Mr. Mpls. Eagle Contest 2003

(Article published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #204, March 21, 2003)

If you thought of competing in this year’s Mr. Minneapolis Eagle contest but then decided not to, start kicking yourself (and also start making plans to enter next year’s contest). You missed a chance to be onstage with five great contestants, each of whom thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The Minneapolis Eagle chose its representative for 2003 (and Minnesota’s representative at this year’s International Mr. Leather contest) on Sunday evening, March 2. Proudly sponsored by local chat line 1-800GAYLIVE, the contest crowded the bar to capacity with a lively, enthusiastic and supportive audience.

This year’s contest followed the same basic format as previous years. On Saturday afternoon the judges got their chance to privately interview each contestant. Then on Sunday night the contestants were introduced during the traditional “keg walk,” and were then judged in a question-and-answer segment. For the final competition category each contestant presented an 60-second erotic reading (quick but very effective).

Scoring for this year’s contest, like last year’s, was very close. Joe Alegrett, owner of Penetrations Piercings & Body Designs in Eau Claire, Wis. took second runner-up honors; Chris Boudewyns was first runner-up; and at the climax of the evening Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2002 Wayne Butzer passed the title to his successor, Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2003 Gregg White.

Minneapolis Eagle owner Ed Hopkins was very happy with the way the contest went: “It’s usually nerve-wracking leading up to the contest—it’s always a busy night at the bar and I’m usually paranoid about technical problems.” He was pleased, and somewhat relieved, that this year’s contest was “flawless—the contestants, the judges, the emcee [Brian Anderson, manager of The Minneapolis Eagle and The Bolt], and the crowd were all wonderful.”

The contestants felt the same way. Alegrett seemed pleased that “there was no competitive backstabbing. All the contestants seemed relaxed—I think we all thought that we might at least get a new friend out of the experience.” He had nothing but praise for his fellow contestants: “These guys were great! I couldn’t have asked for a better group of gentlemen to complete alongside.”

Contestant Ric Krohn also enjoyed the experience. “It was my first contest, it was a totally new experience, and it left me with a good feeling. I met people I’ve seen before but not had a chance to meet.” Krohn said his goal was “just to compete, to see what I could do.” What prompted him to enter? “I had thought about it since last year, and when we were in the bar a couple of weeks before the contest my friends encouraged me to enter.”

White summed up the contest by saying, “This was one of the few contests I’ve seen where no matter which of the contestants would have won, I would have been proud of our community. All the contestants were pleasant and encouraging to each other. And being on stage was awesome because the crowd was so supportive.”

As the new Mr. Minneapolis Eagle 2003, White will compete in this year’s 25th-anniversary edition of the International Mr. Leather (IML) Contest, which will be held in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. (IML contest information is available at <www.imrl.com>.)

Leather Life’s Leather List

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Leather Activities to Fill Your Datebook

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #202, February 21, 2003)

Get out your calendar and start marking! Starting this very weekend and continuing through the next few months, various organizations within the Twin Cities leather community will be presenting all kinds of interesting get-togethers. If you’re a Twin-Cities-based reader you’ll find an amazing array of activities right in your own backyard; if you’re not, you’ll find several activities here that would justify a trip to beautiful Minnesota.

Happening Soon:

Friday, February 21, 7-9 PM: The Black Guard of Minneapolis is having a beer bust and taco feed at Trikkx in St Paul—five dollars for all the beer you can drink, tacos for a buck each. Buy a balloon for a buck, bust it and win prizes including calendars, videos, candy and birdhouses.

Tuesday. Feb. 25, 7 PM: Pride Alive, the Queer Men’s Initiative of the Minnesota AIDS Project presents a discussion on “The Future of Leather.” Pride Alive isn’t really a leather organization, but it has been sponsoring a great three-part discussion series about leather. Part 1 (Jan. 28) was about leather history, and Part 2 (Feb. 11) dealt with risk and responsibility as it applies to leather and the dungeon. Whether or not you attended either of the first two sessions, you’re invited to what is sure to be a lively discussion on where the leather community is going. Minnesota AIDS Project office, 1400 Park Ave. S., Mpls. FFI contact William Grier, Health Educator @mnaidsproject.org.

