Our guide to L.A. Leather Weekend and a look at the community's future.

By Christopher Lisotta

The end of March means many things to many people. To basketball fans, it's slam-dunking March madness. To fashionistas, it's the OK to wear white again. But to L.A.'s gay community, it means one thing: it's Los Angeles Leather Weekend. The event, which runs from Thursday, March 30, through Sunday, April 2, features seminars, cocktail parties and dances. While most of the action will take place at the Leather Weekend's host hotel, downtown Los Angeles' Hotel Figueroa, the Mr. L.A. Leather contest and post-contest victory dance will be held at a new venue located at 828 Main St., between 8th and 9th Streets.

The biggest event, however, takes place outside. On Sunday, Leather Weekend will once again take over Santa Monica Boulevard. between Hoover and Sunset in Silver Lake for a street fair.

According to George Wong, public relations director for L.A. Leather Weekend, somewhere between 8,000-9,000 people are expected to take part in events throughout the weekend.

While straight participants are welcome, Wong predicts the majority of crowd will be from the LGBT community, particularly the more than 500 people who are expected to attend the Mr. L.A. Leather contest.

"The contest is much more popular within the gay leather culture," Wong said.

The contest in L.A. is the culmination of nine feeder contests, which are sponsored by bars like The Faultline and The Gauntlet, and organizations such as The Regiment of the Black and Tan and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The nine winners will then compete for Mr. LA leather, which feeds into the International Mr. Leather competition in Chicago, which takes place during Memorial Day weekend.

The contest serves another purpose as well: It allows young leather hopefuls to learn more about the community and interact with other leather supporters and fans."It's a very good way for newbies that want to come into the leather community to learn," Wong explained. "If they have something to say, want to get something done, the contest is a great way of doing it."

Michael Egdes, International Mr. Leather 2006, spends about one out of every two weekends traveling around the world to visit different leather events as part of his title. He's seen first hand how the leather community is evolving to include parts of the community who before never would have been associated with leather.

"It's definitely changing," Egdes said. "One of the results of AIDS is we've lost the middle generation between the old guard and the new people coming into the community. We're losing the continuity."

While that is a struggle for the community as a whole, an increasing cultural openness has also allowed the leather community to continue to grow.

"Times have changed substantially," Egdes argued. "Social attitudes toward the gay and leather community are a little more relaxed, so people are open about their interest. It's less underground and more overt, more public. You do see a lot of young people interested in leather starting to move around in leather circles. There is now a very strong crossover between the circuit community and the leather community. A lot of the circuit crowd is coming to leather events as well."

For Wong, coming to leather is an experience not unlike what someone goes through when they realize they are gay, which is why people join the leather community at very different times in their life.

"We say that leather folks have a second coming out," Wong explained. "The leather coming out can happen when one is 50 years old or 20 years old. It's not that age specific. That's why we have a lot of 'newbies' that range from 18 to 60, 70 years old."

But with gay men coming out at younger and younger ages, interest in the leather community is happening for younger men, who may be grappling with their sexuality and their attraction to the leather community virtually at the same time.

For Othello, a 27-year-old member of the club L.A. Boys of Leather, his introduction to the leather community came through his second boyfriend, who didn't tell Othello about his interest in leather until they were already dating.

"He was the shy quiet one and he was really afraid to tell me he was a leather man," Othello said. "After going out for six to seven months he said, 'You want to go to Faultline?,' and I said, 'That's a leather bar,' and he said, 'How do you feel about it?'"

That shy introduction allowed Othello to learn about leather from his partner."I found my boyfriend was able to mentor me into the community," he explained.

For younger men interested in leather, they have a resource older men never had: the Internet.

"A lot of people who have interest do their homework ahead of time," Othello said. "We know what we are looking for."

Still, the experience of learning can be a tough one for some young men.

"When I was in my early 20s it was taboo," Othello said. "I thought it was wrong or dirty, the stigma that comes through that. It was hard enough to see stereotypes of gay people in movies and TV. Some people actually get lucky and meet someone who is interested in mentoring them and helping them. Unfortunately there are some people who meet someone and have a bad experience and never come back."

Many issues make it difficult for someone to feel a part of the community, Othello explained.

"I think it's twice as hard to get into the leather community, and trying to feel you fit in, a lot of issues abound," he admitted. "S&M requires you to have some knowledge and a lot of experience. If you don't have the experience you're kind of left to your own devices. If there weren't that many leather groups that didn't seek out new blood, the leather community would have died out a long time ago. Let's say everyone is in their early 30s, late 30s or early 40s. It's hard to look at someone whose, lets say 24, and try to take them seriously."

Eric Hufford, a fellow member of L.A. Boys of Leather, said that as a 25-year-old who looks more like he's 18, it was hard for him to be initially accepted. Like Othello he was introduced to the community by a boyfriend, but overcoming initial reactions was something he had to deal with.

"When I first started out, people looked at me like I was crazy," he explained. "But when they got to know me, they thought I'm entitled to what they are entitled to."

But assumptions still come easy.

"What life experience do you bring to this? People my age are still coming out," he added.

There's no question there may be some intimidation when entering into the leather community, but Wong said knowing that going in is helpful, and that L.A. Leather Weekend is a good example of an entry into the world of leather.

"There are people out there that are very strict on how one looks and dresses and following the protocol," Wong explained. "A lot of newbies tend to be scared away by that. We're doing as much as possible to break that and say, 'Hey, it's not always about that.' We're much more welcoming than a lot of the general gay community. I look at my experience -- I'm the non traditional gay leather man in the community, I'm not the Tom of Finland physique person. I'm Chinese. For the community to welcome me was an awesome gesture. It's been a great 10 plus years."

L.A. Leather Weekend takes place March 30-April 2. For registration details, a schedule of street fair events, and more information, visit www.laleatherweekend.com.