I was surprised to receive a text from a friend attending the International Mr. Leather contest over Memorial Day Weekend. A transgender man had just won the title. This is *the* biggest popular award in the men’s leather community.
What surprised me was… my own disbelief. That IML judges would select a trans man, that it would be possible not just in my lifetime, but today. I was as taken by surprise as anyone, and this is an area I have done a bit of activist work in.
Leather isn’t to everyone’s taste by any means. But it is one more subculture which is stretching to adapt to the growing *visible* participation of transgendered people.
If it can happen here, it can happen any where. That is exciting.
And also point to where I can do a bit more personal work. !
Best wishes, Tyler, IML 2010!