Saturday, March 1, 10:30 AM-2 PM: MSDB (Minnesota Stocks, Debentures and Bonds) present “Rules of Engagement.” Picking up where their popular discussion on dungeon etiquette left off, this panel discussion will cover relationships with neighbors, co-workers, family, police, civil courts and others. Topics to be covered include: how to approach your children, loved ones, and significant others about your lifestyle; the dynamics of throwing a public party; civil law (including custody issues); how we relate to the police, the media, our supervisor, postal inspectors, our physicians and our spiritual advisors; and what’s expected of us as members of the local community. Class attendees are encouraged to bring a lunch—dessert and beverages will be provided. For further information and to order tickets visit msdb-mn.org or e-mail events@msdb-mn.org.

Saturday, March 22: MSDB presents another in its series of kink-aware CPR/First Aid certification classes. The CPR class runs from 9 AM-1PM; First Aid class is 2-6 PM. Check MDSB’s website (listed above) for more information.

RUNS AND WEEKEND EVENTS

April 4-6: Black Frost 26, the annual run and fundraiser presented by the Black Guard of Minneapolis. This year’s theme is “B-B-B . . . Back to Basic Black,” and the run show will feature members of the Black Guard performing some of their classic numbers—as the run brochure says, “OLD but still entertaining”—as well as some new surprises. Also featured throughout the weekend will be the traditional camaraderie, games and cocktail parties. Fundraiser beneficiaries are The Aliveness Project and Every Penny Counts. Host hotel, and also the site of Saturday evening’s banquet and show, is the Quality Inn in downtown Minneapolis. For more information and to download a run application, visit www.blackguardmpls.com. (The club is looking for groups, organizations and individuals interested in hosting cocktail parties—contact the Black Guard via their website).

April 4-6: Spring Sting/Midwest Fetish Expo. Yes, it’s the same weekend as the Black Guard’s run, and also the same weekend as “Beat Me In St. Louis,” another BDSM/fetish expo. But with the amount of work and planning that producer Wolfhold Productions has lavished on this event, it should be quite successful and attract a good crowd. This pansexual weekend of fun, camaraderie, learning and dungeon play will be held in what is described as “a beautiful, newly built urban destination resort” with every amenity imaginable. (midnight skinny-dipping, anyone?) An assortment of workshops and discussions will be presented on Saturday and Sunday; among the nationally-known presenters will be bullwhip expert Robert Dante and noted author Fetish Diva Midori. A safe and monitored dungeon environment will be available both Friday and Saturday nights. The Fetish Ball on Saturday night is open to the public, and during the Fetish Ball the large vendor area will be open to the public as well. For more information,visit www.midwestfetish.com, e-mail events@midwestfetish.com or write to Wolfhold Productions, Willernie, MN. (Wolfhold Productions also plans a “Snowbound” event for November.)

June 6-8: Knights of Leather Tournament 15—Little Dungeon on the Prairie. Rope ’em and ride ’em, says the brochure. Escape to a private camp within a park and enjoy seminars, panel discussions and four (maybe five) fully-equipped dungeons, open 24 hours a day. Five fabulous meals (catered by Rainbow Creations) are included, as are continuous snacks and nonalcoholic beverages. For more information, to register and pay electronically or to download a run application visit www.knightsofleather.org. Substantial discounts for early registration (biggest discount if you register by March 6).

July 17-19: Atons of Minneapolis Campout. The Atons host a run every other year; in years without runs, like this one, the Atons hold a summer campout instead—a no-nonsense weekend in the woods with a bunch of leathermen. For more information visit www.atons.net or call the Atons HotLine.

Quite a list, isn’t it? And there’s more—space doesn’t permit listing all the recurring events put on by the various clubs and organizations. Watch for information about them in a future column.

