The following is reprinted from the Bay Area Reporter with the permission of the author.

B.A.R. leather columnist Marcus Hernandez dies
NEWS
Published 10/15/2009
by Cynthia Laird
c.laird@ebar.com

Marcus Hernandez, who served as the Bay Area Reporter's longtime leather columnist, died Thursday, October 8 at Pacifica Nursing and Rehab Center in Pacifica. He was 77.

The cause of death was complications from diabetes and arteriosclerosis.

Mr. Hernandez was known to his legions of readers by his pen name "Mister Marcus" and dubbed the "dean of leather columnists." His weekly columns of contest goings-on and gossip were a must-read for leather community leaders, titleholders, and newcomers alike for 38 years.

Mr. Hernandez had been hospitalized since the summer, when his health condition worsened.

He was surrounded by friends at the time of his death; one of his sons had traveled from North Carolina to be at his bedside earlier this week.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

This article was found on the internet however a search for a contact for the author yielded no results. Polly Peachum is the name of a chacater in the play "The Begger's Opera" and its follow on "The Threepenny Opera" so it is assumed that this is a nom de plumme for someone unknown. Anyone with information on the author please contact Sergeant Major@LeatherJourney.org. The article is posted here for its information value to the community. While it is thirteen years old it is still relevant today.

At a sexuality conference I learned healthy sex may just be deviant sex.

BY Thomas Q. Johnson
PUBLISHED: 06/16/2009

In the vanilla world, the world most of us upstanding, everyday citizens inhabit, what healthy sex looks like is for the most part agreed upon, but more importantly, so too is the look of unhealthy sex. “Vanilla” is the term used by the fetish and BDSM (Bondage Domination Sadism and Masochism, though the definitions vary) community to describe people who don’t have experience in the fetishes. The moniker isn’t always pejorative, though it doesn’t always mean the best.

At Sexy Spring 6 , a sexuality conference held recently in Ford Hall, all kinds of people that the vanillas may have considered perverts showed up to talk about sex toys, bondage and the sex industry. Excited and happy faces walked though the halls to the various workshops dealing with sexuality.

I decided to attend an hour-and-half-long workshop on BDSM, taught by two sex therapists and members of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University .

Exclusive: South Africa
joins leather nation Mister Marcus
Published 06/18/2009
by Mister Marcus
hatchetq@aol.com

It was at the 2005 International Mr. Leather when it was first acknowledged that leather/bdsm was part of that nation's culture when Michael Egdes, a native of South Africa living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was chosen the winner. He was living and working as a real estate agent in Florida with two husbands and several Pomeranian dogs.

It was another one of those good IML years with Egdes. He did a fantastic job with the title (and gave some memorable speeches) and of course, it did not fall on deaf ears that he was from South Africa.

So what happened in Johannesburg on Friday, May 29 at the Station bar?

The Minnesota Leather Pride Committee announces the events for 2009


Saturday, June 13, 2009
05:00 PM - 08:00 PM Minnesota Storm Patrol Beer Bust Minneapolis Eagle, Bolt, and Bolt Underground Minneaplis
Club event

Saturday, June 13, 2009
08:00 PM - 10:00 PM Atons of Minneapolis L&L Dinner The Strip Club St. Paul
Club event

Saturday, June 13, 2009
10:00 PM - 03:59 AM Atons of Minneapolis Bar Night Rumours and Innuendo St. Paul
Club event

Thursday, June 18, 2009
06:30 PM - 09:00 PM PEPRMNT Munch Grumpy's Bar & Grill St. Paul
Club event

(Columbus, OH) -- National Leather Association: International, a leading organization for activists in the pansexual leather community, announced the 2008 winners of its recently created annual awards for excellence in SM/leather/fetish writing at its Annual General Meeting at Spring Iniquity in Houston, TX on 19 April 2009).

Now here’s an email that can set me off and running: “I have been active in real life BDSM since 2000. I started out as a top and after a while I became aware that the more control I had over a scene, the better I liked it. This love of control seeped into my relationships as well. I therefore felt comfortable calling myself a dominant. I feel very comfortable in my own skin being the dominant partner in my present relationship. [Meanwhile] my partner of the last four years has made the leap from submissive to slave. She sees herself as my slave. I cherish her and take care of her as my most valued possession. We got engaged in January and plan on having a formal collaring this summer. So at what point can I define myself as a Master rather than as a Dominant? What do you think are the differences between Dominant and Master?”

The following excerpt is from the book Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti. Excerpted by arrangement with Seal Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) January 2009.


By Stacey May Fowles, Seal PressPosted on December 29, 2008, Printed on December 30, 2008http://www.alternet .org/story/ 113745/

This is being posted here for the information of this community. Even though twelve years old it has relevance today.

“Old Guard Avant-garde:
Getting Real About What is - and what isn’t the real thing.’”

Joseph Bean. Frontiers, October 4, 1996.

The fuss about the Old Guard of leather and the new forms leathersex has taken in recent years is not going to go away any time soon, I’m sure. Nor do I think there is much I could say that would settle many of the disagreements about what the Old Guard is or isn’t and how it relates to
the younger community and those who are newer to S&M. I took a run at explaining my point of view in “Leathersex: A Guide...,” and undertook a few related questions in “Leathersex Q&A,” but I doubt I’ve made any inroads there. So, rather than attempt a complete explanation of anything and rather than attempt to settle disputes, I’d like to just put a few thoughts in a familiar order, and leave others to determine whether I’ve given them anything useful.

Here then, in my hand, from the home office buried in my past and located
somewhere in Southern California are two Top 10 Lists, offered with apologies only to David Letterman.

I would like to share two transcripts with you. One, the West Wing transcript, was fantasy (of course) but gives some great responses to the Biblical challenge. The other is the transcript from the Jon Stewart show.

Part of the work we're doing at Woodhull is "movement messaging" -
restructuring the discourse around sex and sexuality. Part of that
work involves research - focus groups - to "test" messages. This isn't
a new technique. The "right" has perfected the technique over the
last twenty years and they have owned the debate - not just around
sexual freedom issues, but also taxes, the environment, spying and
even torture (no, not THAT kind!).