James Leatherlad

For some silly reason I haven’t blogged for a little while and yet I’ve been to Berlin amongst other places that I should write about! If I was into CP I’d give myself a smack but I guess that’s about as much fun as being a top and having to play solo. 

As I write this, I’m sat on a United Airlines flight above the Atlantic Ocean heading towards Chicago. To be precise, I’m currently travelling at 561 miles per hour, 1548 miles from London and still have 2783 miles to go until I get there which is another 5.5 hours to wait until I can have a cigarette! 

So I am on my way to compete at IML. In fact there’s a large number my European counterparts taking part this year and I believe it might actually be the most thats ever competed.

Being the shy and retiring kind, I’m not quite sure what to expect. A number of people have helped me prepare for this week in terms of coaching, speech writing, outfits and the like as well as online and offline friends who have sent me well wishes and cards which is rather humbling. I had a send off last Friday at the Eagle in Vauxhall which was nice – not overly busy despite being the usual London Leathermen last Friday of the month event and in fact there was only the current president there. Sadly, it wasn’t advertised as my send off (and the club Facebook page has posted about IML but neglected to mention that im taking part lol) so I’m guessing IML isn’t as important to a persons club as it is to the contestant. But moving on……

A big shoutout has to go out to Nhamo at Spitfire leather who are one of my sponsors and have dressed me for IML and will be dressing for each official event I go to. 

There’s 62 contestants entering this year and let’s face it we would like to win. But, we are all winners for getting this far. Most people know my journey to how I’ve got here and none of this amazing stuff would be happening if I hadn’t have gone through the hell ive been through. My only goal is to get into the top twenty so I can get to tell my story. Anything else is a bonus. 

Anyway, I need to get some shut eye and I’ll update you all through the week! 

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So I’m sat on a Ryanair flight to Stanstead on the way back from Warsaw. Cramp conditions aside, I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to have been invited to be a guest and member of the jury at The Mr Leather Poland competition. Arriving Friday and being met at the airport by the lovely Janos and Henk (and of course their cute dog Nero), I joined Mr Leather Europe – Joe King, Mr Leather Amsterdam – Raymond and Mr Bavarian Leather – Werner to support a country that hasn’t been known for its great treatment of its LGBT community. Having Polish lodgers, they offer constant reminders to me about the harsh treatment that LGBT people in Poland. In fact before I left to travel, one of them apologised for their countries attitude and asked me to be careful when out and about. Being an LGBT activist as well as a title holder, it was important to me to understand the challenges faced by our leather brothers and to see what I and the other European title holders can do to help change attitudes and fight discrimination and break barriers in Eastern Europe. 

Thanks to education, attitudes have started to change but we have a long way to go. Homosexuality was never illegal under Polish law and cities such as Warsaw and Krakow are testament to the change in attitudes. Despite campaigns for equal marriage, some-sex marriage is not recognised in Poland with the major opposition coming from the Roman Catholic Church which influences politically. A google search provides more information than I am able to provide in this blog post.

We were invited to be part of the jury for the Mr Leather Poland contest and I can confirm that the gorgeous Lukasz Sankowski came first in the competition. I wish him luck in his title year and look forward to meeting him at future events. I know he will do his country proud. 

Despite warnings from my lodgers, we faced no hassles walking round Warsaw in full leather. In fact, everyone was perfectly charming even the lady who asked me to take a photo of her with the other title holders. It’s the beginning of Brexit Syndrome. lol One of the group took the picture so I could join my colleagues but I bet she cuts me out the photo! Lol 

As I reflect, I realise this is why I go to events such as Pride. Not just to celebrate the freedoms we have here in the UK but to show solidarity and raise awareness of worldwide communities who are unable to share the same freedoms. Until we are all equal, until hate crime is eradicated, until young people stop committing suicide, there will always be pride festivals and people like to march in them. 

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So my first interview has been published. I was wary about sharing too much about my past but I thought that events I have experienced might show other people that there’s a real person under the cowhide!

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So it seems I haven’t posted for quite a while! Me bad!

Well I guess I can say a that a lot has happened! I think I ended up doing 14 pride events last year plus attended Bear Week in Sitges and then Folsom in Berlin. It was the first time I’d been to either of the big events so I was pretty much like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Sitting here now writing this blog post, I’ve come to realise how much I have changed since I started writing this blog a year ago. Even though I always describe myself as the shy guy, there seems to have an injection of confidence that arrived from somewhere!

I guess can’t update anything without announcing that i am also now a title holder and am now Mr Leather U.K. 2017. I entered the competition in January and was shocked to find that I had won. 3 weeks on and it’s starting to sink in and it looks like I’m going to have a very busy 2017. I pro,isle I’ll get better at updating this blog!

​So I thought I’d enter the blogosphere! Not for any particular reason but to prevent a good mate of mine moaning at me about everything I share on Facebook!  Not that putting your personal thoughts down on here is any better – unlike Facebook, there are no controls over who can see your statuses or Blog Posts.

So let me tell you a little bit more about myself.