Sexual Fulfillment: What Two Retired Lutheran Bishops Have to Say on the Matter, and Why You Should Care

(Book review published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #201, February 7, 2003)

Sexual Fulfillment (for Single and Married, Straight and Gay, Young and Old)

By Herbert W. Chilstrom and Lowell O. Erdahl

Softcover, 182 pages, $13.99

Published by Augsburg Press (www.augsburgfortress.org)

Good news! According to two retired Lutheran bishops, it’s not a sin to be gay and it’s not a sin for gay people to have sex. Well, it’s not necessarily a sin for them to have sex, anyway.

Two retired Lutheran bishops have had the courage to write a book that frankly discusses aspects of sex and sexual relationships (including same-sex relationships) rarely addressed by organized religion. For this alone, they should be applauded.

It might be easy and tempting for many readers of Lavender to dismiss this book, and indeed the entire controversy about the church’s views of sexuality, as old news and irrelevant. But change doesn’t come from ignoring a problem. Rather than ignoring the controversy, members of the GLBT community and other sexual minorities would be much smarter to seize the opportunity created by this book and get involved in the discussion, so that their voices and viewpoints can be and are heard. The publication of this book represents major progress in the struggle for understanding and acceptance of GLBT people in church and in society, and it might never have been written were it not for the involvement of the early members of Lutherans Concerned and what Chilstrom and Erdahl refer to as other “Christ-confessing gay and lesbian persons.”

The two authors have for many years wielded much influence within the Lutheran Church. When the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was formed in 1987, Herbert Chilstrom was elected its first presiding bishop and served in that capacity until 1995. Lowell Erdahl was bishop of the St. Paul area synod of the ELCA from 1988 to 1996. Both authors had long careers as Lutheran pastors before becoming bishops, and the style of the book’s writing—including the question-and-answer sessions at the end of every chapter—is more reminiscent of a joint pastoral counseling session than of two bishops pontificating.

Much of what the authors write seems at first very traditional and conservative—exactly what one would expect from two retired Lutheran bishops. The surprise comes when one looks past how they sound and looks at what they’re actually saying. Some of their assertions and conclusions, while perhaps quaintly old-fashioned for many Lavender readers, could be considered revolutionary in other circles—to religious fundamentalists, scandalous if not blasphemous. Since its publication the book has sparked much controversy among Lutherans of every stripe.

The authors’ central conviction is a belief that sex is a gift from God, intended for our good, our joy and our well-being. (Martin Luther would approve.) The authors spend the first two chapters of the book discussing “life-giving” sex that is fulfilling, healthy, joyful and a blessing, and “life-degrading” sex that is harmful, predatory, shallow or superficial, and that leads to unfulfilling or painful relationships. (The authors prefer the terms “life-giving” and “life-degrading” to more emotionally loaded words such as “right,” “wrong,” and “sinful.”)

In Chapter 3 they discuss sexual fulfillment in the context of traditional heterosexual marriage. Then it’s off to the minefields, discussing in subsequent chapters sexual fulfillment among single people (pre-marriage, never married, divorced, widowed, celibate); couples who are living together but not married; people in same-sex relationships; and, perhaps most shocking of all, the elderly (Viagra, anyone?). For someone in the church to even acknowledge that people in these categories might be entitled to some sort of sexual fulfillment constitutes a revolutionary act.

For gay people, the good news is that the authors declare their beliefs that being gay is a discovery, not a choice, and that sexual orientation, like sex itself, is a gift from God, and it would be wrong to reject it or try to change it. This is a viewpoint that has been arrived at by the authors literally over decades, and they describe their process of moving from having little understanding of sexual orientation to “loving the sinner but hating the sin” to their present-day stance:

“We affirm life-giving sexual fulfillment for gays and lesbians and welcome the creation of responsible, committed same-sex relationships that are the moral and emotional equivalent of marriage. We encourage those in such relationships to live together with the same kind of mutual love, mutual respect, mutual openness and mutual faithfulness that we have envisioned for heterosexual marriage.”

Throughout the book the authors hold to a very high standard for what constitutes “life-giving” sexual expression—a standard that many readers may feel to be either unattainable or undesirable—and many readers will disagree with the authors’ classification of certain other types of sexual expression as “life-degrading.” (Examples: They don’t appear to look favorably on either SM or polyamory.)

