CULTURE
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Come
together
Taste this
Y ou r complete guide to Oregon
Leather Pride Week 2 0 0 4
Fetish groups
set aside squabbles
to present a unified
Oregon Leather
Pride Week
by
ll Leather Pride Week events are open to the public.
Leather Tastings is particularly good for newbies.
Events are free unless otherwise noted. Visit
www.oregonleatherpride.org for updates.
A
Aug. 6
8 p.m.-close, Leather,
Feathers & Fur Fetish Ball
at Panorama, 341 S.W.
10th Ave. $12 advance.
G a r y M o r r is
here’s pride, and then there’s
Leather Pride.
And why not? T his year,
the local leather crowd has
gixxl reason to celehrate. It’s not
just that sexual culture has
hecome more knowledgeable and
accepting of B/D/S/M, though
Blackout Leather Productions
th at’s surely the case. But, in a
historic development, all of Portland’s major leather and fetish
groups are presenting Oregon Leather Pride Week together,
putting aside past disagreements, canceling the catfights and
healing hurts in the name o f partying, good works and a celebra
tion of all things alternative.
This means hears mixing it up with Bad Girls, dominatrixes
sharing the barbecue grill with boyz in chaps, and all manner of
other hitherto rarely seen couplings. T he groups run the gamut
from old-guard leather (like the national organization Masters &
Slaves Together) to the Oregon Bears, who are coming out of their
caves (well, the Dirty Duck) for the occasion, to the provocatively
named Pacific Friction, a recent arrival that stages sex-positive kink
events for self-identified women.
Major players in the Aug. 6-15 event are, not coincidentally, the
big fetish players in town: Blackout Leather Productions and Port
land Leather Alliance, with additional support from Bad Girls and
In Uniform online magazine.
Every Portland subculture that survives goes through a maturing
process, and a telling mark of that is the kind of ease and openness
that lets an event like Leather Pride happen. It can represent a sec
ond coming out for queers.
Blackout president Cheryl Spector explains the lure of the
leather world: "T he sense of community... the feeling of family...
the tribalness called to me.” Being arrested at a San Diego play
party a few years hack politicized her. “It became important that 1
hecome involved in the promotion of sexual freedom."
Presenting Leather Pride Week as a cohesive group, she says,
was a surprisingly easy decision for everyone. “All it tcxik was one
person to set a date and a time to gather. T he community came
together.”
Although participants are pretty hush-hush about what past
issues kept fetish groups disparate, realizing that the duplication of
efforts each year was wasteful, in terms of both economics and
energy, didn’t hurt. With Leather Pride, all those little events scat
Aug. 7
5-
8:30 p.m., Kinky
Auction at Panorama.
9 p.m.-close, Uniform
&. Buzzcuts Party at the
Eagle PDX, 1300 W.
Burnside St. $4-
co-hosts Oregon Leather Pride Week from Aug. 6 to 15
tered throughout the year— the barbecues, play parties, fetish balls
and ever-popular W hack-a-Thon— could be combined in one big
10-day party.
They should just go ahead and call it “Leather Pride Fortnight,”
notes Karen, promotion coordinator for Masters &. Slaves.
O f course, the details are daunting. With all the paraphernalia she’s
had to accumulate, Karen laments, “My house looks like a leather
explosion!” And dealing with permits, finding and nailing venues
(Embers and Panorama have been especially helpful) takes time.
But the compensations are great, she insists. “It’s like a family,”
she says of the organizing committee.
Every year Oregon Leather Pride showcases community service,
which is no different this year— video screenings, kinky auctions
and Leather Tastings will donate proceeds to a variety of charities.
The latter event is one of several intended to appeal to those out
side the B/D/S/M community.
According to Rose Empress XLI Krystel Belle-Rose, one of the
c<x)rdinators of Leather Pride Week, Leather Tastings is a kind of
sexy smorgasbord with vendors and presenters giving people the
opportunity to experience different types of B/D/S/M play. “From
hot wax to electric play, it is a safe environment where anyone from
vanilla folk [novices] to experienced B/D/S/M players can come
together to have fun and learn from each other.”
Belle-Rose herself also plans demos and workshops to “broaden
the mind-set about B/D/S/M” and will give her all, or at least her
ass, at the Whack-a-Thon.
T h at annual event, she says, “started out as a way to raise
money by selling whacks on my ass during my show. It has
become a huge success,” raising money for different charities.
O ne o f the recipients is Camp Starlight for children whose lives
have been affected by HIV/AIDS, where Belle-Rose is a camp
counselor. j n
G ary M orris is a Portland free-lance water.
Aug. 8
Noon-4 p.m., Leather
Tastings at Panorama.
$3-$5.
Aug. 9
7 p.m., My Leather
Jacket film screening, loca
tion T BA . $5-$10 sliding
scale. Documentary host
ed by Ms. Oregon State
Leather Alycyn Britton.
Proceeds benefit Chicago’s
Leather Archives &
Museum.
whack! Proceeds benefit
Camp Starlight.
Aug. 1.2
6-
9 p.m., Leather &
Lace Show at Embers.
Cover charge applies.
Includes a display from the
Oregon Leather History
Project.
Aug. 13
5-6 p.m., Oregon State
Leather Contestant Meet
and Greet at Embers.
7 p.m., A Night of
Myth, Mayhem, &. Magic
(an erotic production) at
Embers. $5. Proceeds ben
efit Leather Archives.
9 p.tn.-midnight, Bears
in Leather Bust at Gail’s
Dirty Duck, 439 N.W.
Third Ave. $8-$ 10.
Aug. 14
7-
9 p.m., Mr. &. Ms.
Oregon State Leather
2004 Contest at Embers.
$ 10.
Aug. 10
6-
8 p.m., “Trans Issues
in the B/D/S/M Commu
nity” panel discussion at
Outside In, 1030 S.W.
13th Ave.
10-ish p.m., Mixed Play
Party at Ascension Dun
geon. $5-$15. E-mail
contact@pdxbadgirls.net to
attend. Doors close at mid
night, party rages all night.
Aug. 11
6-9 p.m., Leather Fam
ily BBQ at Overlook Park,
North Fremont Street and
Interstate Avenue. Bring
your own meat and a side
dish to share.
9:30 p.m., LaFetiche
Show and W hack-a-Thon
at Embers, 110 N.W.
Broadway. Cover charge
applies, but only $ 1 a
Aug. 15
9 a.m., spiritual service
celebrates leather commu
nity at Metropolitan
Community Church of
Portland, 2400 N.E.
Broadway.
11 a.m., Mr. & Ms.
Oregon State Leather
2004 Victory Brunch and
Rose &. Thom Communi
ty Awards at Embers. $15.
St. Stephens Episcopal
Gay ¿r Lesbian Couples Welcome
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Sunday School & Childcare at 10:00 am
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