Kyle Truss is Mr. Twin Cities Leather 2013

(Published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #464, March 14, 2013)

Kyle Truss and Tommy Rosengren were the two competitors in this year’s Mr. Twin Cities Leather contest weekend, with Truss being awarded the title and sash. Twin Cities Leather, the new leather-and-gear store in Minneapolis, presented a weekend-long slate of events in connection with this year’s contest.

The weekend started Friday night, Feb. 15, with a “Meet the Candidates” event followed by a Black Party. The main event, the Mr. Twin Cities Leather Contest, took place Saturday evening, Feb. 16. The contest was followed by “LeatherBOMB! A Victory Party” with DJ MF.

Sunday, Feb. 17 brought a Leather Brunch sponsored and prepared by Cuppa Java, followed by a victory beer bust. All events were held at The Saloon in Minneapolis, one of the weekend’s sponsors.

Saturday night’s contest and show included judged segments in leather image; onstage question and answer; speech; and talent. In the onstage question-and-answer segment, Truss was asked by one judge, “What are you most afraid of?” His answer: “In all honesty—this, right now,” referring to being onstage before the crowd at the Saloon.

Truss’ talent presentation combined a magic trick using a deck of cards with electrical torture featuring a big, industrial-strength, nasty-looking electrical switch. Rosengren’s talent portion was a demonstration of how to make the perfect banana split—using an accomplice’s bare chest as the serving vessel. To conclude his talent demonstration, Rosengren invited members of the audience to sample his ice-cream creation.

Emcees for the weekend were Karri Plowman, one of the three co-owners of Twin Cities Leather, and Camille Collins. Entertainment Friday and Saturday evenings was provided by Chanda Lehr. The entire weekend was dedicated to the memory of the late David Olaf Brown, a/k/a Danielle Charbonneau.

Contest judges were Andrew Bertke, Atons of Minneapolis; Tynan Fox, Twin Cities Leather; Tony Halverson, The Saloon; Daniel Hennagir, Mr. Twin Cities Leather 2011; and your humble columnist. Tallymaster was Randy Ingram; Den Daddy (contestant handler) was Bud Lile, assisted by Jayson Glynn.

Another sponsor of the Mr. Twin Cities Leather weekend was Fuck Water lubes, many samples of whose products were handed out during the weekend. Lavender Magazine was the weekend’s media sponsor.

Truss will represent Twin Cities Leather and Minnesota’s leather community as he competes in the 35th annual International Mr. Leather contest (<www.imrl.com>), May 24-27, 2013 (Memorial Day weekend) in Chicago.

“Community First”: Meet the owners of Twin Cities Leather

(Published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #462, February 14, 2013)

I recently interviewed the three co-owners of Twin Cities Leather, the new leather store in town. Karri Plowman is the head designer; Luke Wallrich handles finances, merchandising and event planning; and Tynan Fox is working with outreach, activism and education.

How did Twin Cities Leather come to be?

Karri Plowman: I had previously worked in another leather store and had left to open my own store and was having several difficulties. Frankly, there was just expertise and things that I needed to help me. And then, Luke—

Luke Wallrich: For my entire life I’ve been very entrepreneurial, always wanted to have a business of some kind. During discussions last year with some of the leadership of IML [the International Mr. Leather weekend], they said, your city really needs something that can put the community first, that can do something for the community that’s worthwhile.

Tynan Fox: Driving back from IML we had a long discussion in the car, and we realized that it’s only gonna happen if someone in the community steps up and takes leadership. And we decided that, you know, it’s time to be the grownups. It’s time for us to take some responsibility.

What do you want Twin Cities Leather to accomplish?

LW: I think our primary goal is “Community First.” One of the big ways that we’re doing that, of course, is with the Mr. Twin Cities Leather competition. But ultimately, it’s to help people discover, explore, enjoy, and fortify their kinky lives.

KP: This is a kink leather store owned by kink leather people for the kink leather community, and that’s important to us. And with that comes quality products and great customer service. When our clients come in—and we refer to our customers as clients, because that’s how we treat them—we can answer questions that just a sex store couldn’t answer. And that client concept means conversations, and purchases, are kept between us and our client.