But while Chilstrom and Erdahl might make some severe pronouncements in the book, their manner of making them is unfailingly compassionate rather than judgmental. They thoroughly explain their views and how they have come to feel the way they do, and they acknowledge that not everyone will see everything their way.

Whether you agree or disagree with them, however, reading this book will make you think about these issues and where you stand on them. The book seems to have been written not to provide simple answers to complex questions, but rather to admit to the complexity of those questions and get a discussion going. At that level Chilstrom and Erdahl succeed admirably. In effect, they have invited the GLBT community into the dialogue. Now it’s up to us to accept the invitation and join the discussion.

Piercings By Cupid

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #201, February 7, 2003)

Valentine’s Day and leather go very well together. In fact, the combination is a better fit than you may have realized. Think of all the symbolism that Valentine’s Day involves.

First there’s Cupid, a master piercer if ever there was one. Cupid, the Roman god of love, was the son of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus was the Roman version of the Greek goddess Aphrodite—that’s where the word “aphrodisiac” comes from. In the same fashion, Cupid was the Roman version of the Greek god Eros, from whose name comes the word “erotic”—and for whom the Atons of Minneapolis have named their annual springtime “Eros” parties.

Next: The symbol of love that’s on every Valentine card—a heart—is also a prominent part of the leather pride flag. There are very few other flags in the world that incorporate a heart. How few, you ask? I recently visited a website called Flags of the World (<www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/>), which is paradise to anyone into vexillology. A search of 32,000 images of flags reveals a mere 23 that have the keyword “heart” associated with them. On further investigation, the heart-shaped thing on several of the flags is really a leaf or a lily pad. Many of the other flags that include a heart in the design use it as a representation of being “at the heart of” something, the center or crossroads of a geographical region. (Example: The Canadian city of Chilliwack has a flag with four green hearts representing that Chilliwack is “the green heart of British Columbia.”) Disqualify the historical flags that are no longer used, and the leather pride flag emerges as the most widely-flown modern-day flag incorporating a heart. Of all those 32,000 flags, the leather pride flag’s use of a big, bold, unabashed red heart pretty much stands alone. (Oh, in case you didn’t already know, vexillology is the study of flags.)

Now, what about the man who gave the day its name? According to various legends, Saint Valentine was a physician/healer and also a (reputedly chaste) Christian priest who was executed on February 14, 269 A.D. Emperor Claudius II was the leader of the Roman Empire at the time and was having trouble getting Roman men to join his army. He reasoned that they didn’t want to leave their wives and families; therefore, he canceled all marriages and engagements. Valentine, however, continued to marry couples in secret, for which he was jailed and ultimately martyred.

More legend: Valentine was put in prison while he awaited execution. His jailer had a blind daughter whose sight was restored by Valentine. They became friends, and when Valentine was executed he left a note to the jailer’s daughter thanking her for her friendship and support. He signed it, “From your Valentine.” (The legend doesn’t say how old the jailer’s daughter was, so we can only hope that the first Valentine message ever sent was not from a priest to an underage child.)

That note signed “From your Valentine” might have remained obscure were it not for what happened 200 years later. The custom of the Roman empire at the time was to start the Feast of Lupercalia honoring Juno, the goddess of “feverish” (febris) love, on February 15. A lottery was held where men drew women’s names, and the women became the men’s feasting and sexual companions for the next year. (Doesn’t sound terribly consensual for the women, does it?) The early Christian church didn’t approve of such pagan eroticism and hijacked the festival by making February 14 the Feast Day of Saint Valentine—in effect substituting romance for eroticism. No longer would a man get a woman because he drew her name, but he would be allowed to send her a “valentine” note asking if she was interested in him.

