Leather Leadership Conference celebrates 25th Anniversary

By Bear Mike

A successful 25th Anniversary Leather Leadership Conference was held March 8-10 in Atlanta, Georgia, with about 250 attendees from across the USA, Canada and Mexico. Next year’s event will be held in Los Angeles, California, at Hilton LAX, March 14-16.

San Diego Pride - Leather Realm

The San Diego LGBT Pride Parade and Festival saw record crowds on July 13-14. San Diego holds its parade on Saturdays, thus making Saturday the busiest day at the festival in Balboa Park. Bears San Diego and the San Diego Eagle had trucks while groups such as Fetish Men San Diego, Southland Title Sisters, Submissive Voice San Diego, The Leather Foundation, Club X, San Diego Girls of Leather, San Diego Cruisers MC and others were visible at Leather Realm as well as in the parade. There were several workshops and classes and a Leather/BDSM/Fetish sampler area. Of course, San Diego had events all over town, including unofficial gatherings at places such as Black's Beach. The San Diego Eagle had several events all weekend.

http://sandiegoleatherrealm.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/192545577447291/

San Diego Leather Pride was held at the World Beat Cultural Center in Balboa Park the weekend of March 15-19 with the highlight being the Mr. and Ms San Diego Leather 2017 contest with the following winners: Ms San Diego Leather Tamanava Eden-McClintock, Mr. San Diego Leather Nathan Kendrick and San Diego Bootblack Red. Jake Ott was the Bootblack runner-up.

San Diego Pride celebrated its 40th Anniversary the weekend of July 18-20 in the Hillcrest district and Balboa Park. Its’ annual LGBT parade is among the largest in the country, attracting over 300,000 spectators and was on Saturday, July 19. This year’s theme “Reflections of Pride” truly showed in the Leather community’s contingent as the San Diego tribe was joined by Leatherfolk from all over Southern California.

Ms San Diego Leather 2012 Wish did a great job as parade monitor again. The San Diego Eagle’s float, organized by Mr. San Diego Eagle 2014 Paulo Batista, followed the Leather-clad marchers. The Los Angeles and San Diego Ponies and Critters groups brought up the rear with their crowd-pleasing pony carts and dog sled. Bears San Diego had a truck as well.

Over 150 Leatherfolk continued marching into Balboa Park and headed directly into the Leather Realm to volunteer for, or attend, a weekend of fun and education. This year’s Realm was made possible by a generous donation from Club X.

The Realm opened with new co-producers, Bikkja Amy and Cobi Maravilla, a new committee, a new logo, designed by Sarge Servitus, and a new motto, “Turn Fantasy into Reality."