Ft Lauderdale Leather Pride

1st Annual Ft. Lauderdale Leather Pride welcomes visitors from around the globe

Ft Lauderdale’s First Annual Leather Pride Weekend, October 7-10, 2010, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, was an outstanding success by every measure.  Seventeen business and organizations came together to present Ft Lauderdale Leather Pride.  Throughout the course of the weekend, over $4,400.00 was raised for charity including: The SCC Fund, LA&M, the Women’s History Project, and two local Ft. Lauderdale Charities;  Care Resources, and Poverello.   In addition to a full schedule of events and educational forums, The Leather Men’s Academy hosted their weekend long event and the Men of ONYX celebrated their 5^th Annual Run.  

The weekend started Thursday evening at the Ft Lauderdale Pride Center at Equality Park with the Gallery opening of Behind Closed Doors, an exhibit of Intimate Erotic Art from the Collections of the Leather Archives and Museum. The exhibit will hang at the Pride Center until October 28^th.    LeatherWerks of Fort Lauderdale was the corporate sponsor of the show and the opening reception.  Nearly 100 people attended the opening to benefit the Leather Archives and Museum.

During the weekend, WOLF (Women of Leather Florida) and The Leather Men’s Brotherhood, producers of the Leather Masked Ball hosted the Welcome Party at The Depot Cabana Bar and the Leather Men’s Academy held Early Registration at the Hombre Bar.  The Leather Men’s Academy welcomed over 125 men from around the world for a weekend of educational seminars and forums and a nightly dungeon play party.

Friday evening began with the Leather Men of Color 2011 Contest, at The Ramrod Bar.  The MC for the evening was Doc Hoskins who presented Rod McCoy Jr. with the Title of Leather Man of Color 2011.  Following was the LeatherWerks Lifestyle Club® Cocktail Reception for the International Mr. Leather Organization which was hosted at LeatherWerks.  RJ Chaffin represented IML at both the Cocktail Reception and then at Ramrod Bar, for the IML Party.   Registration Packages were raffled off to party goers with a selection of gift t-shirts and pins from previous IML Weekends being given away.  

On Saturday night, LeatherWerks and the Leather Men’s Academy co-hosted the Leather Pride Dinner at the LMA Host Hotel, with over 80 Leather men and women in attendance.   A short presentation was made by Sarah Humble with the Women’s History Project for the Leather Archives and Museum sponsored by W.O.L.F  (Women of Leather Florida) followed by a very moving keynote speech from Master Tallen on ”The Last Five Letters of Community” both speakers were warmly welcomed ending with a standing ovation.

The evening culminated with the KINK Party at the Ramrod Bar where a wall to wall crowd of leather men and women enjoyed KINK stations and Dom Demos including, caged puppies, rubber boys, violet wand and electric play, flogging, caning, single tail and Vac Rack demos by members of the South Florida boys of Leather and local, regional and international title holders. 

On Sunday, The South Florida boys of Leather hosted a pool party at Inn Leather Ft Lauderdale to benefit the Povorello Center Food bank.  The party was attended by 100 plus hot men, some in suits, and some delecto flagrante .  The event was a perfect complement to the weekend with numerous demonstrations by the boys.  There was a tickle tree, j-lube boy wrestling, boys floating in neoprene sleep sacks, and of course UNDERWATER BONDAGE.   

On Sunday evening, the 16^th Annual Mr. Ramrod Contest was held at the Ramrod Bar.  Six Contestants competed in four categories: Interview, Bar Wear, Speech/Image and Jock.  Rich Rodriguez earned the title of Mr. Ramrod 2010 with Angel Velez placing 1^st Runner Up and Steven Reed, Second Runner Up.  

Five well respected members of the local and National Community sat on the judges panel including, Mr. Joe Watkins, Mr. Ramrod 2009, RJ Chaffin, International Mr. Leather Coordinator, Sean Pendelbury, SouthEast Leatherboy 2009, Doc Hoskins, Leather Man of Color 2007 and Author of “The Pugilist” and Mr. David Durman, Mr. Boston Leather 2011.  

Throughout the entire weekend The Leather Men’s Academy featured intimate hands-on classes where men were trained in BDSM techniques and Leather traditions.   

The weekend long event culminated with a graduation banquet where attendees were emotionally bonded with tears of joy, affirmation, pride, camaraderie, confidence, strength and emergence of spirit and purpose.