LW: Our store and workshop are in a small basement location. You come in off the back side of this mixed-use property, a mansion in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Minneapolis. It’s also a community space—people can come in and sit and chat. The major hurdle is finding us, but once people know where we are, we’re easy to get to, and they like the privacy.

What can people expect when they visit?

TF: First and foremost, you can expect a friendly face. Our company motto is “Community First” for a reason—we want to make sure people are comfortable being able to shop and ask questions and get friendly answers.

LW: We’ve all been involved in this community for a very long time, even though we’re all relatively young individuals.

TF: Between the three of us we’ve got thirty years of experience.

You’ll have a store on the Web, too?

LW: Our current goal is to be online with TwinCitiesLeather.com, a full e-commerce website, by the end of January, 2013.

Talk a bit about the upcoming Mr. Twin Cities Leather contest.

LW: The reason we sponsor the contest, first and foremost, is that we believe the Twin Cities has a kink community that deserves representation and leadership. Contests are one of the ways we elect the leaders of our community, the people who get to go out there and be a focal point for the community.

Derek Harley, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2012, said in his speech at IML that you have to be a beacon. There are many different ways you can be a beacon in the community, and being a titleholder is certainly one of the ways. We wanted our city to have two of those beacons that people can come to and ask questions, so really we sponsor it for that community reason. And that’s why the store itself has the motto or the slogan of “Community First.”

(Twin Cities Leather is located at 300 Clifton Ave. in Minneapolis. Open seven days a week; more info at Facebook.com/TwinCitiesLeather or visit their new e-commerce site at TwinCitiesLeather.com. And check out all the events that make up the Mr. Twin Cities Leather contest weekend, Feb. 15-17 at The Saloon.)

2012 Atons Holiday Fundraiser Benefits The Aliveness Project

(Published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #460, January 17, 2013)

The Twin Cities leather community’s collective holiday season got off to a great start at the 2012 Atons Holiday Fundraiser. The event was held Sunday afternoon and evening, Dec. 2, in the Bolt Underground.

In addition to food, drink and a bigger-than-usual silent auction, event attendees could have their picture taken with Leather Santa and Naughty Elf (Mr. Twin Cities Leather 2011 Daniel Hennagir and Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2013 Ryan Brown). A bootblack station also was available to get those boots shined for the holidays.

The fundraiser included a food drive to replenish the food shelf at The Aliveness Project, and all funds collected at the door and through the silent auction benefited The Aliveness Project as well.

Ryan Brown is Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2013

(Published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #458, December 20, 2012)

Year after year, the Mr. Minneapolis Eagle contest has been a fun and hot event that packs the bar to capacity. This year’s version continued that tradition with four great contestants, seven judges (including out-of-town judges from Indiana and Iowa) and a big crowd that was ready to have fun.

The action started on Friday night, Nov. 9, with a meet-the-contestants event in the Minneapolis Eagle part of the bar complex, followed on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 10) by the judges’ private interviews with the contestants.

Saturday evening’s contest and show was held in the Bolt Underground. The contestants were introduced during the traditional Keg Walk: holding a beer keg above his head, each contestant worked his way through the crowd from the back of the bar to the stage at the front of the bar. Once they reached the stage they were introduced by emcee Brent Fourre, who was assisted by ASL interpreter Richard Herod.

The contestants were Jake Jacobson, a sandblasting artist who sported a pair of jeans with the image of a chain sandblasted on them; Karri Plowman, leather crafter and co-owner of Twin Cities Leather; Tommy Rosengren, photographer and writer; and Ryan Brown, businessman and bicycle aficionado.

Next to be introduced were the evening’s judges: Sam Carlisle, representing the Atons of Minneapolis; Dan Beach, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2007; Jayson Glynn, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2011 and also a member of the Atons; Derek Harley, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2012; Ron Kautz, Mr. 501 Eagle 2012, from Indianapolis; Jeremy Morris, Mr. Iowa Leather 2012, from Des Moines; and your humble columnist.

