Blog for Wednesday 24th February
"30 Years of Leather Champions"
The night began with the meeting of many dignitaries from all over the world. The first on hand was Jeff Payne the current IML and his partner David from Texas. Allan Norman and Wayne Nicol (who much of the credit and thanks must go to for organising the event) introduced me to Patrick Brookes himself. It was an extreme honour to meet the man and I have heard and read so much about. Can I say gentlemen, he is every bit as sexy as he was in 1980. I can only dream I look like that at 71.
The night got underway with Mario mediating the event and Alan Norman hosting. Questions were directed at Jeff Payne, Patrick Brookes, Anthony Lowe and myself from both the audience and Mario. When the time came, I gave a speech regarding the launch of the Brookes Trust. It went a little smoother this time.
The questions for the forum varied widely but all had a central theme "Should we dilute the leather community or keep it exclusive?" There was a mood amongst some in the audience that this is selling out the community to bulster numbers. The panel including myself disagreed.
I would like to take this moment to give my opinion on the matter as it is something I get asked frequently. I believe the leather community is made up of several tribes. Some are old guard leather men, some are into fetish, some are bears, some are into BDSM, some are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, some are into uniform, some are straight, some are transgender etc.... Some tribes are more closely related than others. There is room for all these tribes under the banner of our leather community. There is no need to exclude and discriminate against any! That is the very last thing we should be about as a community. I understand there is a time and a place for our tribes to gather as one and a time for us to gather individually.
If we keep this friendly philosophy in mind and banish the more judgemental amongst us, our happy community will remain so and we will be much more welcoming and appealing to those wanting to join (what ever their bent.)
That said and out of the way, the night ended well and a few ales were had. The final charge was after packing up and returning the benches and trestles to Sax Fetish. Chirs Driscol and myself decided to drunkenly race our steeds (the trestle bases) down Oxford st. I won.

