Leather History

On May 28, 1989: Tony DeBlase presents his design for a leather pride flag to the audience at International Mr. Leather, the first time the flag is presented to the public.

Also on this day in 1993, The Leather Archives and Museum opens its first display of collected materials during the International Mr. Leather weekend in Chicago.

Family by choice

You are my family, but we don’t share blood.


You are my family by choice.


The most powerful bond is the one that we choose.


I choose you as my friend, and rejoice.

You are my sister and you are my brother.


We are the closest of kin.


You are the one I can call in the night,


and know that you’ll wake with a grin.

When trouble shows up and grief’s close behind,


your words and your love keep me strong.


It’s you who would sit by my hospital bed,

and love me a beautiful song.

You Intend for the world to be gentle to me,


and you Vision my life full of Peace.


We are joined in a way that is foreign to most,


and I pray that it never will cease.

This is America

I have been called many things over the years. A few of the more “polite”: Liberal, Socialist, Leftist, Progressive, Democrat, Independent. But I am simply a messenger of information. 

How can America be a described as a “republic” as it originally was thought to be, if the Republican party demands we are run by “majority rule”, better understood as “mob rule”, which is actually how a “democracy” is run, the very ideology they claim to hate and the reason why many of them try to demonize the Democratic party by calling it the “democrat” party, in hopes people will see a correlation? If we were allowed to run America as a “mob rule”, (think majority making all decisions even if negative for the minority), woman would never have been allowed to vote, as was the case when the majority in New York years ago voted against allowing this, and how the majority in the country voting against allowing black people equal rights as white people, and as in many examples through out America’s history where the majority did not want to allow the minority (woman, blacks, immigrants, gays, the disabled, etc) to have the same rights, freedoms and protections under the law.

My Thoughts on Gay Marriage

I could care less what they call it, gay marriage or domestic partnership etc..... I would like to have the same right as everyone else, to be treated equal. It is not fair that I cant marry the person I love and pay higher taxes because of it. I could have a partner for 20 years and even if he had a will to leave everything to me, his family could come in and take it all away, just because I can't marry him and the judge would look at me as a nobody to my partner.

 If you say there can be not partnership or marriage, that gives people the right to think that I am a lesser person then what they are. Meaning I am wrong with my life, not a choice, if it was, why would I choose it? If my partner gets sick and is in the hospital, I cant go to see him if the family stops me or if they are in intensive care, because I am not family by law.


 Again call what you want, just give me the same rights as everyone else has. I not asking for special rights, because when did life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness become a special right? If people want to use the bible about being gay is wrong, remember it says that if you wear a garment made of more then one fabric, it is an abomination to God, if you eat shell fish it is an abomination to God, women do not teach men, for it is an abomination to God. I could go on and on with a bigger list. The point I am getting at is people want to pick out something in the Bible like being gay, is wrong in Gods eyes and forget the rest they do in their lives.

In this world

To the world you may just be one person, but to one person you may be the world

Human Race

I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, So we're really not that different, you and I! Black or white, we are all one race, the human race!

True Family

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life