Porno Pete Flops At IML

It's International Mister Leather weekend in Chicago and yesterday Porno Pete announced a "press conference" to be held today outside the Leather Archives. Pity the press didn't show up. Via DNA Info:

A handful of anti-gay activists and their cameramen held an event Friday morning dubbing the longstanding Leather Archives & Museum a "perversion museum" that promotes incest, pedophilia and sadomasochism to children. But Rogers Park neighbors weren't having it. Naperville-based hate group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality planned the protest at the 16-year-old, adults-only museum at 6418 N. Greenview Ave. in before the International Mr. Leather conference this weekend Downtown. The four protesters who showed up on behalf of the group (not counting two camera men documenting the whole thing) were quickly outnumbered by local detractors telling them to "go home." LaBarbera said the museum promoted incest, pedophilia and sadomasochism in a residential neighborhood near schools. The museum also promotes "consensual sexual violence" and "consensual slavery," he said. But LaBarbera wouldn't say how passing children could get inside the museum, where only adults are admitted and the door is locked around the clock.

Porno Pete was also very upset because the museum's neighbors ripped up the anti-gay flyers he'd placed on car windshields around the neighborhood. Because that's censorship! And closing down a museum isn't! Accompanying Porno Pete was Mike Heath, who years ago was booted out of the very anti-gay Maine Family Policy Council for being too much of a douchebag, even for them. Hit the link for more about today's nonsensery.

(Tipped by JMG reader Rebecca)

Porno Pete Will Be At IML

Send us your selfies with Porno Pete, boys!

Happy IML From Porno Pete

Porno Pete Vs Dan Savage

Mr. Michigan Wins IML 2012

Details.

CHICAGO: Labor Controversy As Leather Event May Cross Host Hotel Picket Lines

The 34th annual International Mister Leather convention is taking place this weekend in Chicago, where attendees at the host hotel could potentially face a picket line over a long-running union labor dispute.

The Hyatt Regency Chicago, site of the recent competitions, has been at the center of a bitter a contract fight with workers represented by the union UNITE HERE since 2009. The workers, union spokeswoman Annemarie Strassel said, want one room per day subtracted from their quota to compensate for the fact that they have to get down on their hands and knees to clean floors, rather than using a long-handled mop. They also want better job security. UNITE HERE brands Hyatt "the worst employer in the hotel industry," and it asks that supporters "not eat, meet or sleep at Hyatt." UNITE HERE has been asking International Mr. Leather to relocate its convention since at least 2010 — and last year, one LGBT website accused the organization of "crossing picket lines" by continuing to hold events at the Hyatt. The convention leaders, however, dismiss the union's charges — and accuse the union of playing on popular discomfort with their subculture. Jon Krongaard, coordinator of International Mr. Leather, says "there is no picket line," and all he and his organization have seen are "random walkouts."

The "one LGBT website" cited above appears to be that of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, which last fall had called on IML organizers to relocate the event, saying that event founder Chuck Renslow was showing "disrespect to work-place issues." According to the above-linked news item, IML claims it would have a faced a $700K loss had it broken its 2012 contract with the Hyatt Regency. Additionally, a spokesman claims that union supporters have harassed at least one IML attendee by calling his place of employment and outing him as a member of the fetish community.

Disabled Trans Man Wins IML 2010

Tyler McCormick, a disabled trans man from New Mexico, has won the 32nd Annual International Mr. Leather. In the short clip below, the top three winners are announced.

No Bareback Porn On Sale At IML

The International Mr. Leather convention has followed through on their vow to ban the selling of barebacking porn at their vendor mart. Via Chicagoist:

“For many years, our organization has always preached the importance of safe- sex,” explains [IML coordinator RJ] Chaffin. “It has been on the lips of many people, [the fact that] we speak out on safe-sex, but allow vendors to promote bareback videos. The time has come for us to take a stand on the issue. It affected about three of our vendors and in fact, most vendors were pleased to see us take action on this matter. I would say for every negative e-mail we’ve received, we’ve received 15 supportive emails and letters,” says Chaffin, who has received calls and emails from organizers of similar events to gauge the reaction of attendees to the new policy. “We need younger people to realize that barebacking is not cool and very dangerous.”

The event continues through tomorrow.

PhoboQuotable - Matt Barber

“Oh, those fun-loving little sadomasochists. They do enjoy their, um, slapstick, don’t they? I’m flattered to have made such an impression. Comedy aside, though, forgive me if I find the specter of a fussy little mob of queer CPAs, I.T. geeks and interior designers in buttless leather chaps pointing at me shrieking ‘There he is! There he is!’ a little less than daunting. I hate to disappoint, but with the disgusting and wicked perversion that goes on at these events, If I did somehow end up at the Chicago Hilton, I wouldn’t be that hard to spot. I’m the guy walking around the lobby in a full biohazard suit looking for the exit.

