History of New Mexico Leather
& Alternative Communities
Overview • Venues • Artisans • Groups • Events • Media • Indivduals
History is a foundation that helps us approach the future with more understanding. Awareness of history helps us realize not just what came before us, but also understand how things have changed, are changing, what was attempted, successes, struggles, and the great time had by many in alternative lifestyle communities. It reminds us that time passes by quickly and to be sure to be kind as you travel through your journey through these alternative communities.
Notable Individuals
New Mexico’s Leather, Kink, and alternative communities were created and sustained by individuals and teams of individuals who organized groups, produced events, taught skills, made art, operated gathering places, preserved community history, represented New Mexico elsewhere, and helped communities survive periods of crisis and change. This section recognizes some of those individuals that have stood in the light to benefit the community with their contributions. Looking at some of these individuals allows us to more easily see how they connect and influence community across its sectors. This is not intended to be a complete directory and has no ranking of importance.
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Those from New Mexico that venture out to national and international events are our representatives, bring awareness of our community cultures to others. They also bring ideas and energy back to the community in New Mexico. Some of those living in New Mexico bring back experience from distinguished positions in the broader national and international communities. They also positively represent New Mexico in their travel and interactions.
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One category of representatives are our regional, national, and international titleholders who not only put their energy into entering and participating in a local event, but do so at broader event venue, often competing with people from across the country or world. There is no doubt they grow from this experience. They also help New Mexico community grow through the shared experience and what they bring back to New Mexico.
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Note: This is the newest page of this history, incomplete draft (19July26).
Leslie Anderson
Communities: Bootblack, Leather, LGBTQ
Associations: Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, Sandia Leathermen/Sandia Leatherwomen, International Ms Leather (IMsL), International Ms Bootblack, Rio Grande Leather, American Leatherwoman, American Brotherhood Weekend, Albuquerque Pride, Leather Women United, Leather Archives & Museum, International Mr. Leather, Team Shine, Mid-Atlantic Bootblack, Mid-Atlantic Leather.
Period: ~1990s-present
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Leslie Anderson was one of New Mexico’s most nationally influential bootblacks and leather titleholders. He was associated with Motorcyclemen of New Mexico and Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen and participated in Albuquerque’s leather community during the 1990s and early 2000s. Read more about Bootblacking in Albuquerque in the "1979, 1989- Albuquerque's Bootblack Stand" entry on the VENUES page describing Leslie working with Pat Sanches of Motorcyclemen of NM and working on actor Val Kimler's boots multiple times.
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Leslie held the title of Ms. New Mexico Leather 1996 and, with the support of Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen, won American Leatherwoman 1997 at American Brotherhood Weekend. In 1999, competing under his American Leatherwoman title, Leslie became the inaugural International Ms. Bootblack in 1999 at International Ms. Leather (IMsL). He was the first person to hold that international bootblack title.
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Having learned from a succession of Bootblacks in Albuquerque, Leslie worked at and helped sustain the community’s bootblack stands, taught leather care, and passed on knowledge by mentoring other bootblacks. Leslie’s work helped connect New Mexico’s bar-based bootblack tradition with the emerging international bootblack community.
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From September 1995 through May 1996, Leslie Anderson and Diva Marie produced and distributed five issues of New Mexico NEWSLEATHER, an independent Albuquerque leather-community newsletter. Published every two months and reproduced by photocopy, it connected New Mexico readers with local and national events, leather organizations, title contests, community resources, personal essays, poetry, artwork, photographs, and reports from gatherings such as International Ms. Leather. Contributors included Casey Newkirk, C.J. Diamond, Steve Wearden, Jeff Tucker, Lee Lambert, Cindy Bookout, James Peters, Eric Senff, Janet Ryan, and Viola Johnson. Although brief, NEWSLEATHER provided both a means of building community and an unusually valuable contemporary record of New Mexico leather life during the mid-1990s. The surviving issues are preserved by the Leather Archives & Museum and are available as PDFs through this history on the MEDIA page.
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The newsletter’s premiere issue promoted the recently established Leather Archives & Museum and urged leather people to preserve their publications, photographs, organizational records, colors, patches, artwork, and equipment. Leslie’s later work as the Museum’s Leather Preservation Specialist represents a remarkable continuation of that early commitment to preserving leather history.
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Leslie moved to Chicago in 2005 and became the Leather Preservation Specialist at the Leather Archives & Museum. His work there includes preserving leather garments, club colors, boots, equipment, and other artifacts carrying the histories of leather people and organizations. He is also recognized as an authority on leather history and preservation.