So, what does it all mean? Given Saint Valentine’s track record of opposing those who oppose love, I’d be willing to bet that if he were alive today he’d thumb his nose at the Church and perform same-sex marriages. He would also probably understand that love comes in many flavors and that not all of the flavors are to everyone’s liking. But love in any flavor is still love and deserves to be honored as such. So, regardless of whether your preferred flavor is vanilla or something more exotic, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Chicago Leatherfest happens Valentine’s Day Weekend

This Valentine’s Day weekend (Feb. 14-16), leatherfolk from across the nation and around the world will meet in Chicago for a variety of events. Foremost among them will be thirteenth annual Pantheon of Leather Community Service Awards on Saturday, Feb. 15. (This year the Atons of Minneapolis are nominated in the category of “Small Event of the Year” for last year’s thirtieth-anniversary run.) Also on Saturday is the Mr. Cell Block/Male Hide Leatherman 2003 Contest, and on Sunday is the Mr. and Ms Olympus Leather 2003 Contest.

Also taking place Valentine’s Day weekend is My Vicious Valentine, another notorious Chicago event back for its sixth edition. The Christian-conservative group Concerned Women of America managed to get last year’s Vicious Valentine 5 evicted from one host hotel but was unsuccessful in getting them evicted from a second hotel, and the event was consequently a great success. The theme of this year’s Vicious Valentine VI (note the Roman numerals) is “Caesar’s Revenge,” and the event will even include—you guessed it—a Lupercalia party.

Fundraisers, Trust and Accountability

(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #200, January 24, 2003)

Food drives. Toy drives. Auctions. Raffles. If you hang around the leather/BDSM community (or the GLBT community or almost any other community, for that matter) you will see individuals and organizations raising money for charity using a never-ending array of techniques, from balls to banquets to bingo. But what assurance do you have that the money you donate will go where it’s supposed to go?

An article in the December 19, 2002 issue of GAZE Guide took several local organizations, including the Atons of Minneapolis, to task for not filing reports with the Minnesota Charities Review Council and/or the Better Business Bureau. The article did not say, or even appear to insinuate, that there was anything dishonest about the way the Atons conduct their fundraisers—but it did suggest that filing with the Minnesota Charities Review Council would “insure [sic] donor confidence.” (The Minnesota Charities Review Council is an organization that has been in operation since 1946 with the twin goals of “providing information that will help donors make informed charitable giving decisions” and “encouraging accountability in the charitable sector by applying standards to selected nonprofit organizations and communicating the results to stakeholders.”)

When I asked the Atons about this, then-president Sam Carlisle responded (quite correctly) that the Atons of Minneapolis is not a charity, it’s a social club. Raising money for good causes is one of the things the club does, but not its main reason for existence.

The same could be said of other local organizations. The Black Guard of Minneapolis has, in the past, brought in talent from places like New York and Las Vegas to raise money for charitable causes. TIES has had several holiday-season toy drives, and the North Country Bears have twice collected teddy bears to be given to children in crisis. The North Star Gay Rodeo Association has designated various charities as beneficiaries of its rodeos through the years. But none of these organizations are charities themselves—they are clubs or social organizations which, as one component of their missions, raise funds to be given to the kind of charities that do file with the Minnesota Charities Review Council.

But what assurance is there that the money raised at these events will actually get to those charities? There is a one-word answer to that question: trust—the same trust that is so essential to so many of the leather community’s activities. Just as we trust that the person we submit to in a BDSM scene won’t violate the boundaries we’ve negotiated beforehand, or just as we trust that the person we trick with won’t steal our wallet or strangle us, we trust that event organizers will be honest and honorable and will turn over all the monies raised to the proper charity.

As with other areas of leather, that trust is not blind. Leather tends to be a self-policing community and this aspect of the community is no exception—we, all of us, form our very own Charities Review Council to ensure donor confidence. Clubs, organizations and individuals understand that the community expects them to be accountable and to do what they say they will do. They have reputations to maintain, and they know that any financial hanky-panky will eventually be found out, and probably judged pretty harshly.

That’s exactly what happened last year to an east-coast titleholder: He held an event advertised as benefiting the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). He recruited volunteers to help him with his fundraiser. He even publicized how much money was raised. But, several months later and after repeated inquiries, NCSF still hadn’t received the proceeds from the event. (The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) in Chicago occasionally has had the same problem: someone has told them they were raising money for the LA&M, but the check never showed up.)

