Christian BDSM: Christian? Yes. Vanilla? Not necessarily.

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2008: A Look Back

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #356, January 16, 2009)

A Pivotal Year for Minnesota’s Leather Scene

For the first Leather Life column of 2009, let’s cast a fond backward glance at 2008. Yes, the last part of the year had its problems, among them worldwide economic turmoil and Prop. 8 in California. But before all that, for Minnesota’s leather community plenty of good things happened in 2008. Years from now we, and our community’s successors, may look back on 2008 as a pivotal year in some respects.

February: The Black Guard held their 31st annual Black Frost run in spite of some last-minute logistical problems (not of their making). The club had to expend so much effort dealing with a last-minute hotel change that they weren’t able to present their traditional show during the run.

(We interrupt this look back for a look ahead: The Black Guard of Minneapolis will be presenting Black Frost 32 Feb. 6-8, 2009, and the registration form promises “Yes, we will have a show this year!” There will also be games, a banquet, a bar tour, and a great bunch of guys to meet. Registration deadline is Jan. 24, so hurry. For details and a printable run registration form, visit <www.blackguardmpls.com>.)

April: MSDB inaugurated a new series of monthly education presentations, The LAB. The first class was about wrestling, and topics since have included spanking, flogging, massage and “holiday-themed play piercing.”

May: The Minnesota Storm Patrol presented the club’s second run, Northern Xposure II, which had the distinction of having the spring MACC (Mid-America Conference of Clubs) meeting be a part of the run. May also saw the 30th International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago—unfortunately, without a contestant representing Minnesota. At the end of May, the Knights of Leather held their 20th annual Knights Tournament run and attracted their largest crowd ever. The theme was kinky variations on fairy tales and cartoon characters.

June: The 2008 Minnesota Leather Pride celebration took things to a new level, with a triumphant public unveiling of a new giant leather pride flag right after a tearful retirement/farewell ceremony for the old flag (the flag that first appeared in 1998). The ceremony was probably the most public leather event ever held in Minnesota—it even made the evening news on at least one channel. A video documentary captured the ceremony, along with some behind-the-scenes interviews.

July: The Atons of Minneapolis presented Gopher XVIII, their “Close Encounters”-themed run. That same weekend in Chicago, at the annual Pantheon of Leather Community Service Awards, Minnesota picked up an award (“Large Event of the Year”) for Leather Leadership Conference XI, held in 2007 in Minneapolis (more about this later). Later in the month, a Minnesota Leather History roundtable discussion was presented at Patrick’s Cabaret.

November: Minnesota’s leather community shares a loss with the GLBT community as Pi Bar closes, a victim of the current and continuing economic and financial turmoil.

December: The end of the year brought two traditions: MSDB’s Bizarre Bazaar and the Atons Holiday Fundraiser. It also brought the completion of an ongoing project: the posting of the final podcast from Minnesota’s award-winning Leather Leadership Conference XI (only 20 months after the conference itself). There are a total of 20 episodes, available for listening on your computer or downloading to your iPod or other MP3 player. The cost? Free. The value? Priceless. Find a link to the podcasts at www.leatherleadership.org.

Wow, that was fun! Let’s do it again in 2009! (Without any further bar closings or other financial catastrophes, of course. And how about having someone from Minnesota in the International Mr. Leather contest this year?)

PHOTOS:

June, 2008: Minnesota’s new giant leather pride flag is unfurled for the first time. (From the documentary video “Minnesota’s Giant Leather Pride Flags: Saluting the Old, Unfurling the New.”)

PHOTO CREDIT: Donny Brunner/Mediastash

Leather Holiday Traditions

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #354, December 19, 2008)

It was a festive holiday weekend as members of the leather/BDSM/fetish community gathered—twice—at Rumours/Innuendo in St. Paul.

MSDB’s annual Bizarre Bazaar on Saturday, Dec. 6 filled two rooms and a balcony with local leather and fetish vendors, eye-popping entertainment, and a silent auction benefiting the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.

The very next day the Atons of Minneapolis took over the same space with their annual Holiday Fundraiser benefiting The Aliveness Project and Open Arms of Minnesota. As in years past, the event featured a food drive and a huge silent auction. But this year the Atons and their guests took the “photos with leather Santa” thing to new and amazing heights—those were not photos, they were tableaux.

Here’s wishing everyone a safe, sane and merry holiday season.

