|
Prior to coming to the Task Force, he served as executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda (1997-2003) and the NYC Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (1990-1996). Before that he worked in prison administration for 10 years and was the director of a medium/minimum security prison on Rikers Island. He is a founder of Heritage of Pride, which organizes New York City's LGBT pride events.
As he began to explore the leather community, he had the good fortune to discover mentors and friends not only in his local region, but also through SigMa in Washington, DC and especially through the Chicago Hellfire Club (CHC). He has been an Associate Member of CHC for 7 years. Joe is pleased to have played a leadership role in the growth of Three Rivers Leather Club in recent years. Now in it's 16th year, the brothers of TRLC have created and sustained a strong, welcoming leather club for the Pittsburgh community. Joe has taken distinct pleasure in working with TRLC over the last 4 years to create and produce the Mr. Pittsburgh Eagle Leather contest. Joe operates an independent graphic design and marketing business and has a background in radio announcing and production. He is honored and pleased to serve as a judge for IML 29.
In 2000, Scott was crowned International Mr. Leather 1st runner up while representing Pistons Bar in Long Beach, CA. In the year he spent touring the country, Scott became very aware that a bridge must be built to better attract the new blood that is the future of leather. His mission since then has been to establish a safer environment for curious men and women to explore their leather leanings as well as to underscore the need to preserve and promote our leather history. In 2005, Scott directed the award winning documentary, "Original Pride: The Satyrs Motorcycle Club" in the first of what he hopes to be a film career devoted to our leather history. The following year, he received the Pantheon Award for the Southern California Region for his work. This year he is following up with his second film, "Call Me Troy" which chronicles the life and legacy of Bishop Troy Perry, a notable activist and member of our Leather Bear Community. Still active
in the Los Angeles Leather Community, Scott is now working with
the Los Angeles Leather Coalition promoting Leather weekend and
the Mr. Los Angeles Leather contest.
Glenda went on to join many organizations thru the years, starting a few more along the way. She is a member of the Emeritus Board of the Leather Leadership Conference, Inc. and has recently retired after serving many years on the Board of Directors of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). Glenda is currently the coordinator of FIST- Females Investigating Sexual Terrain and was one of the first female associates of COMMAND, MC. Glenda owns Play House Studios in Baltimore which is 4500 sq ft of gallery and dungeon space that is available for private rentals by individuals or groups. She is also the new Executive Producer of the International Ms Leather Contest Weekend. Glenda can also honestly say that she's taught more classes/workshops and judged/ emceed/ helped with more contests than she can remember. She has somehow managed to keep playing and having kinky sex along the way. Having occasionally suffered from the condition a friend of hers describes as,"letting your briefcase get heavier than your toybag" Glenda tries to live by the Play House motto: Make Play Happen. She is currently dating a number of amazing women, several of their spouses and her VERY CUTE BOY named Levi who she collared last year.
Long a student of the history of human sexuality, Matt is intimately involved with the documentation and preservation of that history. He shares his professional expertise with the Leather Archives & Museum's Teri Rose Library committee, where he is collaborating on a project to improve access to leather, BDSM, fetish, and kink materials in library catalogs. As a researcher and writer, he has published extensively on such diverse topics as HIV/AIDS, Bear culture, pornography, transgender history, and LGBT librarianship. Matt has volunteered with multiple organizations as an HIV prevention outreach worker in public sex environments. A devotee of bondage from age twelve onward, he has also worked as a bondage educator at the TES Association and Gay Male S/M Activists, and has performed public demonstrations of his craft at Boston's Fetish Fair Fleamarket and New York's Folsom Street East. Matt is both elated and humbled to be a judge at IML 29, and to contribute to the illustrious history of an event that is as old as he is. He is deeply indebted to the teachers, mentors and friends whose instruction, encouragement and loving care have brought him here.
Master Jim is one of the owners of South Plains Leatherfest-International Master/slave Weekend, the home of the International Master/slave contest. He was instrumental in developing the five region contest feeder system that today supports the International Master/slave contest. In addition to
being a frequent judge for leather contests, Master Jim has presented
several keynote speeches at leather events. His club affiliations
include Discipline Corps and NLA-Dallas, and he was one of the
owners of the When he is not teaching on Master/slave relationships, Master Jim can be found riding his 2003 Harley Davidson Road King.