I’m 38 and live on my own in Reading with my King Charles Cavalier.  Reading is an odd place. It sits along the M4 corridor and doesn’t quite fit under London and doesn’t quite fit under the South West. It has a pride festival which has become one of largest pride festivals outside of a city and that’s something I’m quite proud of having been one of the founding members back in 2004. But size isn’t everything.

I came onto the leather community rather late in life and only recently took my gear out of the house last June at London Pride where I signed up to join the BLUF parade group. I was nervous about being ‘leathered up’ in public but I had a cunning plan and I racked my brain to think of any icons in leather.  Fast forward to London Pride when a leather man, Indian, builder and cowboy step out of Baker Street station. We decided that the BLUF parade group might not have appreciated the appearance of the Village People and opted to walk with Stonewall (who didn’t appreciate it!) instead. It was a cliché look but it gave me the confidence to go public. To me, it was like coming out all over again and it was a cathartic moment. In fact I refused to take it off when my friends went back to the apartment and changed. My big toes are still recovering from 15 hours in boots!

This outing led me to want to organise a presence in Reading. Through the power of the BLUF website, combined with the publicity from LeatherWest, several guys messaged me to say they’d love to come to and support the leather cause at Reading!

So, fast forward to the actual day of Reading Pride, I left home in full leathers and caught the bus from the South Reading suburbs to meet these “leather troopers” outside Reading Station.

Now I had a bit of a cunning plan. I went with some straight friends and as usually I was to accompany them as the leather man from the village people. Really, I needn’t have used this story as on the bus ride to the station, I was steadfastly informed that they all knew I was a leather man and that they thought the only thing I was missing was a big fat cigar!

I’m sure you’ll all remember the first time you went out in public kitted-up in full leather? Remember that mixture of nerves and excitement and a little bit of horny – call it a ‘twang’! To be honest though, the walk to the parade assembly point thorough Reading’s Saturday morning shoppers was the longest walk imaginable! Hey guys, this isn’t Berlin at Folsom, this is Saturday morning in Reading! This is radical, ‘out-there’, ‘doing it’.

Not only did I get to march as a leather man, I got to speak on stage at Reading Pride as a leather man too. I was asked to speak about hate crime, something sadly I have been a victim of. Then there is the irony: I was stood on that stage in full leather gear that was paid for by the person who committed the crime against me. Thanks mate!

So I came out in leather in front of the 5,000 people assembled.

This led me to start attending the leather socials in London where I started to meet other guys who shared the passion and I also attended the Leather Pride Festival in Bristol. I have also now since attended Leather Pride in Antwerp.

Up until December, I was married.  Sadly my husband passed away around my birthday and this sort of changes a person. This has spurred me to take chances and try to increase my confidence.  Believe it or not, I’m actually a shy guy! Endearing to some – a pain in the ass for me!  Following his death, I created a bucket list of things I wanted to do in 2016 that I could do in his memory and help improve my confidence.  Strangely, one of those things was to enter Mr Leather UK!

In hindsight, it was probably not the wisest things I could do but once I was on the train, I realised it was too late to back out!  Round 1 was being interviewed in your best leather which I could cope with but round 2 was more revealing – you had to deliver a speech in just a leather jock strap!  Here is my speech:

“…If you had told me 6 months ago that I would be stood here now entering this competition I wouldn’t have believed you.

So why did I enter? Back in December, 3 events occurred that changed the course of my leather journey. I nearly died in a car accident on what should have been the first night out in gear unaccompanied. Thankfully I didn’t die but standing on the side of the M4 in full BLUF for an hour waiting for a recovery man surprisingly changes a person. Suddenly I was catching the train in full gear from Reading to London to attend events. A week later a BLUF event was held at the Eagle and as you know, you can get your pic taken in front of the banner. I thought I’d have a go and shockingly they made me hunk of the week! I know it’s a silly thing but it does wonders for the ego and my husband was so proud – he even joked that I’d be entering Mr Leather UK next – the competition that is (yes I’m a top)! Sadly a week after he made that joke I became a widower and since then I have created a bucket list of things that he believed I could do and things that take on his legacy of reaching out forward and making a difference. So here I am, wanting to be an ambassador for the leather community and be a role model for tomorrow’s leathermen.

As Mr Leather UK, I want to share my journey to inspire others to take those first steps in their tall boots. As well as being approachable and stand up for the less confident guys who get the same kick from wearing gear that we do, I want to reach out to the suburbs and take leather to the smaller prides in the UK. After all, leather exists beyond London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol. It strikes me that there must be lot more leather men sat in the closet across the UK, keen for their leather boots to step over their front doorstep and that’s why leather on parade and being an ambassador of the leather community is important to me in celebrating the diversity that exists within the gay community. I believe that blatant is better than latent. After all, visibility is the biggest weapon we can use to fight discrimination and to send a positive message to those wanting to be part of our community. After all, we are the shoulders that the next generation needs to stand on.

​We are the shoulders that the next generation needs to stand on and I want to show them what the leather community has taught me: Dare to be different, be happy in the skin you’re in and even though leather maybe on the outside, it’s the leather man that’s inside that counts…”

As many of my mates know, it was the taking part that counted for me but I was pleasantly surprised to be placed second!  Not bad for a shy guy from the suburbs.