(The evening was, to a certain extent, a Mr. Minneapolis Eagle reunion of sorts. In addition to the past Mr. Minneapolis Eagle titleholders who were judging, the contest coordinator was Gregg White, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2003 (assisted by Nick Pavlik as contestant coordinator/Den Daddy), and the evening’s DJ was Todd Leek, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2000. The contest was sponsored, of course, by EagleBoltBar owner Ed Hopkins.)

The judges returned to their tables and the contestants were again brought onstage for the Q&A portion of the contest. This year’s questions included serious political questions about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, marriage equality and access to health care, as well as lighter questions concerning dungeon equipment, experiences at past International Mr. Leather weekends, and leather Christmas trees.

The final judged portion of the contest, the Erotic Fantasy, included a description of the various types of men needed for the perfect fantasy orgy, as well as tales of sex in a dungeon, at the office and in a storage unit.

While the judges’ scores were being tallied, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2012 Derek Harley gave an emotion-packed and heartfelt stepping-aside speech. At one point Harley was joined by his partner, Josh, who had been literally carried above the heads of the crowd and lifted onto the stage. The emotional high of that moment was later countered by a bit of mischief: At the end of Harley’s speech, some of his titleholder brothers held up signs that spelled out “W-U-Z-Z-Y,” a term of endearment for someone who is no longer a current titleholder.

It was right around midnight when the contest results were announced: Karri Plowman was named first runner-up, and Ryan Brown was named Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2013.

Brown will represent The Minneapolis Eagle and Minnesota’s leather community in the 34th annual International Mr. Leather competition (<www.imrl.com>), May 24-27, 2013 (Memorial Day weekend) in Chicago.

Thank You, Allies

(Published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #456, November 22, 2012)

This column is being written before Election Day, Nov. 6. You won’t be reading it until after the election has been held. That doesn’t matter, because whichever way the election turns out, the message of this column is the same:

Thank you, allies. Thank you from the bottom of my very gay heart.

I wrote a column in 2005 (Lavender #265, July 22) about the importance of having allies. The column was based on a song, “Not In Our Town,” that I had heard sung at a recent Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus concert. The song told what happened in Billings, Montana, in 1993: the town responded to anti-Jewish hate crimes by displaying paper menorahs in a window of almost every home, whether the people who lived there were Jewish or not. The song’s chorus ended with “No hate/No violence/Not in our town.”

In that column I wondered “what would happen if large numbers of people everywhere—gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trans people and allies alike—all started wearing pink triangles” as a show of solidarity. Then I made a proposition:

Wear a pink triangle. Wear it all the time. Wear it proudly. When people look shocked and say, “I didn’t know you were gay,” either tell them, “Well, I am” or tell them, “Well, I’m not — but I have a lot of friends who are, and I don’t like seeing them discriminated against.”

I could never have envisioned that, in Minnesota at least, that symbol of solidarity would be neither pink nor a triangle. It would be orange and blue, or blue and orange. It would take the form of lawn signs, buttons, stickers, t-shirts, billboards and even automobiles wrapped in the “VOTE NO” message.

The orange and blue symbol would be worn and displayed both by members of the GLBT community and by people who do not consider themselves members of that community, but who have nevertheless risen to the community’s aid. They saw injustice for what it was and refused to accept it without a fight. And every time I saw one of those orange and blue markers, I felt a little more hopeful about the future.

So much was so different when I came out in 1974. It was five years past Stonewall. The first Gay Pride celebration in Minneapolis had been held only two years earlier, in 1972. And, in 1971, Minnesota’s own Jack Baker and Mike McConnell had been the first same-sex couple anywhere to attempt getting married.

Nevertheless, for much of my time as a gay man, marriage was something that was for other people but not for me. In my mother's book, My Son Eric, she writes of my reaction to my older sister’s wedding (which, unbeknownst to her, took place shortly after I realized I was gay):

Eric had said after [the] wedding, “It made me sort of sad.” “Why?” I had asked. “Because it will never be that way for me.”