Bo currently serves as the External Vice-President of Montreal's Leather club, MC Faucon. He was the official spokesperson for the 2006 1st World Out Games Leather Program and Bear Program for which he was awarded an honorary gold medal for his work. Bo was also invited to share his life experiences at Montreal's Concordia University Applied Human Sciences Department addressing students on the topic of diversity. Bo has also been actively involved with HIV/AIDS education and prevention serving on the founding Board of Directors of the Deaf Outreach Program (DOP) of the AIDS Committee of Toronto. He has also served as a consultant to Winnipeg's Village Clinic with their HIV/AIDS education outreach to the Deaf community and coordinated the THERAPET clinic for the AIDS Community Care of Montreal (ACCM) along with his husband of 12 years, Guy. In his over 23 years as an American Sign Language / English Interpreter and as a Child of Deaf parents he has volunteered on countless committees and boards of directors for his profession and the Deaf Community at both the provincial and national level. Bo's international visibility along with his views on education, mentorship, political activism, LGBT rights and social justice has had a positive influence on our community. He continues to nurture his passion for community and his belief of inclusion by encouraging various groups from all walks to connect and work together thereby giving our community a new effervescence and strength ready to take on the many challenges that lie ahead.
He is a member of TES (The Eulenspiegel Society), Delta International, CHC (Chicago Hellfire Club), The New York Bondage Club, and an honorary member of A.S.S. (Atlanta S/M Solidarity) and Iron Guard (from which he received the Mickey Garber Award in 2003). He was treasurer for LLC-X (the Leather Leadership Conference) held in New York City in April 2006. Gil has presented many times at GMSMA, TES, Delta International, Spring in the South (Atlanta), The Boston Dungeon Society, and The Black Tulip Hotel (Amsterdam), among others. He is an avid proponent of multi-colored clothespins and bright mummifications, plus a little fun with rope and electricity on the side. He was an NYC math teacher/administrator for thirty years, is a classical pianist, a square dancer, and the teacher on a series of videos on SM-101.
|
Matt has worked for gay rights for more
than 25 years and has served as executive director of the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force for the last four. During his tenure,
the Task Force's budget has more than doubled to $9 million and
the organization has played critical roles in fighting anti-gay
ballot measures and exposing the shameful tactics of America's
anti-gay industry. He has spoken out forcefully on behalf the
leather community, the Task Force has donated $10,000 to the
Leather Archives and Museum, and it has established an annual
$5,000 Leather Leadership Award which is presented at the organization's
annual Creating Change Conference. 
Joe is the current producer of the Mr.
Pittsburgh Eagle Leather Contest and the Road Captain of Three
Rivers Leather Club (TRLC) of Pittsburgh, PA. He has served
as an officer of TRLC for 5 consecutive years including 2 years
as Club President. Joe has been an active member of the leather
community for 10 years. 
Scott Bloom has been member of the Leather
Community for 25 years and became a member of the Satyrs Motorcycle
Club of Los Angeles in 1998.
Glenda Rider dates her participation
in the "organized scene" back to the National Lesbian
Conference held in Atlanta in April of 1991. Connections were
made there which led to her co-founding Lesborados in Washington,
DC. a few months later and indirectly to Glenda becoming the
first woman to hold an Eagle Bar title as Ms Baltimore Eagle
1992.
Matt Johnson proudly hails from Brooklyn,
New York. Trained as a librarian, he currently works for a web
search engine. Known as Bad Faggot to readers of his website
and weblog, he has been airing his candid and often unorthodox
perspectives on leather culture and community online for a number
of years. 
Master Jim Glass, International Master
2001, is a gay leatherman who has been involved in SM for over
15 years. While he enjoys heavy SM, his vocation always has
been educating the leather community about real, healthy 
Bo Ladashevska, the current International
Mr. Leather is the first Canadian to win the coveted IML title.
Bo has been a fiercely proud and Out Gay man for over 30 years
and has been involved with the Leather community for 20 of those
years. His love for leather can be traced back to his grandfather's
leather shaving strap that hung on the bathroom door as a painful
reminder of what was in store should any of the grandchildren
misbehave. Needless to say the pain evolved into pleasure and
Bo became a very naughty boy.
Gil Kessler has been a member of GMSMA
(Gay Male S/M Activists) since 1983, including seven terms as
President and over twenty years conducting workshops and seminars.
For the past seventeen years, he has conducted a "course"
of twelve four-hour workshops for novices, with over twenty men
registering each year. 
Ted Lassen has been involved in the leather
scene for 17 years and for the last 10 has been an active member
of the leather community in Denver, CO. He is a co-moderator
and co-founder of Leathermen Colorado, which is a men's SSC play/information
organization, and he continues to present seminars on a variety
of topics for this group and for various organizations in the
Denver area and throughout the Midwest. He has served on the
Administrative Board of Uncommon Ground and has served as judge
at several contests including Colorado Leather Sir, Mr. Triangle,
Mr. Leather Colorado, Mr. Missouri Leather, and Mr. Wrangler.
Ted is an avid boot enthusiast, and he has been a featured participant
and demonstartor each year in Denver's annual Bootblack Contest
benefitting Horizon House, a Denver AIDS assistance organization.
