Gulf Coast Leather Sir/Woman/boy/Community Bootblack

Good Evening Everyone,

It was another great weekend. Friday and Saturday evenings we had the Gulf Coast Leather Sir/Woman/boy and Community Boot Black contest at the Dallas Eagle. I co-emceed with Ms. Solitaire and I have NEVER had more fun emceeing a contest. We were the kinky version of (as someone in the audience said) Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Although that dumbfounds me a bit, as Solitaire isn't a red head and I'm not Cuban nor was Solitaire begging to be in the show; she WAS the show!! But hey . . . we take our compliments wherever we can get them. But I would like to thank her for being the inspiration for my newest fundraising event, Cleavage for Charity. (If you know Solitaire, you know what I'm talking about!)

The contest was great. The photo attached is one of Sir Raul (International Leather Sir), Mark Frazier (my mentor and great friend) and myself. I would like to congratulate the winners: Leather Sir: Sir David; Leather Woman: Lady Minx; Leather boy: John DeLorme; and Bootblack: Syr Evan. They will all represent the Gulf Coast Region very well in San Francisco in October (and Lady Minx will represent at ImsL).

Thursday I leave for my first out of town trip. To San Francisco for Gay Pride. A huge thank you to the Leather Community, Brandon Clark (Mr. SF Leather), and Jay Hemphill for getting everything ready for me to be able to ride in the parade, the fundraiser organized, event planning, etc. It will be an awesome experience for all of us and I finally get to spend some time with my sash wife, Lamalani! I'll keep everyone posted.

I will no more return from San Francisco, then turn right around and head to Chicago for International Deaf Leather. I am truly looking forward to this event, too. It will be a great time as well. I'll definitely provide details during the event!!

My travels over the next six weeks are fast and furious. You can see my calendar at www.iml2009.com. If I am in your area, make sure to come out and say hello.

Also, I wanted to speak a little about the Sharon St. Cyr Fund (SSCFund). It is a charity organization currently being formed (501c3) with the vision of supporting the Leather Archives & Museum, National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) and "Bears". Once 501c3 status is attained, the SSCFund will also serve as a Foundation to help other organizations and charities raise funds by offering national, and in some cases international exposure. The SSCFund will have a national presence through the web and through regular media and speaking engagements of its founder.

The mission of the SSCFund is that together, with the community, the SSCFund will create different programs to raise money solely to assist organizations that are in need of higher profiles and working capital to accomplish missions for sexual freedom, sexual equality, and for organizations that serve sexual minority communities.

The SSCFund was founded by me, in an effort to ensure that the visibility awarded to me as a title holder would benefit the community long after the title was passed on to another IML.
The namesake of the SSCFund is Sharon St. Cyr, my mother, who passed away when I was 3 years old. She was a stay at home mom, but always supported everyone with extended arms and an open heart, and has been a constant source of inspiration and solidarity in the work I have done to benefit the Alternative communities. Sharon St. Cyr was born and raised in Maine, and her resting place is in Rumford, Maine.

More information will be available soon, so please watch closely.

I'll close for now. Take care.

Your Leather Brother, Jeffrey

Weekend Fun!

Once again, it was a busy weekend. I started the weekend at the Hidden Door on Friday night working the registration table for the Firedancers Run and Contest. Met some great men and women and was also able to catch up with a few of my friends. Then I headed to the Dallas Eagle to say hello. Both places were crowded and it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. My friend Rene, Mr. Houston Leather, was in attendance and it's always good to catch up with him.

Saturday night I went back to the Hidden Door and judged the 2009 Firedancers Contest. It was alot of fun and I would like to congratulate Billy Muyo (photo attached), the new Mr. Firedancer 2009. He will go on to compete in the Mr. Texas Leather Contest in January, 2010.

Sunday was the usual brunch with John & Kevin, Kyle, and Alberto & Dale, and my husband, David. Kevin was not able to attend (under the weather; get to feeling better!!) We have had different locations for our weekly brunch, but as of late, we have been going to Buzzbrews on Lemmon. Great place (although if they could turn the music down a tad, that would help my participation in the conversation . . .). Great food though!!

Then it was off to water volleyball! This is the most enjoyable part of summer to me. Every Sunday, weather permitting, a large group of us get together and play water volleyball. There is alcohol involved and their is no line judge, so the rules are not strict. If anyone says, "You just did a Rachel", that means you held the ball (like David does) for five seconds and then threw it wherever you wanted to throw it. One more reason I love my husband! But seeing that I will not be home many Sundays this summer, I enjoyed my time with everyone even more. I have this coming weekend and then it's about an 8 week run of traveling.

Then it was off to Illusions to be auctioned off in the "Daddy Auction". There were 9 of us being auctioned off and everyone did so well. They raised almost $1500 for the Aids Services of Dallas. And I'll share with you like I shared with the crowd last night, "Fundraising depends on all of us. Whether we donate our time, our money or our talents, it is all important. And always know that you are helping someone, not just the people surrounding you tonight or the people that you know, but people that you may never meet. Part of my childhood was spent in an orphanage and I depended on people like you that gave from your heart and yet they never knew who they were giving to. I depended on their generosity and kindness to make sure that I was fed, clothed and had a roof over my head. So I will spend my life making sure I pay it forward, just like all of you. So I thank each of you.

Then David and I went home and I crashed. Then it was back to work this morning. When is July 31 going to be here . . . LOL

Take care.

Yours in Leather,

Jeffrey

IML 2009 - Now what?

Good Morning Everyone,

It has now been two weeks and five days since I was named International Mr. Leather 2009. The morning after the competition I woke up at the exact same time as my husband (David) and we looked at each other and said, "Now what?"

So to that end, this is what has been going on. In that time, I was sick with the IML flu (yes, we named it because so many of us got sick) and then I've been fighting with my allergies. But on a positive note: I've met some of the most wonderful people in the world; my calendar went from one trip to Key West to over 40 trips throughout the next year including Berlin, Seattle, Sydney, Portland, San Francisco, Houston and more. My friends comment on how they can "Google" my name and I actually pop up rather than some doctor in Conn. that used to come up before. I'm on You-Tube (ass and all . . .). I've had more people ask for my Addiction cake recipe than ever before (but I've only given it to one person so far . . . I usually don't share it) and I am leaving my job so I will have the time to do those things I want to do during my title year (and beyond).

So what does all of this mean? It means I have one hell of a year ahead of me. I am working to set up my charity (more on that in a later post), helping to promote our community, meeting as many men and women that I can and helping local communities promote the causes that are important to them. DFW Airport and I will be best friends over the next 52 weeks!

David and I went to the store and bought an I-Phone for me so I could Blog, Facebook, IM, email, etc. from my phone more easily while on the road. That was a step in the right direction. I'm also working with a Marketing Manager to have my website, email, calendar, charity, appointments, etc. set up in an orderly fashion. (I know I have responded to some emails more than once because I couldn't remember if I had responded to them yet or not.)

On a final note: Someone commented to me yesterday they didn't understand why I was doing all of this as IML. They thought the only thing that was required of me was to show up next year to hand the title off (and judge the competition) and not to do anything to discredit the IML name. That may be so, but that is not how I envisioned my title year when I ran for IML nor is it how I envision the years to follow.

I have 53 new IML brothers that I competed with over Memorial Weekend and I want to support them and their local community as much as I possible can. I want my IML title year to be about them and their local community. That translates to my title year being about our entire community because our entire community is made up by the local communities.

My title year is less about me and more about them.

As Always, Jeffrey