At the time she thought I was referring to the church where the wedding had been held, which was something of a family tradition. When she later found out I was gay, it suddenly dawned on her what I had meant.

What a difference 38 years makes. I have lived through an epidemic, one that is still claiming lives. I have marched against Anita Bryant, both in Minneapolis and in St. Paul, when she came to town. I've seen the Pride celebration grow and have seen many more allies show up for it in recent years than I saw years ago. I’ve seen Minneapolis dubbed the gayest city in the country. I’ve seen the progress toward equality the GLBT community has made in so many areas. And I’ve seen the backlashes against that progress, among them bullying and, this year, the marriage amendment.

I suspect there are as many reasons for taking a stand against the Minnesota marriage amendment as there are people who have taken that stand. Some are themselves members of the GLBT community. Some have children in the GLBT community. Or parents. Or aunts or uncles. Or friends. Or coworkers. Or, perhaps, none of the above—just a sense of basic fairness.

Whatever the reason, many, many folks have come forward and said that they felt the Minnesota marriage amendment was uncalled for, and they have backed that assertion with their dollars, their volunteer efforts, and their votes. It has been truly amazing, and a more than a little humbling, to watch.

Now that at least this phase of the struggle for marriage equality will have concluded by the time you read this, there is only one thing appropriate to say when you have been the recipient of the kindness of so many thousands—hundreds of thousands—of people across the state. It’s something that perhaps our allies don’t hear often enough: I feel such gratitude for all your efforts and support. Thank you. Thank you so much.

(Update: The “Vote No” forces won, and the Minnesota Marriage Amendment was voted down. Minnesota was the first state where this type of amendment lost at the ballot box.)

Exclusive “Leather Life” interview: Barbara Nitke, author of American Ecstasy

(Published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #454, October 25, 2012)

Photographer and activist Barbara Nitke recently published her second book: American Ecstasy. The book is a memoir in photographs and text of her years as the on-set staff photographer for many of the porn films shot in New York in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Kiss of Fire, Nitke’s first book (published in 2003), is a collection of photographs of couples involved in BDSM scenes.

In 2001, Nitke (along with co-plaintiff the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom) initiated a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft seeking to overturn the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA), which many people felt was unconstitutional.

When I recently had a chance to interview Nitke by phone, we discussed her new book, her previous book, the lawsuit, and much, much more.

How did you get into photography?

I took up photography as a hobby when I was in my late twenties. I was married to a guy who was a porn producer. He was an entrepreneur type, and in the 1970s there was a lot of money to be made in porn.

I was a housewife. I used to play tennis a lot. I took up photography as a hobby. One thing led to another and I was able to turn it into a profession.

Actually, I originally wanted to be a writer. I took a lot of writing classes and found I don’t like the process of writing. I don’t like sitting down and, you know, looking at the blank page, or the blank computer screen. So later on in my twenties, when I picked up a camera, I was so happy, you know?

No blank page.

No blank page! You’re out in the world. You’re relating to people. You’ve got your camera, you take pictures. It’s very immediate. It’s spontaneous. It just felt right, almost from the beginning.

I must say, though, I very much enjoyed the writing in your new book—the way you tell the stories that go with the pictures.

Oh, thank you! I think if I had enjoyed writing, I probably could have been a decent writer. But I’d so much rather be hanging out with people with my camera, you know? I think the reason I wanted to be a writer is because I love observing people, and I thought originally if I could be a writer I would make these insightful, penetrating observations of people. And I find that’s where I want to go with my photography. I just found a better medium for what I want to express.

Did you have any training, or are you completely self-taught?

I have taken three photography classes in my life, and other than that I’m self-taught—the irony being, I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts here in New York. And I once admitted to my class that I was almost all self-taught, and two guys in the back of the class stood up and said, "Yeah, what are we doing here?"

I hope they were joking.

Well, they kept coming to class sporadically, but they were brothers, and they eventually got in the car with their cameras and crossed the country—which is what they should have done.

Who would you say were your influences? Did you have any influences?