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The daring Tina, one of the entertainers at the Bizarre Bazaar. Why “daring”? She danced while balancing a four-foot sword—on edge—on top of her head.

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Happy shoppers at the Bizarre Bazaar. From left: John, Brie and Paul.

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Merchandise at the Bizarre Bazaar, Gray’s Leather booth.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Bertke

Members of the Atons of Minneapolis in a holiday mood.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Bertke

A Christmas tableaux: Kevin Winge (Executive Director, Open Arms of Minnesota) and Jonesey (Leather Santa).

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Nothing says “Holidays” like an elf (B.D. Chambers) in a pillory.

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Revelers at the Atons Holiday Fundraiser: Ken and John; Rick and Mark; David, Robert and David; John and Tom.

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Portrait of an auction winner: David and his new chain-mail vest.

Leather in Lean Times

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #353, December 5, 2008)

The economic downturn hits home in ways big and small. This column, you might have noticed, didn’t appear in the previous issue of Lavender. Fewer advertising pages meant fewer pages for editorial content.

Another publication for which I’ve been writing (Skin 2, a fetish magazine in the UK), because of a decline in advertising revenue, recently decided it could no longer maintain its quarterly publishing schedule and now plans to issue one hard-bound book-style publication a year.

Publishing is not the only market sector hurting right now. The major investment banks on Wall Street are but a memory, and the stock market has lost everything it gained since about 1998. If you’re lucky enough to have retirement savings you’re probably watching with alarm as those savings shrink.

Detroit automakers say they’re headed for bankruptcy unless Congress intervenes—and China’s automakers say they need a government bailout, too. Meanwhile Mercedes-Benzes, and even fuel-efficient Toyotas, are piling up at the docks in the Port of Long Beach, Calif., as people’s ability or desire to buy them evaporates.

The housing market is worse than sluggish. Perhaps you’re a homeowner who would like to sell your home but can’t because prospective buyers can’t get a mortgage—or because the sale price would be less than what you owe on your mortgage. Or maybe you have an adjustable-rate mortgage and are watching helplessly as the payments balloon to the point of pain.

Unemployment is up and personal incomes are down. I know way too many people who are looking for a job right now. Retailers are bracing for dismal holiday sales in spite of major discounts and price cuts. Some small business owners find they can’t obtain loans needed to keep their business going.

Closer to home, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve arrived recently at a restaurant only to find it has vanished. And now, hitting especially close to home for folks like us, the much-loved Pi Bar was scheduled to close Nov. 15, becoming a casualty of the mortgage/lending/credit crisis. (At this writing unorthodox but heroic efforts are underway to save Pi through community investment.)

Pi’s problems reveal the truth of our current situation: This crisis isn’t just economic. The crisis is social and cultural as well. Before things settle down, the GLBT and leather/BDSM/fetish communities stand to lose some cherished institutions.

Leather already has been through one major crisis in its fifty-something-year history. AIDS hit the leather community especially hard, killing much of a generation and disrupting the formal and informal mentoring and educational processes on which the survival and perpetuation of leather culture depends.

In the face of that crisis the community pulled together and dealt with it. Community members raised funds for care and research while much of the rest of society ignored the problem. Those who were healthy took care of those who were sick. And we supported each other as we mourned the many comrades we lost.

The community survived, but much damage needed to be repaired. In some ways, we’re still repairing that damage over two decades later.

Now our community—this time along with the rest of the country and the world—is facing a different kind of crisis. What do we do? How do we minimize the social and cultural damage that an economic downturn can cause?

We somehow do more with less. We acknowledge the reality of the changed circumstances for ourselves and for our community and society at large. Then we do what’s necessary to deal with those changed circumstances as intelligently and sensitively as possible. Some things will have to be scaled back. Some things just won’t happen, at least for a while. We’ll just have to do the best we can.

We decide what’s most important, and we support it. Conversely, we defer other things, or let them go altogether. We’ll all have to make hard choices, although some choices will effectively be made for us—if it’s a choice between spending limited funds on travel to a leather event or buying groceries, there’s not much to argue about. Perhaps we won’t be able to do everything we’ve been doing, or do it to the same extent. Eventually, when things settle down and straighten out, we can revisit the things we let go or scaled back and, if we think it’s appropriate, either resurrect or expand them again.

We try not to become either mercenary or hardened. The Leather Pride flag has a heart on it for a reason. Even in the face of current circumstances, we mustn’t allow that heart to become hardened. If we stop caring about others because we’re in trouble ourselves, we as a community will sacrifice our heritage and lose our soul. Even as we worry about our own circumstances, I hope we’ll continue to help those who are worse off than we are.

