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ORIGINAL: Moonlightmaddnes

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ORIGINAL: Salinedion

Both the left and the right politicized AIDS and mis-stated risks. Both thought it was the end of the world.

I think Leather is eternal for its defiant directness. Willfully sexual about piss, filth, and a boot at the neck, it's a dose involuntary truth serum. Whatever your first reaction is, you're probably stuck with it. That's also why practically nobody wants to open that box.

And some respect for a living Leather Man Landmark:

The Leather Man on Christopher Street outfitted the scene back in the day and is still churning out artisan pieces at Stock Room prices. To visit them is to fall down the time tunnel back to 1978. My bride tried on one of those biker caps (we'd just seen The Night Porter) in the store. "Old guard"?, I asked the guy (older than me, even) behind the counter. "You really should make her earn that", he said. We bought some tee shirts instead. It's their thing, and as long as the last living 100 or so players can keep it a little pure, we'd call that a good thing.

Oh I remember my mother explaining away her cruel behavior by saying the risk of him infecting my children are just too high. I try to remember they knew so little back then, but still he was her brother. He was sick and dying. All he wanted was to say goodbye. Funny that even back then when being gay was a shame and not accepted like it is now no one in my family was ashamed of him. It was simply well of course Sam is gay we all knew that from when he was 10 years old. It was the aids that made them all ostracize him.

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ORIGINAL: LadyPact

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ORIGINAL: Moonlightmaddnes
I hope I do not sound to ignorant when I say I have no idea what that means. Does this actually have to do with leather or are you just calling it leather?

The only time the word ignorance actually applies is when a person has a lack of education. It wouldn't be very fair for you to use that in reference to yourself if you've never had the opportunity to learn, now would it?

The word leather has a lot of interpretations. Leather people are the ones that hang with the traditions of the kink world as it was when it was mainly populated by gay leathermen. Even then, we have various terms for the word leather. There's old leather, new leather, earned leather, leather protocol, and all of the other ways we use the word. Sometimes, these are things you wear. Other times, it can be 'old leather' that is passed down from a senior leather person to you, like a crop.

A leather fetishist, on the other hand, basically has a kink that is just related to the material. Like any other type of fetishist, it's a sexual turn on to some degree. It could be the feel or even the smell of the material that is a huge turn on, but they don't do the protocols or the other kinds of traditions that are associated with a person in the leather lifestyle.

I hope that helped.