Oh, yeah! Robert Mapplethorpe, of course, of course.

Did you know him?

No. I went into a bookstore one day and I saw a really compelling front cover of a book, and I picked up the book, and on the back was an image—it was a very kind of butch, tight image of a guy in a leather jacket. And I turned the book over, and on the other side was the same guy in drag. And I just was like, Do Not Pass Go. I bought the book immediately, took it home and fell in love with it. And it was Robert Mapplethorpe! I mean, I didn’t even know who he was. And when I really looked at his work and realized what he was shooting, it was just—I can’t even find the words—I was just awestruck that this guy could be recognized as an artist, and actually get to take the pictures that he was taking. So, he was probably my big first influence. And then there are a lot of them, I could name a whole long list. But he was big.

How would you describe yourself as a photographer?

I think I’m always evolving and changing. But I started out as a social documentary photographer, which would be like a Mary Ellen Mark or Diane Arbus. You’re uncovering moments, you’re finding moments, but you’re not directing what people do—you’re capturing something they’re already doing.

I started out that way, but as my career goes by, I’m changing over to the other side where I set up a scene and people act it out. Kiss of Fire was kind of a hybrid, because we would discuss what we were going to do upfront, and then I would come in and light it and stage it, pick the location, look at wardrobe—so it was a lot of planning. But then I would step back and not direct as people did their (BDSM) scene. Whereas the earlier work, American Ecstasy, the book I’m coming out with now—that’s pure documentary. I haven’t picked where we are, I haven’t done any lighting. I’ve blended in enough so that people would reveal themselves with me present with my camera, but I’m not really staging and lighting and doing any of that stuff.

Let’s talk about what you photograph. Why do you photograph kink/sex/porn? What draws you to it as a photographic subject?

Wow! You know, I’ve been in therapy for almost thirty years, and I don’t think I can answer the “why” part of that question.

What happened was, as I said before, my ex-husband made porn movies. I eventually asked him to let me shoot stills on one of his shoots. And then the director of that shoot hired me to work on his next shoot, which wasn’t my ex-husband’s movie. So it was on the second porn shoot, I was there with my camera—I’ll never forget—I was back in the makeup room, and everybody was getting dressed, made up, and complaining and gossiping and whatever. And I looked around and I thought, wow, here I am, I have my camera here, this world is completely open to me, and I get to shoot anything I want. And I realized in that split second that I had found my subject. It was like, wow, it just came to me—this is what I’m supposed to be shooting.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m drawn to sex for some reason—maybe you could say sex is the subject. Or maybe you could say that really it’s the people that are my subject, not so much the sex acts. I don’t know. I had more clearly defined goals for Kiss of Fire. That book was about people who were couples, who were expressing love through sadomasochism. I really had a better definition of what I wanted to shoot at that point.

Maybe it’s the most intimate part of people, and that’s what draws me to it. I don’t know. There have been so many moments in my life when I think I would have been better off with a different subject—I mean, certainly career-wise, it would have been better to have subject matter that was more widely accepted. And I’ve often felt that the subject picked me more than I picked it. You know, whatever it is, however it happened, I’m proud that I’ve always followed that inner voice that tells me I’m on the right path.

The photos that are now in American Ecstasy—what were they originally shot for? What use would they have been put to back when they were shot, when the films were in production?

The shots you’re seeing in that book are shots I shot for myself. But the way it worked was that I was always hired to work on the porn movies, and my job was to shoot publicity shots that would sell the movies.

What we’re seeing in the book is not those?

No. What happened was, I was shooting on slide film. And once I realized on that second shoot that I wanted to shoot this for me, then I was easily able to shoot what the producers needed, what I was hired to shoot. And then when I saw my moments, I would shoot those, and I would pull those slides out. So I gave the production the shots they had specifically asked me to shoot, and I kept my shots for me.

The images in American Ecstasy were shot from when to when?

Starting in 1982, and American Ecstasy goes up to 1991, so it’s a nine-year period.

And why are we just now seeing the images? What’s taken so long?

Well, that is a very good question, because I have been looking for a publisher for that work since 1985.

