Our Own Spaces

Loki Madmonk, co-founder of the Ourboros Leather Levi Club, submitted the following comments to add to the dialogue we've had recently about the closing of the SF Eagle and the challenge from Guy Baldwin in his LLC Keynote speech to take care of our own.  Good stuff...give it a read.

You guys, I have noticed a pattern here, and I hope you all have as well. The Spike is gone, Diamond Jim’s gone, Gateway Inn gone, The Outpost gone and countless Eagle Bars across the nation are gone or about to close their doors. It is time we take responsibility and take action or the only place we will have kink will be in our bedrooms by ourselves with a bottle of lotion with Righty (or lefty if you prefer). 

A lot of us complain about leather dying out and not having places to go and that the Pansexual and Heterosexual BDSM community has somehow ruined leather for us. First off nature, as well as kink, favors the diverse. Making friends and allies in the Hetero and Pansexual circles can reap major benefits, if the bitter queens can quit bitching long enough to realize them. 

For example there are more heterosexuals than homosexuals. 90% to 10%...what does that mean? It means they have more money and resources to work with than we do. They  BUY and OWN their kink spaces and no one can take them away because they OWN them.

Our bars tend to be leased or rented so if we don’t cough up the coin the landlord closes the door in our faces. While we are busy wasting our money on beer and gear our Pansexual and Hetero counterparts are paying their mortgages. Then we act surprised when the repo man comes for “our” bar that we never really owned or even tried to own.

We should look for places that still have vibrant Hetero and Pansexual play spaces and we should MAKE FRIENDS WITH THEM! 

See if you can have a men’s only space in the dungeon or a men’s only night. Re-form our leather clubs and organize. Save the money from your events and BUY and OWN your spaces again! Leather women this goes for you too. Ask the straight and inclusive leather community for help and space and you will more than likely be surprised to find they are willing to help. 

This works! Don’t believe me? Ok I’ll show you an example. The 1740 club in Wichita, KS isn’t going anywhere. Know why that is? We the gay leather community BOUGHT it and we OWN it!

In light of Guy Baldwin's recent keynote speech at the Leather Leadership Conference, we need to spend our money on us and stop maxing our credit cards to support Puppies in Indonesia and sex negative run food banks and what have you. These causes that have nothing to do with us or our lifestyle are sapping our resources that we could use to pay our dungeon mortgage! Yes I understand fundraisers for AIDS research that impacts us directly but PUPPIES? These charities certainly do not cut a check for our expenses or hold fundraisers for us? Have you ever seen a save the Eagle bar fundraiser? I know I haven’t.

I know we could do this. If we as a community can pay off the mortgage on the Leather Archives and  Museum in five years, we could to the same for the SOMA Eagle. We could buy and restore the Detroit Eagle, The Spike, and build new places that wouldn’t have the danger of disappearing EVER! 

There are a lot of options to get this accomplished. For instance, on the local level, the clubs could redirect their fundraising powers to buying controlling interest in their bar making sure to BUY the building not rent it. Then pay off the mortgage. IF the building is rented or leased with no hope of purchase, then, as a group, go to a blighted area , BUY a warehouse or old building and fix it up. The key words here are BUY and OWN.

Sure the local law or city ordinances mostly likely won’t grant liquor licenses to a commercial warehouse or building but do we REALLY need to be loaded for the type of play we do? The LRA Dungeon in Chicago is a good example of what I am talking about. They have various social nights, clubs and groups using the space and the amount they spend, which is easily wasted on a night of drinking, is instead used toward rent or toward a mortgage.

Another thing we could learn from the Hetero and Pan groups is the concept of “The Munch”. This is the act of organizing a group take over of a bar and grill for purely social ends at kink friendly establishments, usually while not wearing gear. They are held monthly as a point of entry into the community for those new to the lifestyle so you can meet the local players and judge who is trust worthy without the pressure of cruising.

There are all sorts of options we the leather community have as we pull our heads out of our asses and get our heads in the game.

We could as a community, on the national level, have a HUGE event like CLAW but instead of the charity going outside the community have it go instead toward paying mortgages of dungeons and bars in trouble in OUR community. 

• We have the power
• We have the know how
• We have the friends and allies who can help make this happen

The time has come to put the cruising gear down for a second and get our committee and leadership hats on. 

The time has come to work together so we still have places to cruise and to play.

Comments

[LeatherBodhi]

As a board member at LRA Chicago (one of the spots mentioned in the above post), I'd like to thank Loki for the unsolicited shout out.

We strive to be a spot where lots of types of people can feel at home including those into Traditional Leather, folks into gear and rubber, and even cigar fiends like myself.

If you're IML-bound, we have mixed parties happening Friday and Saturday Night, and for the Leatherwomen amongst us, the IMsL Party is happening there Sunday.