Not only did this titleholder disgrace himself, he also embarrassed NCSF and all the people who volunteered to help him with his fundraiser. Several of those volunteers eventually went public with the story, exposing the fundraiser as fraudulent and calling on the titleholder to do the right thing and turn the fundraiser’s proceeds over to NCSF. At this writing NCSF still hasn’t received any money and the titleholder’s reputation is pretty well shot.

Fortunately, the example given above is an extremely rare occurrence. The bad apples are far, far outweighed by the many honest and worthwhile clubs, organizations and titleholders who would never do anything dishonest because they’re honest and honorable people and, frankly, it would never occur to them that being dishonest was an option.

So—as long as the people organizing the events have proven themselves trustworthy—go to the fundraisers, bring the food to the food drives and the toys to the toy drives and buy the raffle tickets. Enjoy the events and enjoy the good feeling that comes from knowing your contributions are going where they’re supposed to go and doing what they’re supposed to do.

There’s another aspect of leather or GLBT organizations raising money for charities that needs to be pointed out: I’ve seen several instances where money was raised but a charity would not accept it because they didn’t like the folks who raised it. Charities that practice this kind of discrimination might think they are upholding their moral principles by refusing to accept what they consider to be tainted donations. But these charities should realize that such discrimination makes them look pretty uncharitable in the eyes of many.

Previewing The Bolt: New Bar Set to Open Next Door to Minneapolis Eagle

(Article published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #199, January 10, 2003)

The long-awaited expansion of The Minneapolis Eagle is about to become a reality. In the near future, a new bar called The Bolt will debut adjacent to the Eagle at 513 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis.

The new bar’s tag line—“I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation” (taken from a Joan Jett song)—describes the atmosphere Eagle and Bolt owner Ed Hopkins will be trying to create at the new place.

The Bolt’s doors were opened to the community for a sneak preview on New Year’s Eve in a condition Hopkins described as “75% done.” Visitors that night got an idea of the bar’s layout: they saw the plywood frame for the rectangular “racetrack” cruise bar (to be covered with a stainless-steel top, diamond-plate sides and galvanized-pipe railings and fittings) in the front half of the room. The back half of the room is devoted to the dance floor, and a back hallway from the dance floor area leads to the patio that The Bolt will share with The Minneapolis Eagle. The DJ booth is in a glassed-in area above the front entrance. The ceiling is high, and the black-painted walls will be illuminated with hanging high-school-gymnasium light fixtures. Hopkins designed the bar himself, working in conjunction with his general contractor.

A roll-up garage door in the center of one wall will be open at certain times to allow the crowds at The Bolt and The Minneapolis Eagle to mix but will separate the bars when the Eagle’s leather/levi dress code is being enforced. The Bolt, while hoping to attract a clientele somewhat similar to the Eagle’s, won’t have a dress code. “It has broken my heart to have to turn someone away from the Eagle because they couldn’t meet the dress code,” says Hopkins. “Now we can just send them next door.” One thing Hopkins says he hopes The Bolt will have in common with The Minneapolis Eagle is a reputation for being a friendly, no-attitude kind of place.

Hopkins makes no secret that he adores his staff. They’ve been instrumental in helping him get The Bolt going, and he says “Without them I could never do this.” DJ Joe Zapien will handle DJ duties on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Minneapolis Eagle bartender Jess will be The Bolt’s lead bartender on Wednesday nights and is planning a DJ contest to find and hire a DJ for other nights of the week. Former Minneapolis Eagle bartender Karl is back in town and will be The Bolt’s lead bartender for Tuesday’s “Classic Disco” nights. Plans call for various other theme nights throughout the week, possibly including women’s and country nights.

Now that The Bolt has had its preview on New Year’s Eve, Hopkins wants to get the rest of the construction finished before announcing the official opening date. Once it’s up and running, The Bolt will be open until 3 AM Fridays and Saturdays and 2AM Sundays.