I think a lot of the people coming to our events don’t understand that they aren’t yet part of the leather scene
it’s not just kink
it’s not just an aesthetic
it’s not just a party at a bar you show up to once a month
leather is a distinct culture & it’s highly community based
if you aren’t showing in solidarity for our local Onyx chapter or our bootblack guild, learning our history and talking to our elders, talking to the leather folks who are different from you, or showing any interest in engaging in community outside wearing your doc martens & amazon dot com bulldog harness to a bar to play pool (with the friends you came with), sorry babes but that’s not leather!!
don’t show up to our space and be disrespectful to fat butches, trans women, and bipoc leather folks. I can see when you are only talking to other skinny white people.
don’t show up to our space and side eye the leathermen at the leatherdyke event who have been allies to us, even when we weren’t in the room. we personally invited them, you just saw a flyer on the internet.
don’t show up to our space if you don’t want to learn and do the work outside the bar. it’s not cute to be incurious about the community whose event you are entering.
we vet for a reason, we are watching the new folks.
I don’t want to see our culture get diluted because we created more visible entry points.