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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2005)
CULTURE ......... ▼ Leather Power, Leather Pride Community comes together for a weeklong festival of party, charity and play by PDXSEX fact: Lots of guys have an STD & don't even know it. Want to keep things hot without getting burned? You're not the onl^one. Maybe it's time to talk. THE RED LIGHT • CASH FOR CLOTHES • 503.963.8888 • 3590 SE HAWTHORNE THE RED LIGHT • CASH FOR CLOTHES • 503.963.8888 • 3590 SE HAWTHORNE G lenn S cofield W illiams ture, from B/D/S/M to kink. h.. .what does leather do for me?" “My personal attitude about leather,” says Cheryl Spector of Blackout Leather Productions thinks a moment before Kirk Wagner, aka DJ ChaotiQueer, “is that it’s continuing. “Leather is a way of life an attitude, not a dress style.” for me that is rooted in honor, integrity and fam Wagner is a regular in the leather scene— ily. Leather allows me to express my masochistic and sadistic ten dencies in a healthy way.” Spector is a queer Portlander whose experience in the leather community spans 20 years. “I appreciate the level of communication that 1 am able to achieve with other members of the community,” she says. “I have learned what true tmst is. 1 have also learned some hard lessons about who I am and .what I am capable of.” Spector smiles. “Plus, it’s just plain hot.” When I got my first leather wristband a few months ago— According to Cheryl Spector of Blackout Leather Productions, black carved leather with silver local organizations are putting aside their differences and working together to produce Portland Leather Pride Week. studs—something instantly changed in me. I tightened it onto my wrist, and there was a definite attitude an unpredictable, radical DJ with the propensi shift. The cool smixith against my skin, the ty to spin nude when he’s “really feeling the hair on my arm rising, the tight grip of the groove.” band—next thing 1 knew, my Inner Daddy “The media has always portrayed people in t(X)k possession of me and I found myself cock leather as rebels,” Mangels says, “so leather pro strutting around rhe house. One leather wrist vides an aura or a mystique.” It is this mys band released something from deep inside— tique—played between inquisitive, consenting something 1 liked having around. individuals—that really describes what the What is it about leather? leather scene is about. “Leather is natural,” says Andy Mangels, “so In Portland, the leather community has it feels gtxxJ on the skin and smells gixxl. been bubbling and boiling for decades. A few Leather is protective.” years ago, representatives from the various Mangels is ubiquitous in the leather com leather organizations united to create Port munity, being the editor of In Uniform maga land’s very own Leather Pride Week—a week zine as well as holding the title of Mr. Oregon long festival of party, charity and play. It hasn’t State Leather 2004. taken much time, but Portland’s pride week has “Leather folk have an immense imagination become a major event in the nation’s leather and capacity for trying new things,” he says, calendar. “and there’s a reason that we tend to call “Portland is a great place for leather!” Wag leather scenes ‘play.’ At its heart, leather is not ner says. “The leather community here in Port about darkness and pain, but about exploring land is very open and accepting of new people limits and finding new ways to have fun.” into their ranks, and they go out of their way Leather is far more than what is worn. The to be inclusive of all types, genders and sexual leather scene includes everything from the orientations.” leather/rubber/spandex fetish to uniform cul Spector adds: “1 think that one of the unique aspects of the Port land leather scene is that is seems very pansexual. In the past two years we have also been.. .putting our dif ferences aside and working together to prixJuce this entire event.” This is saying a lot. There are very few venues that mix straight, queer and trans scenes as does Portland Leather Pride. “I can say that 1 truly feel proud,” says Spector, “about the Leather Pride Week committee and the commitment to collabora tion that we all share. It is important to come togeth er and celebrate.” Kirk Wagner, aka DJ ChaotiQueer, appreciates the Portland leather community's inclusion of all types, genders and sexual orientations. It can also lead to some
