From Issue 2.4 - February 1996
On December 3, the Forum, a cooperative organization of Bay Area
leather and motorcycle clubs, celebrated its 25th year with a combined
anniversary/holiday party at the Andora Inn. The Forum was founded in
the early 1970s by Doug DeYoung as a way to coordinate the parties,
bike runs, street fairs, and other events sponsored by the various
clubs, and to ensure a minimum of overlap. Twenty-five years later,
the Forum is still fulfilling this function admirably. Forum member
clubs also organize fundraisers for the Inter-Club Fund, which
provides money for HIV/AIDS care and treatment. The Forum calendar
will soon be available online at
http://www.blackiris.com/SFLeatherMC/forumcal.html.
The L/SM Round-Up, an annual
conference for cuir queers in 12-step recovery programs, has
dissolved. After five annual round-ups, any number of "mini-cons," and
many clean and sober play parties, the committee decided to
disband.The founder and occasional co-chair of L/SM reports that, "We
feel very successful, to the point that we've worked ourselves out of
a job. At my first Living Sober (queer AA round-up), there was only
one workshop for leatherpeople, men and women all together. Now there
are about twenty, some gender specific, some mixed, and leatherfolk
are integrated into many aspects of its planning. We demonstrated and
filled a need, but we are now redundant. L/SM has brought
leatherpeople together and brought many out into the larger recovery
community. Our community has grown because of it, and grown beyond
needing it. For that we are very grateful, and we are glad to move
on."The Round-Up's mailing list will be kept for a short time by one
of the officers, but it will be destroyed within a year; names will
not be released to anyone. The meager financial assets will be donated
to 18th Street Services, in gratitude for their support, and in memory
of Patrick Leach.Certain L/SM members will continue as a private
venture to offer refreshments at the SM Community Exchange. Some may
host future clean and sober play parties, but the strict rule of
anonymity forbids even to them to use the mailing list. If you wish to
be informed of such parties you may write to C & S Party, POB 425547,
SF, CA 94142. The Friday night leather AA meeting, Sobriety and
Miracles, will continue to meet weekly from 8:00 to 9:30 at the MCC,
150 Eureka Street in SF.
According to a letter from SF Leather Daddy Cornelius Conboy,
the leather community's M.I.R.A.C.L.E. toy drive collected over 600
gifts for children with HIV/AIDS, enough for distribution to the
pediatric wards at SF General, St. Luke's and California Pacific
hospitals, and to several women's and children's shelters. Many
community members contributed toys, money or labor to make the drive a
success.
Despite the recent prognostication of Mr. Marcus, past Dyke Daddies
Skeeter, B.C. and Jo are not destined to retain their titles for
life. Six judges chose Daddy KoKo of Santa Cruz and Beth Elliott of
Oakland as 1996 Dyke Daddy and Mommy, respectively. Sponsored by 1995
Dyke Mommy Lady Hillary, the contest took place on the very wet Eagle
patio. In spite of the rain, the patio was packed for the January 20th
contest. A raffle raised $400 for Lyon/Martin Women's Health Services.
The Power Exchange is a new pansexual sex club located at 960 Harrison Street (between 5th and 6th). The club has a heterosexual/bi focus and seeks to create an atmosphere that's comfortable for women, transgendered people, and cross-dressers; it also caters to BDSM interests. The Power Exchange is open Wed.-Sun. from 8pm until...whenever, and sees a lot of after-hours action when other clubs close. Admission is a very reasonable $6-10. The site features a social room with pool tables, a video lounge, private playrooms (including "voyeur rooms" separated by glass partitions), a medieval room and several theme rooms. In addition Mistress Califa (not Califia) is available for private dominance sessions.
Power Exchange
manager Michael Powers hopes in the future to offer classes, seminars,
and room rentals for couples, parties, and professional
dominatrices.
The Stop AIDS Project has initiated a new outreach effort to leathermen and bears. The project sponsored three workshops in December: "Safer Sex for Leathermen," "Bear Sex," and "Leathersex" (facilitated by Mr. NoCal Drummer Omar Mosley). The Stop AIDS Project has a regular presence at the SF Eagle, Folsom Street Fair and other leather venues and events. More leather and bear workshops are planned; contact Steve Gibson at the Stop AIDS Project, (415) 621-7177 x258, for more information.
Another HIV/AIDS
prevention effort for the kink community is free, anonymous HIV
testing, sponsored by the AIDS Health Project, a program of the SF
Department of Public Health, and Blow Buddies. The testing takes place
the third Friday of each month (January 19, February 16, March 15) at
933 Harrison Street in a private upstairs space. For information call
(415) 863-HEAD.
Idexa and Natalie recently opened a
brand new tattoo studio, Black and Blue Tattoo, in the Mission
district at 483 14th Street (near Guerrero). The studio currently
employs four full-time tattooists, and also offers piercings and
branding. The studio is dyke-owned and operated, and Idexa and Natalie
would like Black and Blue to become a place where women tattooists can
learn the craft and work as apprentices. Black and Blue is open seven
days a week from noon to 7pm; the phone number is (415)
626-0770.
The Kinkmeister conference, held on December 15 at club Eros, was a
great success. Sponsors Sarah Lashes and Pat Califia gave about
thirty women the opportunity to see number of demonstrations of
various SM techniques by these two experts. The attendees came from
a broad cross-section of the women's SM community, including hets,
bis, dykes, newbies, and pros. Sessions included bondage,
flogging (with a flogging workshop later, conducted by Sarah), blood
sports, electrical play, and cunt torture. The blood sports section
included information on blood drawing, play piercing, and cutting,
with the highlight being a cutting demonstration by Pat. Pat cut a
symbolic representation of the dark goddess Kali into a woman's skin
as the woman chanted in Hindi and attendees watched in rapt
attention. Attendees freely contributed their thoughts to the
proceedings throughout the day; this wasn't just a series of
lectures but rather a participatory event. Attendeed expressed their
hopes that there would be another such conference, or perhaps
several, focused on more specific topics and allowing more
opportunity to try things out.