“So much for ‘gay pride.’ I don’t blame them for desperately trying to keep their lifestyle under wraps. As John 3:19 tells us: ‘And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’ The reality of the behavior doesn’t mesh with the rhetoric, you see. It’s all about ‘marriage equality’ and ‘civil rights,’ remember? We can’t focus on the actual perversion or America might get wise to the scam.” - Liberty Counsel spokesdouchenozzle Matt Barber, writing on Peter LaBabera's reaction post to their "unwanted" fliers distributed at IML this weekend.

LaBarbera and Barber contend that since we don't want them skulking around in their leather drag taking secret photos of unsuspecting consenting adults at a private event, then we must be secretly ashamed of what goes on IML. But you see, that's how it is with these Christianist liars. We're either "flaunting it in public" and "shoving it down their throats" or we're secretly ashamed and in hiding while we're shoving it down each others' throats. They do not miss any opportunity to prove their hatred and bigotry.

A couple of other things - my friends think it's just hilarious that LaBarbera repeatedly calls me an "atheist leatherman." Porno Pete definitely has more leather than I do, as I am unmoved by SM/BD and own none. But I do love to hang out and party with my leather-loving peeps. Also, as someone so intensely fascinated by the relatively tiny subpopulation of gay men who enjoy kink, BamBam Barber surely knows that there probably was somebody in the Hilton lobby wearing a biohazard suit. I mean, I haven't seen any pictures yet, but I'm guessing.

HomoQuotable - Chris Jensen

"The International Mr. Leather competition is purportedly the climax of the IML weekend. But this cowhide beauty pageant—which, at 3.5 hours, rivals the Oscars in terms of jaw-dropping self-regard—is interesting more as anthropology than as entertainment. (If you consider that the entire multi-hour event is underscored by a steady OON-cha-OON-cha-OON-cha house beat, punctuated with triumphalist theme music from "Gladiator," you'll understand why I had to go to the lobby at intermission to buy a handful of Excedrin.)

"The ceremony opened with a genial speech by IML founder Chuck Renslow, who set the tone for the evening by assuring us that “[Leather play is] still a power exchange. It’s still about trust and learning.” (Throughout Renslow's speech, several guys in the audience actually said “Amen,” while others raised their hands as if in prayer, tent revival-style. Now that I think of it, the whole IML experience reminded me just a bit of my fundamentalist Promise Keepers days back in the mid-'90s. Except, of course, with less laying-on-of-hands and more fisting.)" - Examiner.com blogger Chris Jensen, describing his first IML. The 2008 IML winner is Gary Iriza of Palm Springs.

[Photo credit: Dan Nash for IML Inc. More Photos here.]

You Da Man, Gerle

Over the weekend, Mikel Gerle of Los Angeles was crowned Mr. International Leather 2007 at Chicago's annual gathering of SM/BD enthusiasts and fans of the couture. Gerle will use his title year promoting world peace, fighting third world hunger, and smacking around anybody that seems to like it. Perennial favorite Mr. Trinidad-Tobago did not make the final round. After the contest, contestants and audience members gathered in the Palmer House lobby for drinks, cigars, and a heated discussion of Maria Callas.

Transmen Controversies

Transmen, female-to-male transexuals, continue to be barred from membership in Chicago's Hellfire BD/SM club, the largest of some 400 such clubs in the nation. Despite some internal dissent, including the resignation of the club's newletter editor, the membership recently voted to maintain their 10-year policy that "there must be a penal [sic] attachment." Hellfire is one of the few BD/SM clubs in country to have an active policy against FTMs.

Trans activists are questioning the legality of such a policy, citing Hellfire's open invitation to membership on their website and that the club is licensed by the city of Chicago, which has a gender identity ordinance. Transmen often do not have complete gender reassignment surgery, for a variety of reasons. Many leather transmen will be in Chicago this weekend for the International Mister Leather pageant, when Hellfire will be hosting several events of their own.

In a related story, Frameline, San Francisco's gay film festival, has yanked a screening of lesbian filmmaker Catherine Crouch's The Gendercator, after local trans activists complained that the film was transphobic. Crouch say her film is a "short satirical take on female body modification and gender," adding, "If this film is a flashpoint between lesbians and trans people, shouldn't it happen at Frameline? Shouldn't it happen in San Francisco?" Crouch, who describes her film as science fiction, says she is alarmed by the number of lesbians she sees transitioning into men and "how fast it is happening." Frameline has never removed a film from its schedule due to content in its 31-year history.

My take is that both Hellfire and Frameline are wrong. Transmen deserve the chance to be ignored at sex parties just like the rest of us. And while I haven't seen The Gendercator, censoring a film that seems to speak to a real sense of alarm among some lesbians only stifles the needed conversation as transmen continue to gain visibility.

Gowns And Harnesses

Yesterday I had a fun lunch with Matt Foreman and his partner, during which Matt told me about having attended the previous night's Night Of 1000 Gowns, and we chatted about the similarities between the Imperial Court and International Mr. Leather pageants. Later in the afternoon, I arrived at the Dugout to find an Imperial Court victory party in progress. Bears, empresses and mayhem ensued. However, I'm still scratching my head over this banner.