(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #212, July 11, 2003)
Say hello to two additions to Twin Cities leather life: a new pansexual leather club, Minnesota Storm Patrol (MN Storm for short) and a new local chapter of a national organization, Masters And slaves Together (MAsT).
Minnesota Storm Patrol
According to MN Storm spokesman Jim Randall, the Twin Cities now has “a leather club for the 21st century.” The club had its first meeting on April 5 of this year and became a Minnesota non-profit organization on June 12. The club plans to pursue affiliation with MACC (Midwest Area Council of Clubs) at the Fall MACC meeting in St. Louis.
MN Storm started life with twelve founding troopers (full members) and has already added their first guard (associate member). The club is pansexual, with no gender or sexual-orientation requirements for membership.
Club spokesman Randall describes MN Storm as “New Guard, but still respecting Old Guard principles and ideals.” The club’s values statement is expressed in the acronym LDRSHIP, which stands for Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage.
Minnesota Storm has already established connections with other regional leather groups including The KC Pioneers of Kansas City and The Corn Haulers, a leather/levi club based in Des Moines, Iowa. The Corn Haulers recently hosted members of Minnesota Storm at an event held at the Blazing Saddles bar in downtown Des Moines. (That event went so well that The Corn Haulers are planning to invite all midwestern leather clubs to the first-ever Midwest Leather Pride celebration, to be held in Des Moines August 2; you’ll find more details at www.cornhaulers.com.)
The club has also established ties with the Minneapolis Eagle and plans to hold fundraising beer busts at the Eagle the second Saturday of each month, from 5 to 8 PM, starting in August. The club plans to raise funds for AIDS-related charities.
The club’s full name, Minnesota Storm Patrol, has already raised some eyebrows, as has the fact that the club’s membership nomenclature describes full members as “troopers.” Randall is quick to point out that “There is no German connection to the club’s name. We go toward the image of law enforcement—like a SWAT team—as opposed to Nazi. We’re definitely not a hate organization.”
For more information, especially if you might be interested in being a recruit (MN Storm’s name for a pledge), e-mail minnstorm@yahoo.com or write to Minnesota Storm Patrol, Minneapolis MN. (A website is under construction at www.mnstorm.com.)
MAsT (Masters And slaves Together)
Founded in 1988, Masters And slaves Together (MAsT) is a national organization that exists as a support group for individuals involved in, or interested in, the Master/slave or Dominant/submissive lifestyle. According to their website, “It is an opportunity and forum for like-minded individuals to come together for discussion of issues that concern Masters and slaves, to share ideas and gain/share knowledge of the Master/slave lifestyle.”
MAsT currently has 15 local chapters across the country—and if Bud Peehl has anything to say about it, Minneapolis/St. Paul will be one of the next chapters added to the list. Peehl is heading up the drive to get a MAsT chapter established in the Twin Cities. A first organizational meeting of the Twin Cities local chapter has already been held, and seven prospective members are already involved. (According to Peehl, “None of the local chapters are real large—Chicago’s local chapter has about 25 members.”) A second organizational meeting will be held July 22 at 7pm (e-mail budpeehl@mninter.net for meeting location or more information). After the organizational meetings, the plan is to apply to the national organization and become a local chapter.
The national MAsT organization is pansexual, but local chapters vary; to cite some examples, the chapters in Phoenix and Philadelphia define themselves as pansexual, while Chicago and Boston are open to gay males and San Francisco’s chapter is “mostly Gay & Lesbian.” The Twin Cities chapter is being organized as a chapter for gay and bi men—not to be exclusionary, but because the Twin Cities already has pansexual resources (through local BDSM group TIES) for those into the Master/slave or Dominant/submissive scenes. The Twin Cities chapter of MAsT is therefore not competing with the TIES subgroups, but is rather filling a niche that up to now has not been filled.
Meetings provide opportunities for topics of interest to be presented and discussed, and also provide time for making introductions and announcements, conducting business and socializing. During meetings all members are equal—the Dominant/submissive protocol is suspended so slaves can speak their mind freely. Meeting participants agree to hold confidential anything discussed during general or group sessions, and Dominants are not allowed to order any submissive, including their own, to discuss or divulge information or content of a submissive group session.
These meeting rules are reflective of one of the group’s philosophies: in Peehl’s words, “Dominance with caring. It’s not about the Master taking and the slave only giving. It’s a 50/50 relationship where each person, Master and slave, is satisfied and fulfilled. Same coin, opposite sides.”
For more information about the national Masters And slaves Together organization and the current local chapters, visit www.mast.net.
No comments:
Post a Comment