Since 1991, COMMAND, MC, has produced the Mr. Maryland Leather Contest each November. Last November the Baltimore-based leather club made a decision to open the contest to all genders and sashed Finn Michael Coy-Gresavage as Mx Maryland Leather 2023. It has been a busy year for Finn. I was able to sit down with them right before Finn left for Austin Kink Weekend in Austin, Texas. Growing up in rural Nanjemoy, Maryland, taught Finn about community and how people help each other in times of need. When Finn’s mother passed from cancer in 2016, a man who often hiked on […]
Pennsmen Celebrate 45 + 1 Years
Historically leather clubs host large events for milestone anniversaries. Unfortunately, the pandemic derailed lots of plans. As a result, over the weekend of February 24th to 26th the Pennsmen held their 46th anniversary weekend at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This fun-filled gathering included lots of cocktail parties, instructional classes, and the 200th meeting of the Atlantic Motorcycle Coordinating Council, an umbrella organization for many of the leather clubs in the New England and Mid-Atlantic area. I arrived early and had time to run over to the Brownstone Lounge, the home bar of the Pennsmen, for happy […]
Meet Mr. Mayhem Leather Bear 2022
David Sugar of Baltimore, Maryland was sashed Mr. Mayhem Leather Bear 2022 during the annual Bears, Bikers & Mayhem event held on May 5th to 8th in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Born and raised in Baltimore, David discovered the leather community in December of 2013 when he was asked to deejay for the ShipMates leather club’s annual Daddy Christmas fundraiser. David pledged the ShipMates in 2017 and began his leather journey. The […]
Struggling to Make the Most of It
For the LGBTQ+ community, June means Pride Month. It is a time to remember and honor those proud people who fought for respect and equity. It is also a time to celebrate how far we have come. In June of 2019 my fellow ShipMate Club members and I participated and enjoyed area Pride events in Washington, Baltimore, Frederick, Westminster, and Annapolis. June of 2019 was a great Pride Month. I had a wonderful time. I do not need to tell you what happened in June of 2020. Everything was canceled. There was nothing to do but sit back and wait […]
Escape to the Woods
For many years, the ShipMates Club of Baltimore and the Centaur MC of Washington, DC, hosted leather weekends at a campground. The ShipMates called their weekend “Keelhaul” and the Centaur MC hosted “Olympia.” In the spirit of leather brotherhood, the events were alternating years. (The clubs did not wish to conflict or compete.) Odd years brought Keelhaul and on even years leather folks headed to Olympia. Attendees paid one price, which included a bed in a cabin, all meals, endless cocktail parties hosted by various leather clubs, a run pin, and lots of fun. There was always a dungeon “play […]
The Work Continues for Maryland LeatherSIR 2006
It is a long way from the small town of Owings in Calvert County, Maryland to the sunshine of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For Chris Hacker (Monroe), there were many bumps along the road. Thankfully his discovery of the leather community helped guide him on his journey. Owings is a small town of 2,528 (2019) and growing up Chris fought the feeling that he was gay. He dated woman. When he was 19, he discovered that people around him were gay, including his best friend. When he had his first gay experience, he realized that he enjoyed being intimate with […]
The Leather Community Started It!
The leather community has always been about fundraising. In Maryland the first gay leather club, the ShipMates Club of Baltimore was founded in 1974 and became the first organization to raise money for the newly founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which later became Chase Brexton. In Washington, DC in 1978 four gay motorcycle clubs got together and formed an organization to raise money for LGBTQ organizations, such as the Gay Men’s VD Clinic, which became the Whitman-Walker Clinic. This new charitable organization was called Brother Help Thyself and the ShipMates and other area leather clubs would soon join BHT. Thankfully, […]
Where Are We Going?
One of the ways I like to keep my spirts up is to schedule some fun events to attend. Having something to look forward to keeps me going. Needless to say, 2020 was a difficult year. With the other half away in Florida for the winter and everything canceled because of the virus, I spend most of my time home alone trying to stay safe. It didn’t help that some of my friends continued to go to play parties and gatherings even when it was unsafe to do so. One friend even calls me almost every day to tell me […]
For the People in The Back of The Room
The last time I saw American Leatherwoman 2017 Jackie Thompson was in January of 2020. It was during the IML press conference that is held on the Saturday morning of Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend in DC. She had just been announced as a judge for the International Mr. Bootblack 2020 Contest which is held over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago as part of International Mr. Leather Weekend. She beamed as the audience cheered loudly that another hardworking local leather person would be a judge at the world’s largest leather event. Unfortunately, IML did not happen in May 2020 and IML […]
The Suit Guy Is A Leather Man
In 1997 Patrick Grady was working as the Director of Catering at the Washington Plaza Hotel on Logan Circle in Washington, DC when he learned that a leather club called the Centaur MC had booked the hotel for their Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend. Although born in the small town of Peru, Indiana, Patrick was from a military family whose father was stationed in England and brought him to Europe as a small child on the RMS Queen Elizabeth, so he had seen a thing or two in his life. Plus, he always loved seeing men in boots and uniforms dating back […]