Wow!

I know. My first literary agent took on my book in 1985, and then could never sell it. And then I went through another bunch of literary agents. And throughout all those years, some publishers would be insulted, but others would say, wow, this is good material, but we wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. I mean, they would compliment me on it, but no one would publish it.

So, I’m self-publishing American Ecstasy. I raised the money, or most of it, on Kickstarter.com. And what’s cool about that is there’s no filter of an editor or publishing house or anything. It’s not edited, it’s unabridged, it’s exactly the book that I wanted to have. So maybe things happen for a reason, you know what I mean?

When did you give up trying to find a publisher for the book and decide to self-publish it? How recently?

I never gave up. I never ever gave up. The first three or four agents eventually gave up, but then I would go find another agent. I mean, I just never gave up.

So when did you decide that, okay, this is not going to happen, I’m going to self-publish it?

I decided that this past year.

So, even as recently as this past year, your book was considered too hot for publishers to touch?

Well, there’s a longer story. In 2005, my literary agent, Jane Dystel, actually got a publisher, and that was Judith Regan—

Oh!—

I don’t know if you know who that is—

Oh, yes!—

Judith was at Harper Collins, and she was the most powerful editor—she had her own imprint, and she really had carte blanche, because she was just really successful. She took the book on. And I was beyond thrilled—I mean, she appreciated the book, totally understood it. She really liked the book, and she was all set to publish it. Literally, I was just trying to FedEx the model releases out to LA where her office was, when she got fired.

I mean, it was the most bizarre thing! I had all kinds of trouble that day, and I couldn’t get the model releases into FedEx before 9:00 at night. And I think it was right after FedEx closed that I got the news that she had been fired. It was just the weirdest thing.

So, Judith got fired. I didn’t want Harper Collins to do my book without her, but we had to wait a year for them to release it, and then my agent went back out looking for another publisher. God bless that woman! And no one else would touch it.

So, then, two and a half years ago, I got a call from this young couple, they were publishing a small, kind of a soft-porn magazine. They had published some of my work in the past, and they said, you know what, we’re gonna publish your book. So I got all set for them to publish it. We had some disagreements over how the layout should be but we were heavily involved in getting it published, when all of a sudden they disappeared. No one would answer my calls, nobody would answer my emails, I didn’t know what happened to them. But by then I was so far along in the process that I decided to do the Kickstarter.com campaign and just publish it myself.

I found out that the couple suddenly started going through a divorce, that’s why they disappeared. But because of that— You know, the layout they were going to publish was not the layout I would have wanted, so again, things happen for a reason.

So what you’ve got now is the layout that you wanted.

Yeah. And I used the book designer that they had onboard—who’s amazing! We just revamped the layout to the way it is now. They didn’t like the idea of blending the text with pictures. They thought all the text should be in the front of the book and then all the pictures in the second half.

I like it the way it is.

Oh, me too! By far! I know it’s better this way. I had their designer do it my way, and she agreed with me, and, you know, it just turned out to be perfect.

So that’s the long saga of getting this book published. You have no idea what a great moment this is in my life!

What, to you, makes a good photograph?

To me, a photograph has to tell a story. I mean, you know, it has to draw you in. I think there has to be some depth. I also think a good photograph leaves you wanting a little more. It doesn’t, like, give it all away, there’s maybe a little bit of mystery to a good photograph. That could just be based on the person, the subject of the photo, or some gesture that they’re making. Composition matters, I think all the technical things matter, but I think what really makes a good photo is beyond the technical stuff.

What’s your favorite kind of subject to shoot?

People, people, people! The subject has to be able to talk. I can’t do still-life stuff, or animals. I can do other stuff, but photographing people is what I want to do.

What do you want your photos to do or to accomplish or to communicate?

I want my photographs to make people think, or to ask questions. Ideally, I want to go beyond just simply entertaining someone with my photos. And I want to open their mind if I can.

That’s a perfect segue into the final topic I want to ask you about: the lawsuit. Talk about opening people’s minds—that’s what that lawsuit was trying to do. Was it Ashcroft v. Nitke or Nitke v. Ashcroft?