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Leslie has remained active as an educator, contest judge, historian, and community bootblack. He has led Team Shine, the bootblack operation at International Mr. Leather, and has judged bootblack and leather contests nationally. Documented judging appearances range from the Mid-Atlantic Bootblack contest in 2000 to Mid-Atlantic Leather in 2024.​
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A "Leslie Anderson Documentary" is being developed by Unfurnished Films, directed by Shelley Gustavson & Curtis Matzke, with Executive Produced Lilly Wachowski. See unfurnishedfilms.com/leslie.html.
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Honors:
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1996 — Ms. New Mexico Leather
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1997 — American Leatherwoman
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1998 — Pantheon of Leather, Rocky Mountain Regional Award
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1999 — Inaugural International Ms. Bootblack
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2000 — Pantheon of Leather, Rocky Mountain Regional Award, shared with Rich Dockter
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2015 — Pantheon of Leather, Mr. Marcus Hernandez Lifetime Achievement Award
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Sources: Leslie Anderson (interviews), The Leather Journal, Internet, web.archive.net, Richard Van Steenburg (interview 30Dec24), imslbb.com, unfurnishedfilms.com/leslie.html, wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Ms._Leather, theleatherjournal.com/component/k2/pantheon-of-leather-awards-all-time-recipients/.
Pat Baille ("Bay-lee”)
Communities: Leather, Lesbian, Genderqueer, LGBTQ+, Veterans
Associations: Ms. San Jose Leather/Ms. LeatherMaster, International Ms Leather, LeatherWomen United, Albuquerque Pride, Rio Grande Leather, New Mexico Leather League, Consent Counts/NCSF, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, IMsL Foundation
Period: ~1994–present; New Mexico activity ~1996–2007
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Pat Baillie is a Leather titleholder, educator, community organizer, military veteran, and LGBTQ workplace-equality advocate whose work has connected Leather activism with public health, consent, Pride, transgender inclusion, and professional education. Pat identifies as a genderqueer Leather boy and describes service as central to their Leather identity.
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California-born, Pat served in the United States Air Force as a weapons controller and space-operations officer, retiring as a major in 1993. Pat has said that the announcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” helped prompt the decision to retire and become publicly active in LGBTQ advocacy. Pat later worked as a government contractor and training specialist, continuing to be an advocating for workplace openness.
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In late 1994, Pat won the South Bay Leather title generally remembered as Ms. San Jose Leather 1995. Some contemporary and later contest records call the title Ms. LeatherMaster 1995, reflecting a dispute over ownership and use of the San Jose title name. Pat then competed against nineteen contestants at International Ms Leather 1995 in Chicago and won the title. It was the first IMsL contest held outside San Francisco.
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Pat used the international title to build LeatherWomen United, an early nationwide organizing network that relied heavily on AOL and the emerging Internet. Rather than functioning only as a social organization, LeatherWomen United collected and redistributed information and coordinated community action around four principal subjects: women’s health, voter registration, youth, and food insecurity. Its health initiative, “Exposing Ourselves to Women’s Health Care,” encouraged Leatherwomen to seek appropriate medical care and gathered information about their experiences. The campaign was reported nationally in 1996. <a>
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LeatherWomen United also encouraged local food drives and helped connect activists in different cities before online community organizing became routine. Pat conducted early community surveying about the meaning of consent. Information from that work was eventually carried into the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom and its Consent Counts project, which sought clearer legal recognition of consent in BDSM practices. Pat received the 1997 Pantheon of Leather Woman of the Year Award, reflecting the national impact of this organizing work. Pat and Pat Langlois later received the 1999 Pantheon Couple of the Year Award. <b>
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Pat moved to Albuquerque in late 1996 when a partner was called to serve at Emmanuel Metropolitan Community Church. In New Mexico, Pat participated in Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen activities, Sandia Women’s Dinner, Leather Life educational gatherings, Pride events, and the broader Leather and kink community. Pat also practiced acupuncture and was connected with community activity around Sisters & Brothers bookstore and the Café Next Door.
