Orchestra Hall. (Leather and show tunes—some things haven’t changed after all these years.)

The leather community I started hanging out with consisted primarily of gay men. There was a community of lesbian leatherwomen, too, and the community issue of the time was getting the men and women to feel comfortable with each other socially and politically. Occasionally I saw straight-but-not-narrow heterosexual individuals or couples at leather events, and they were certainly welcome. But at that time the local pansexual leather community was still several years in the future.

Much of the community’s life then was centered around The Gay 90’s and its various bar areas. The evening hangout was The Men’s Room Bar, but events such as fundraisers and contests were often held in other parts of the 90’s, such as the Dance Annex or the upstairs Casablanca Show Lounge.

The first Atons Leather/Levi Dinner I ever attended was a banquet held on a Saturday evening in September in the Men’s Room bar. I went with a friend and we showed up early. (I have never been early to a Leather/Levi dinner since.) We were met at the door by our host for the evening, a gentleman in black leather pants, a white formal dress shirt and wide black leather wristbands. He was very gracious and made us feel welcome. How could one resist such charm? One couldn’t.

The first leather contest I remember seeing was the 1993 Minnesota Leather Encounter (MLE) weekend, which included contests for the 1994 Mr. Minnesota Leather and Ms Minnesota Leather titles (which were awarded to Raymond LeBrun and Nikie Boswell). The ticket package for the weekend, which cost all of $30, included a Thursday evening kickoff at The Saloon, Friday evening meet-and-greet at the Gay 90’s Men’s Room Bar, a Saturday Fantasy Afternoon followed by dinner and cocktails in the Gay 90’s Dance Annex, and the contest and show Saturday evening in the Gay 90’s Casablanca Show Lounge.

Several notable guests came from out of town for the weekend: International Mr. Leather 1992 Lenny Broberg (who became Officer Broberg of the San Francisco Police Department); Amy Marie Meek, International Ms Leather 1993 (who went on to become Amy Marie Meek-DeJarlais and to produce the International Ms Leather contest for many years); and Kay Hallanger, International Ms Leather 1991.

The weekend ended with Sunday afternoon brunch at the Town House in St. Paul (then called Town House Country). One of my most indelible memories of that weekend is seeing Broberg at the brunch after a Minnesota welcome (?) ceremony: dressed in a hard hat and blaze-orange vest (because Minnesota always has a lot of road construction) with a frozen walleye (or was it a carp?) fastened to his chest with good ol’ Minnesota duct tape. I thought he handled it all rather well.

After experiencing that contest weekend, I was inspired (with prodding and encouragement from friends) to compete in my first leather contest. I was one of six or seven contestants in the Mr. Gay 90’s Leather contest, which was part of the bar’s annual Halloween festivities.

Wearing boots, Levi 501s and my leather vest, I was excited about my (literal) moment in the (literal) spotlight until the contestant before me, who turned out to be a budding porn star and the evening’s winner, got up on the platform in the Men’s Room Bar and doused himself and his leather with silver body paint. How does one follow an act like that? One doesn’t—one is just careful not to slip on the still-wet body paint on the platform.

Ah, memories. Some time I’ll have to tell you about 1994. In the meantime, I hope your holidays, whatever and however you celebrate, are magical.

How Leather Celebrates the Holidays

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #326, November 23, 2007)

Okay, we’ve all had Thanksgiving dinner and the holiday shopping and social season officially has started. Members of the leather/BDSM/fetish community prepare for and celebrate the holidays in many of the same ways as a lot of other folks. We shop; we bake cookies with the family; we raise money for charity and have fun doing it; and we share the holiday spirit by volunteering to help make other people’s holidays merry too.

Shopping: BIZARRE BAZAAR presented by MSDB

Last issue I gave you some suggestions for what to get that special someone on your list. Now let’s talk about where you can do your shopping for those hard-to-find (warning: euphemisms ahead) “specialty gifts,” “adult novelties” and “toys for big kids.”

On Saturday, Dec. 1, MSDB again will help you kick off the holiday shopping season by presenting another Bizarre Bazaar. This year’s new and larger location for the event is Pi Bar and Restaurant (2532 25th Ave. S., Minneapolis). Hours are noon-7 P.M. Due to the generosity of the gracious folks at Pi, there is no charge to enter the shopping area, which means more holiday dollars to spend on goodies from the friendly merchants and the great food that Pi offers. (Your humble columnist is especially fond of their desserts, meaning—what else?—pie.)

There also will be entertainment, a vacuum-bed fundraiser for the new Leather Flag, and a silent auction fundraiser for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). For more information: <msdb-mn.org>.

Baking with the family: MINNESOTA KINKY COOKIE BAKERS

The silent auction at the Bizarre Bazaar will feature, among other items, several baskets of assorted cookies baked by the Minnesota Kinky Cookie Bakers. Each year, on the weekend before Thanksgiving, the group holds an annual non-kinky event for kinky people and their families.

Together the bakers produce thousands of cookies and holiday goodies to share, and they put together gift baskets to be auctioned off at charitable fundraisers. Children of community members join in to mix, roll, cut out, frost, decorate and count.

If you want to participate in next year’s event, ask for more details at the Bizarre Bazaar.

Having fun and doing good: ATONS HOLIDAY FUNDRAISER

How long have The Atons of Minneapolis been holding their annual Holiday Fundraiser? At least since 1995, the year your humble columnist started writing this column. I checked—that year the theme of the event was “Making the Streets Safe for Santa.”

This year’s Atons Holiday Fundraiser benefits both The Aliveness Project and Open Arms of Minnesota. The fundraiser takes place Sunday, Dec. 2, 5-10 P.M. in the Bolt Underground.

There are some changes this year. The Atons still are having a food drive (admission is a $7 donation at the door if you bring ten pounds of non-perishable food with you, a $10 donation at the door if you don’t). But instead of the silent and live auctions of the past several years, this year’s event will have more of a carnival atmosphere.

For every pound of food you bring you receive a ticket. Get more tickets and you increase your chance to win fabulous prizes. (If you’d like to donate one or many fabulous prizes to the event, please contact the Atons as soon as possible—see <atons.net> for contact details.)

Other event highlights include food and a selection of holiday carnival booths, including photos with Leather Santa (in the person of Dan Beach, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2007) and a Santa spanking booth in case you’ve been naughty this year.

More information, including suggested food and other items to donate: <atons.net>.

Sharing the spirit: THE ALIVENESS PROJECT HOLIDAY BASKET PROGRAM

The food and other items the Atons collect at the door of their Holiday Fundraiser will be donated to The Aliveness Project. Some of it will stock The Aliveness Project’s food shelf, but much of it will be used by their Holiday Basket Program.

Founded in 1985, The Aliveness Project is a local nonprofit agency that offers a variety of services for individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Minnesota. Since 1988, their Holiday Basket Program has provided thousands of gift baskets to men, women and children throughout Minnesota affected by HIV/AIDS.

Typically, hundreds of volunteers help by adopting baskets, donating gifts, wrapping presents, baking cookies, sewing quilts or holiday stockings, and assembling and delivering both Hanukkah and Christmas baskets.

If you’d like to help by adopting a basket, making a donation or volunteering your time, contact The Aliveness Project at 612-824-LIFE (5433) or find more details at <aliveness.org>.

Leather Life’s Annual Holiday Gift Guide

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