Nothing in our community—not bars, businesses, contests, other events, clubs, community institutions like NCSF, LA&M, Woodhull or other community non-profits—will be immune. It’s a storm we’ll all have to weather, together. I believe we will. And I hope when the storm is over we come out stronger, with our priorities in sharper focus and our conviction renewed.

10th Anniversary Bash for Pride Alive

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Leather Invasion: Kink The Vote!

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #350, October 24, 2008)

Date: Tuesday, Nov. 4

Location: Your designated polling place

Six months ago I wrote a column with the headline “Sex and Politics” (Lavender issue 335, March 28, 2008). I ended that column by saying, “If politicians professing to be God-fearing Christians have made such a mess of things over the last few decades, it might take a bunch of people formerly known as ‘pervs’ to make things better.”

It’s time. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, in the spirit of many “Rock The Vote!” and, more recently, “Queer The Vote” campaigns over the years, it’s time for “Kink The Vote!”, a nationwide Leather Invasion of the polls to help make sure the next four years are better than the last eight.

The concept of a “Leather Invasion” was invented by Robert Valin, a self-described “leather bear” who lives in New York City. Dismayed by bar closings and other signs that New York City’s leather scene was dwindling, he set about to revitalize things by calling for “new and alternative social and cultural activities for those interested in the love, commraderie [sic] and kinship of the Leather/Fetish lifestyle.”

In one of the group’s early outings, New York City leatherfolk invaded MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. Other Leather Invasions have included IKEA, Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The idea has been adopted elsewhere, including the Twin Cities, where there have been Leather Invasion nights at several local theaters and restaurants. (Of course, the Atons of Minneapolis have long held their monthly Leather/Levi dinners at area restaurants—same idea.)

Now it’s time for the biggest and most important Leather Invasion ever—nationwide, at the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

I don’t have to tell you things are a mess. I don’t have to tell you how bad the last eight years have been for our community, our country and the world in general. You can see it all around you.

I don’t have to tell you how you should vote. You’re smart enough to figure that out for yourself.

But consider this: The leather/BDSM/fetish community is a voting bloc. Or it could be if we want it to be, and if we make it one.

The radical Christian right is often estimated to make up about 15% of the voting public. The GLBT community usually is estimated at roughly 10% of the population, but according to the Stonewall Democrats GLBT voters account for only between 4% and 5% of voters in national exit polls.

Kinky folk, according to author Gloria G. Brame (Come Hither: A Commonsense Guide to Kinky Sex) are estimated to be between 5 and 50% of the population; the consensus is 10-15%, but Brame suspects the true percentage is higher.

Now consider that in 2004 about 64% of the general population voted. In the 2006 mid-term elections that figure fell to 40%. That’s a lot of people not voting. That means that if you do vote, your vote’s significance and influence is increased.

Imagine if we, the proud members of the leather/BDSM/fetish community, all showed up in force and voted. Imagine if we all got our friends to come to the polls and vote with us.

That’s what we need to do. We need to vote, and we need to vote in numbers big enough that the election results are a sound repudiation of the damaging and destructive politics and policies of the last eight years (and, in reality, most of the last twenty-eight). Oh, and we need to vote in numbers that produce such a large enough margin of victory that the election can’t be stolen—or stolen again, for those of you who are into conspiracy theories.

You can bet the forces of intolerance will be at the polls. These people will be voting against our community’s best interests, but ironically against their own best interests as well. Some people are so concerned with keeping an African American out of the White House, or keeping gays and lesbians from marrying, or trying to control what goes on in other people’s bedrooms, or taking away a woman’s right to make choices about her own body, they will base their vote on those issues and ignore the economy, the environment, two wars and our country’s tattered image.

These people will be voting. We need to outnumber them.

And remember, it’s not just a presidential election. Minnesotans, for example, will be voting also for a U.S. senator, a U.S. representative, state representatives, a variety of district and appellate judges, a proposed amendment to the state constitution, and possibly for other city and county offices and on various ballot issues. Be an informed voter—research candidates and issues before you go to the polls.

Not registered to vote? In Minnesota you can register at the polls on election day (info at <www.sos.state.mn.us/>). Wisconsin and Iowa also allow same-day registration at the polls. (By the way, the state with the highest voter turnout in the 2004 elections was Minnesota, with Wisconsin taking second-place honors.)