Nitke v. Ashcroft—we sued them.

When you say we, it was you and who else that brought the suit?

It was me and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. And our lawyer, who ended up pro bono, doing it for free, was John Wirenius. John is a constitutional scholar who has written a book about the First Amendment.

Here’s the story of the suit. I’ll try to keep it simple—because if you ask my lawyer, it’s extremely complicated.

Basically, there is a law called the Communications Decency Act, which makes it a felony crime to post obscenity on the internet. And the problem with this law is the way they define obscenity. First of all, nobody knows what obscenity is. The way it’s legally defined in the Communications Decency Act is by community standards. So, if you post something on the internet that is patently—I forget their words, but appeals to the prurient interest, is completely lacking in artistic merit, scientific merit, based on the values of a specific community, then it’s obscene.

So it goes community by community. So what would probably be fine in New York, for example, might be considered obscene in a small town in Mississippi. And this definition worked fine until the internet came along. Now, if I’m in New York, and I put something up on my website, I can’t control who goes to my website, where they’re coming from, where they live.

So the only way for me not to commit a felony crime is to really not have anything sexual or nude on my website, if you took it to an extreme. We felt that law was unconstitutional because it chills everyone’s right to free expression, so we sued the government to try to overturn that law. And, to make a long story short, after years we lost, and we lost it at the Supreme Court level. And I really think we lost it politically because the Bush administration was in power then, and I think the Supreme Court just didn’t wanna go there. They didn’t want to start overturning laws like that when the Republicans were in power.

If the political tide turns, might someone try again to overturn the Communications Decency Act?

The Democrats are usually a little more reasonable about allocating their resources—for instance, when Clinton was in power and Janet Reno was the attorney general, they didn’t do any obscenity prosecutions because they cost a lot of money and take up a lot of time, so it was not a priority. Then they started doing prosecutions when the Republicans came back in. If the Democrats stay in power they probably just won’t enforce that law, and everybody will probably be okay. But our thinking was that we didn’t like having the law on the books, because you can always get Republicans back in, and you can always have the religious right go nuts again. So we just felt the law was a dangerous tool that they could use.

But the law is still on the books, and what I’ve done is just gone on with my life, and put my images up on my website. But I know that there’s always the danger—the way it works is, it could be one prosecutor in one tiny small town somewhere out there in the middle of America that decided that they don’t like you or they don’t like your work, and they can start an obscenity prosecution against you. So everybody’s vulnerable, really.

There is certainly no shortage of sex and nudity on the Web. How does everybody get around that? Or is everybody just living dangerously?

Well, everybody’s vulnerable. Realistically, from the government’s point of view—we found this out during the course of the lawsuit—the religious right puts a lot of pressure on the Department of Justice to go after all that porn that’s on the internet, because they would really like to see it go away. But from a realistic point of view, when the government mounts an obscenity charge against someone, they usually lose. You know, if the person fights it the government loses. So it’s hard for them to mount the cases. From a defendant’s point of view, though, it’s very expensive to fight the case. The porn industry will tend to fight them—they will find a way to raise money, or they have money, and they will fight back.

So the people that end up being vulnerable, really, are people like me that don’t have those means. Over the years, there have been some people who have gone to jail. I think the religious right keeps the pressure on, so the government has to keep those laws on the books—the government has to look like it’s doing something.

It’s a complicated situation. I know of an entire company that went out of business overnight—a hundred people lost their jobs in New York, overnight. This happened a number of years ago because a guy was running for mayor in a small town in Alabama. This company had satellite dishes that beamed all over the country, and this guy, in his run for mayor, said, I’m gonna get rid of that obscenity that’s coming into your homes from this horrible New York company. He mounted a prosecution that put them out of business. So, even with all the porn that’s out there, I say again, everybody’s still vulnerable.

What’s your day job now? You’re a staff photographer for television shows?