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Beginning around 1997, Pat served for approximately a decade as a co-president or co-coordinator of Albuquerque Pride, working closely with PJ Sedillo and other community leaders. Pat worked to ensure that Leather people, transgender organizations, families, youth, bars, churches, and political groups all had a place within Pride. A 2003 New Mexico Gay Rodeo Association program described Pat as the female co-president of Albuquerque Pride for the preceding five years. Pat’s later public comments emphasized that Leather families and transgender families belonged within family-friendly Pride celebrations. <c> <d>
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In 2007 and 2008, Pat served as executive producer for the Mr./Ms. Rio Grande Leather title events, working with the New Mexico Leather League (NMLL) and other community organizers. The events were held at the Howard Johnson hotel, in part so that people between eighteen and twenty-one could attend educational and contest activities that would have been inaccessible in a bar. Pat’s involvement helped connect New Mexico’s earlier women’s and men’s Leather traditions with the newer, more pansexual structure developing around NMLL.
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After Pat's returned to California in December 2007, they continued community service and activism. In 2013, Pat and Pat’s wife, Sharrin Spector, assumed ownership and production responsibility for International Ms Leather and International Ms Bootblack. Pat also helped establish the IMsL Foundation and served as its board president from approximately 2014 through 2018. The foundation supported leadership, education, sexual freedom, and healthier participation by women and other marginalized people in Leather and kink communities. It received the 2016 Pantheon of Leather Nonprofit Organization of the Year Award.
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In 2014, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force presented Pat with its Leather Leadership Award at the Creating Change Conference. The recognition reflected decades of work connecting Leather identity with health, consent, Pride, military service, workplace equality, and national community leadership. <e>
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Pat’s importance to New Mexico lies not only in the offices or events Pat led, but in a broader philosophy of coalition building. Pat consistently treated Leather as part of the larger LGBTQ community while also encouraging gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, heterosexual, and pansexual communities to work together. Their New Mexico years helped connect an earlier generation represented by Sandia Leather with Albuquerque Pride, Rio Grande Leather, and the more inclusive organizations that followed.
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Sources: The Leather Journal, Internet, web.archive.net, Pat Baillie (interview 31Aug2024), 1994 IMsL Contest program guide, Leather/Levi LEXICON Vol VIII, Number 2, 2 June 1996. Richard Van Steenburg (interview 30Dec24), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Ms._Leather, theleatherjournal.com/news/1996 <a>, theleatherjournal.com/component/k2/pantheon-of-leather-awards-all-time-recipients <b>, gayrodeohistory.org/2003/ProgramNmgra.htm <c>, ebar.com/story/31290 <d>, theleatherjournal.com/component/k2/tag/Creating%20Change%20Conference <e>.​​
Pat Baillie, from the 2Jun1996 issue Leather/Levi LEXICON.
The Leather Leadership Award at Creating Change 2014.
Pat Baillie - The Fireside Chat Series, 29Oct2Fireside Chats with Douglas O'Keeffe
Cindy Bookout
Communities: Leather, Lesbian/Queer, LGBTQ+, HIV/AIDS Education
Associations: Ms Oklahoma Leather, International Ms Leather (IMsL), Sandia Leather, New Mexico Leather Weekend, New Mexico NEWSLEATHER
Period: ~1993–present; active in New Mexico by 1995 through at least the late 1990s
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Cindy Bookout is a Leather titleholder, community organizer, HIV/AIDS educator, and longtime queer activist whose work connected the Oklahoma, New Mexico, and national Leather communities. She became the inaugural Ms Oklahoma Leather in 1993. While in Oklahoma, Cindy was certified through the Oklahoma Department of Health as an HIV counselor, tester, and educator. She also judged the Mr Oklahoma Leather contest and reportedly received a 1993 Volunteer of the Year award from the Oklahoma Gay and Lesbian Awards.
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Cindy entered International Ms Leather in 1994 as Ms Oklahoma Leather and finished as first runner-up. The original winner, Anne “Spencer” Bergstedt, resigned in September 1994. Cindy then assumed the title and completed the remainder of the title year, reigning until July 1995. Contemporary reporting described Cindy as having “picked up the torch” following Bergstedt’s resignation. At that time, Cindy was identified as living in Omaha, Nebraska. <a> <b>
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Cindy became involved in the New Mexico Leather community during or shortly after her IMsL title year. In March 1995, she emceed the Friday-night jock show during the second Mr. and Ms. New Mexico Leather weekend at The Ranch in Albuquerque. Oral-history accounts indicate that she subsequently moved to New Mexico at Leslie Anderson’s recommendation and became involved with Sandia Leather. <c>
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Cindy also contributed to New Mexico NEWSLEATHER, the locally produced newsletter published by Diva Marie and Leslie Anderson from September 1995 through May 1996. Her presence in the newsletter and in a 1997 New Mexico Leather community photograph places her among the women who helped sustain Albuquerque’s Leather community during the transition following Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen’s most active period. Contemporary reporting also mentions “Cindy Bookout’s big wedding” in Albuquerque following the March 1997 New Mexico Leather contest weekend. <d> <e>
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Her national involvement continued after her title year. Cindy served as an associate producer of International Ms Leather in 1997 and received the 1996 Pantheon of Leather Readers’ Choice Award for Women. Her unusual route to the title was remembered affectionately in Leather reporting, where she was occasionally described as “IMsL 1994½.” <h> <i>
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Cindy later settled in California’s desert region. She has continued building queer community through the Queer Salon at the Joshua Tree Music Festival and has participated in programs documenting Palm Springs–area Leather women’s history. In 2025, she appeared in the historical panel Leather Women: Celebrating Our Sexuality. <f> <g>.