You have every reason to vote and no excuse not to. On Nov. 4, everybody gets one vote, although not everyone will use it. Use yours. Kink the Vote!

Meet CARAS: Better Leather Living Through Research

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #349, October 10, 2008)

And now for something really sexy . . .

Research—or, to be more specific, research concerning leather/BDSM/fetish and other alternative sexualities.

Okay, maybe research isn’t terribly “sexy.” But it’s important. And our community has the good fortune of having an organization that understands how important good, credible research can be. That organization is CARAS (Community Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities).

CARAS is a national-scale organization that started with an idea proposed by Dr. Richard Sprott at the ninth annual Leather Leadership Conference in 2005. The organization’s mission is to support and promote excellence in the study of alternative sexualities and to make research findings and information available both to other scholars and to alternative sexuality communities (including leather, BDSM, fetish, kink and polyamory). It does this by creating partnerships between community groups and academic researchers.

Good research is crucial for advancing the interests of sexual minority communities. The GLBT community benefited enormously from research done by Dr. Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s and 1950s, which among other things showed a much greater prevalence of non-heterosexuality than had been previously thought to exist.

Also in the 1950s, Dr. Evelyn Hooker actually tested the then-prevalent idea that homosexuals were mentally ill. Her findings: self-identified homosexuals were no worse in social adjustment than the general population.

Research that challenged medical and legal discrimination against homosexuals, like Kinsey’s and Hooker’s, has been a big factor in improving life for members of the GLBT community. CARAS’ goal is to foster the same kind of research to benefit other alternative-sexuality communities.

Not much empirical information about alternative sexualities is currently available. Questions about what alternative sexualities are, how they affect people’s lives and how members of alternative-sexuality communities interact with the rest of society have not really been studied in a systematic, scientific way. Good research can replace ignorance and silence with well-grounded, accurate facts and insight.

Because solid research hasn’t been done, the many examples of inaccurate research that draw flawed conclusions about alternative sexualities are hard to challenge. Some of this flawed research is done by researchers with no connection to the communities they are studying, which often leads to clueless results. Worse, some researchers are influenced by preconceptions, myths and stereotypes, and the resulting studies are not objective, but instead are actively biased against the communities being studied. CARAS strives to encourage and disseminate research that is helpful instead of pointless or damaging.

In its role as a liaison, CARAS must satisfy the needs of scholarly and academic researchers. Simply stated, those needs are: get funded, get data and get published. If the research helps advance a researcher’s career or helps expand a field or domain of knowledge, so much the better.

But CARAS also must satisfy the needs of alternative-sexuality communities, such as the need that the research be relevant and helpful to the community. It also is important that the results be presented in understandable English instead of academic jargon.

To harmonize these needs, CARAS uses a research model known as “community-based research.” This is not a new invention—it’s an established concept that has been used, for example, in HIV/AIDS and other public health research.

Community-based research differs from traditional research by focusing on communities, not isolated individuals. Also, in traditional research models, researchers have all the power and authority, and the ability to dictate what’s important and what’s not. In community-based research, however, power is shared between the community being studied and the researchers doing the studying. A community can decide that research being proposed would not be helpful, and can choose not to support the research or to suggest changes to the proposal. Ideally, the community has input at every stage of a research project—what ideas will be researched, how the research will be done, and the manner in which the results will be made available.

CARAS already has some significant accomplishments to its credit. It created a well-received training DVD for counselors and therapists on working with clients who are kinky (contact them at the address below for a copy of the DVD). It recently reviewed a proposal from a student wanting to research the impact of stigma against leather/BDSM/kink on people’s access to health care. And it has done presentations and outreach at annual meetings and conferences of the American Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association, and several other professional groups. CARAS currently is the only organization consistently doing this type of outreach in vanilla settings.

Community support is essential to CARAS’ mission and success. Individuals can subscribe to the organization’s newsletter and web forums. Community organizations can get involved by becoming sponsors of CARAS. Academics wanting to do research on alternative-sexuality communities can be referred to CARAS to have their research proposals reviewed. (CARAS can be contacted at <info@caras.ws>.)

One final thought: Research has a long timeline—doing it takes a long time, but the results are influential for a long time, too. Right now the leather/BDSM/fetish community is about where the gay community was in the 1960s, and seems to be moving on the same path. CARAS exists to facilitate and focus the efforts of a modern-day Kinsey or Hooker whose research will lead to greater acceptance of alternative sexualities.