Dr. Oz is one of my clients. I love working on his show! I mean, I love him! He’s amazing. And I’ve worked on every season of Project Runway, which is a lot of fun to work on. I’ve worked on a lot of narrative shows, like Damages with Glenn Close. There’s a new Kevin Bacon show called The Following that I worked on. I’ll be on Gossip Girl next week. There are a lot of television shows shot in New York. That’s my day job, just going from show to show.

How can people find out more about American Ecstasy?

The website for the book is AmericanEcstasyBook.com. On the site there are excerpts from the book, and there’s a “buy book” link there, too. Or go right to Amazon.com and search for “American Ecstasy.”

Meet Mr. Friendly: Interview with Derek Harley, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2012

(Published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #452, September 27, 2012)

Allow me to introduce you to Derek Harley, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2012. Allow him to introduce you to Mr. Friendly, the new face (literally) of HIV stigma awareness. Harley is the team captain for Team Friendly Minnesota.

Tell me about Mr. Friendly.

Mr. Friendly is the new face of reducing HIV stigma. His face is a positive and a negative sign, so someone who wears this symbol is saying, “Positive or negative, I’m here for you. Regardless of your HIV status, we’re all in this together.”

How did you get hooked up with Mr. Friendly?

I was introduced to Mr. Friendly at the International Mr. Leather contest three or four years ago. I have a lot of very close friends who have tested positive. They needed support, and we’ve been there for them all throughout their journey of acceptance. I’ve seen some stigma-related incidents happen with them, and I just think this is a conversation that our city and our community needs to have. Speaking openly and honestly about HIV and reducing stigma is going to make our community better.

How did Mr. Friendly get started?

It was started by Dave Watt, a former Mr. Michigan Leather titleholder. He competed and won his title in September, 2008, and during his title year he started the Mr. Friendly program.

Why is the Mr. Friendly program needed? What does it hope to accomplish?

Reducing HIV stigma will make the world a better place for those living with HIV. It is going to increase testing, decrease transmission, and just overall make the world a friendlier place.

Give me an example of HIV stigma.

I think a lot of people don’t realize that they might be inducing stigma in conversations they have. They might think they're open-minded to individuals who are positive, but when it comes down to it, maybe they’re not so much. An example I like to use is the question, “Are you clean?” On its face it doesn’t seem offensive, but if you look at the opposite side of that, you’re implying that someone who is not negative and has a positive status is somehow dirty. And that doesn’t make that person feel very good.

Mr. Friendly is needed because we have to put it out there that the way you interact with someone who is positive can have a deep impact on how they feel about themselves. If we make them feel dirty or unwelcome or that they’re outcasts, we are degrading them as a person.

And, really, the status is just a part of who they are. They’re living with HIV, but it’s not necessarily what defines their lives. Many people I know who have HIV don’t go around every day thinking about the fact that they have HIV and don’t wear a big sign that says, hey, I have HIV. But that’s how they’re treated when they disclose their status.

For years I’ve seen phrases in online profiles such as “DDF/UB2” (“drug and disease free, you be too”).

In phrases like that there’s stigma attached all over the place, and not necessarily just referring to HIV. If you start dictating exactly what your terms are, you close the door to a conversation. Mr. Friendly is about having that conversation, having an open and honest conversation about statuses. Why can’t I just ask, “Hey, are you positive or are you negative?” and from there have a conversation about that, and define what’s safe for a particular person? But if you initially shut down the conversation by stating a demand of “drug and disease free, UB2,” it closes the door to having that conversation.

How can people get involved with Mr. Friendly and Team Friendly Minnesota?

We had a launch party on Sept. 15, and we’re doing a second one to reach out to the 18+ crowd on Sept. 20. From there we’d like to see the program do something along the lines of monthly outreach at different bars. And we want to get Mr. Friendly pins into the bars, so that even if we’re not doing an outreach event people can get an information card that talks about Mr. Friendly, and a pin they can wear to show that they are status-friendly folks.

(Visit the Mr. Friendly website at <Mr. Friendly.info>. There is also a Facebook page for Team Friendly Minnesota—search for “Mr. Friendly” on Facebook.)