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Cindy’s importance to New Mexico is not simply that a national titleholder briefly lived here. She brought experience in Leather titleholding, HIV/AIDS education, and queer organizing into Albuquerque during an important transitional period. Her participation in New Mexico Leather Weekend, Sandia Leather, and New Mexico NEWSLEATHER connected the local community with broader networks of Leather women across the country.​
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Sources: theleatherjournal.com/news/author/802-daverhodes <a>, archive.org/stream/BAR_19941110/BAR_19941110_djvu.txt <b>, Bay Area Reporter, Volume 25, Number 13, 30 March 1995 <c>, New Mexico NEWSLEATHER archive <d>, Bay Area Reporter, Volume 27, Number 13, 27 March 1997 <e>, PANEL DISCUSSION: Leather Women Celebrating Our Sexuality - October 30, 2025 - Hotel Zoso <f>, Unbridled Spirit: Celebrating 35 Years of Leather in Palm Springs presents Leather Women: Celebrating our Sexuality - circafestival.org/event/unbridled-spirit-celebrating-35-years-of-leather-in-palm-springs-presents-leather-women-celebrating-our-sexuality <g>, black-rose.com/cuiru/archive/3-6/imsl.html <h>, theleatherjournal.com/component/k2/pantheon-of-leather-awards-all-time-recipients? <i>.
"Named the IMsL '94 winners (l to r): Cindy Bookout, 1st runner-up, IMsL Anne C.S. Bergstedt, and Beth Elliot, 2nd runner-up last Saturday afternoon march 19 at Club Townsend" Bay Area Reporter, Volume 24, Number 12, 24 March 1994
Cindy Bookout, 2025, Unbridled Spirit: Celebrating 35 Years of Leather in Palm Springs presents Leather Women: Celebrating our Sexuality, October 30, 2025,
Zoom + Hotel Zozo Palm Springs (Hybrid)
Lori Ellison
Communities: Leather, Kink/BDSM, LGBTQ+
Associations: Black Leather Weekend, HPL Productions of Colorado, Ms. New Mexico Leather, International Ms Leather, Sandia Women’s Dinner, Mama’s Family
Period: ~2003–2006+
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Lori Ellison, then of Rio Rancho, became an important national representative of New Mexico’s Leather community during the transitional period following the closure of Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen. At Black Leather Weekend in Albuquerque on October 17–18, 2003, Lori won the title designated 2004 Ms. New Mexico Leather, alongside Major Gardner as Mr. New Mexico Leather. Black Leather Weekend and the titles were then being produced by HPL Productions of Colorado, which subsequently sponsored Lori’s entry into International Ms Leather.
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On July 17, 2004, Lori competed against four other contestants at Club Joy in Omaha, Nebraska, and became the nineteenth person to hold the International Ms Leather title. She also received the contestants’ Sisterhood Award. Her memorable contest fantasy used a watermelon in an inexpensive but highly effective fisting presentation that received an enthusiastic audience response. This performance became one of the details most frequently preserved in contemporary reporting about her victory.
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From The Leather Journal:
"Lori Ellison also won the Sisterhood Award voted on by the contestants. The fantasy performed by Lori Ellison was as erotic as the come and involved a watermelon. Cost of set? Less than $3, value of fantasy? Priceless. The audience cheered raucously as she fisted the melon with one hand, then with both. It was wild."
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Lori’s local activity included helping her partner, Jamie, organize some activities associated with the Sandia Women’s Dinner, an inclusive Albuquerque social gathering for women of varied sexual identities and orientations. During and after her international title year, Lori also appeared as an educator and presenter outside New Mexico. At her 2005 IMsL step-aside, she delivered what one report described as a brief and eloquent speech and received her official title portrait from artist and leatherman Ray Castro. In 2006, she was among the presenters at Leather Camp II in Wichita, Kansas.
