- May 3. Public meeting of the SF Pride Leather Contingent, on the patio at the Eagle bar. Here the local community voted to select the Leather Marshals for the Pride parade. Many deserving folks were nominated, yet only two can be selected. The most votes went to Scott Peterson and Deborah Hoffman-Wade, whose bios can be found here.
- May 4. I went back to the Eagle for a beer bust, where I saw a number of friends - here I am with Scout the bootblack, who is now International Mr. Bootblack - congratulations Scout! - and here I am with Jaco Lourens, who is Mr. South Africa Leather 2009/10 and one of the new friends I met at IMsL. Woof!
After the beer bust, I went to the business meeting of The Exiles, and then on to the Center for Sex and Culture for a book launch party for the excellent Gender Book. A busy day!
- May 10. I was back at the Eagle, where Deborah Hoffman-Wade and Schon Wade were getting married - after 25 years together. Yay for love stories! Here's a cute picture of me with my contest producer Liza, and my predecessor, Ms SF Leather 2012 and first runner up to IMsL 2014, Nerine Mechanique. Later that evening, I went to the Powerhouse for Black Saturday to see my sash husband, Scott "Big Red" Farrell. Here I am with him at the event.
There was a fun jockstrap auction to raise funds for Big Red to go to International Mr. Leather, where he competed later that month. (No, I did not bid on the used jockstraps - but I did find out that Big Red is a natural redhead!)
- May 11. Mama's birthday at the Eagle. I look up to Sandy "Mama" Reinhardt as a community elder. Mama has for many years raised funds for community causes, including running the annual Leather Walk, which raises funds for the AIDS Emergency Fund and Breast Cancer Emergency Fund. Over the years, Mama has "pinned" thousands of community volunteers as members of her family, giving them a family name and a brass name tag. It's not just a name tag - it's a badge of honor to be included in Mama's Family.
- May 16-18. Went to Northwest Leather Celebration. NWLC, held annually since 2008 in the south bay (and since 2011 in San Jose, CA), is a weekend BDSM conference where the Northwest Master and slave are selected. Like IMsL (see my last blog post for more on that event), there are workshops, play spaces, vending, a contest of course, and a keynote address. NWLC has a somewhat different focus than IMsL. The demographic is a bit different: I'd call it queer-friendly pansexual; the contest chooses a titleholder couple, not an individual; and the event is focused on the M/s (Master/slave) dynamic, and on D/s (dominance and submission), and not so much on the S/M part of BDSM. In contrast to last month at IMsL, while I did go in the play space and look around, I didn't have any appointments there. But just like IMsL, I spent the weekend connecting with people, talking, getting to know them, and exchanging business cards, and I felt at home within my larger community. Here is a sampling of what I did during the weekend. (Photos were not allowed at the event, sorry.)
- Friday - with my producers, hosted a hospitality suite; emceed the meet and greet; enjoyed the champagne and chocolate reception hosted by The Exiles.
- Saturday - assisted my wife Marilyn with a class she was presenting; went to the hospitality suite; attended the contest.
- Sunday - emceed the keynote address, and went shopping at the vendor mall (here is a pic of me in a beautifully made and possibly slightly creepy knitted pig mask that I bought from the excellent Kinky Knits). Later that day, I was sad yet very privileged to attend a moving memorial service for Ms. Margaret, pictured here at a MS SF Leather contest a couple of years ago.
Ms. Margaret was the driving force behind NWLC since its inception. She passed away just a few weeks before this year's event, after being diagnosed a few months before with an aggressive cancer. My thoughts are with her loved ones, especially her devoted slave and second-in-command, Erich.
I was privileged to volunteer for Ms. Margaret at NWLC in the past, and I found her to be a wonderful leader. Like the stellar manager she was, she saw and nurtured in many of us skills that we did not recognize in ourselves, or did not know how to use. I include myself here: several years ago Ms. Margaret reached out and offered me the opportunity to emcee at NWLC, and encouraged me that I would be good at it. I had wanted such an opportunity, and somehow Ms. Margaret had seen that I had some talent for public speaking and decided to offer me a chance. I accepted her offer, and had a fantastic time as one of her emcees for the weekend. Ms. Margaret was very supportive, made my work easy, and afterwards told me I had done a good job. And from that point, I was never afraid to volunteer for public speaking gigs again. In fact, Ms. Margaret putting me on a stage may have directly led to my competing for Ms SF Leather, so I have a lot to thank her for - including all the fun you are reading about here in my blog.
Our world and our community was enriched by Ms. Margaret's life. May her memory be for a blessing.