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Lori received the 2006 Pantheon of Leather Rocky Mountain Regional Award, recognizing her service and influence within the region. She was also inducted into Mama Sandy Reinhardt’s extended Leather family as Mama’s Redheaded Stepchild #699. Her documented public activity appears to have been concentrated in the period from approximately 2003 through 2006, although additional interviews or personal records may reveal later involvement.
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Sources: Leslie Anderson (interviews), Jayson DaBoi Johnson (interviews), theleatherjournal.com/news/2006, theleatherjournal.com/component/k2/pantheon-of-leather-awards-all-time-recipients, theleatherjournal.com/news?start=1048, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Ms._Leather, leathercolumn.blogspot.com/2005/08/international-ms-leatherms-bootblack.html, Black Leather Weekend 2003 program, mamas-family.org/family_speaks.html.
Ruben Gallegos
Communities: Leather, LGBTQ
Associations: NM Rise & Shine Bear, Rio Grande LEather, Albuquerque Leather Daddys, NM Leather Wolves, International Mr Leather, Leather Order of Honor and Service.
Period: ~2001-present
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Ruben Gallegos is a New Mexican Leather community organizer, titleholder, mentor, and traditional artist. Known within the community as Daddy Ruben, he helped establish two important Albuquerque Leather organizations and remained active in local Leather, bear, title, education, performance, Pride, and charitable activities for nearly two decades.
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Ruben was one of the founders of the New Mexico Leather Wolves, formed in June 2002 with Wes Grey Wolf and scott smith. The Wolves began as an informal network promoting consensual male-to-male leather and BDSM activity and subsequently became a more structured leathermen’s fraternity. Ruben served as the organization’s president during approximately 2006–2007.
In October 2004, Ruben became Mr. Rio Grande Leather 2004, serving alongside Julian Wolf, Ms. Rio Grande Leather 2004. These were the earliest documented titleholders in the Rio Grande Leather series, which followed New Mexico’s earlier Mr./Ms. New Mexico Leather titles. Ruben reportedly represented Rio Grande Leather at International Mr. Leather 2005 in Chicago. He subsequently received the Mama’s Family name “Mr Rio Grand.” He was also named NM Rise and Shine Bear 2006, reflecting his participation in New Mexico’s overlapping Leather and bear communities.
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After leaving the Leather Wolves, Ruben and his partner, Alpha boy Rex—Rex Swanda, became principal founders and owners of Albuquerque Leather Daddys. Established in 2011, the Leather Daddys operated as a group of friends rather than a bylaw-driven organization. They produced monthly Gear Nights, Leather Curious educational programs, munches, play parties, Pride floats, contests, staged fantasies, charitable fundraisers, and the Southwest Leather Fair. The group raised money for local organizations including Casa Q and Southwest Care and remained active until the pandemic, formally ending in 2021.
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Ruben and Rex also provided hospitality and informal mentorship to Leather community members and visitors. Ruben participated in staged leather fantasies, appeared at Leather Daddys events and Pride celebrations, and helped connect visiting national Leather personalities with Albuquerque’s community. He was recognized as a member of Amber Garland’s Leather Order of Honor and Service.
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In 2010, Dave Rhodes, editor of The Leather Journal publicly thanked Daddy Ruben and Alpha Boy Rex for transporting him to and housing him during Rio Grande Leather, emphasizing the personal hospitality surrounding the event.
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"Daddy Ruben and Alpha Boy Rex - Thank you for getting me to and housing me at Rio Grande Leather. I love the Sunday afternoon wind downs. Again, it's meeting the people off stage and away from things that make these events special."
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Outside the Leather community, Ruben is a nationally recognized New Mexican santero whose work includes retablos, miniature religious paintings, painted storytellers, and eggshell art. His work draws upon his Hispanic and Taos Pueblo heritage and New Mexico’s devotional-art traditions. He participated in the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and his artwork is represented in museum collections and exhibitions. He appears in a display at the Albuquerque Museum.
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Ruben also appears within queer New Mexican art history. He was one of the Leather-community figures associated with Delmas Howe’s painting The Martyred Angel, along with Rex Swanda and artist David Zaintz. His life therefore connects several parts of New Mexico’s history that are often documented separately: traditional Hispanic and Indigenous-influenced art, gay culture, bear culture, Leather titles, BDSM relationships, community mentorship, public performance, and charitable service.​
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Ruben’s career as a traditional New Mexican santero gives him an unusual place in this history. He was born in Santa Cruz, New Mexico, with Hispanic heritage through his father and Taos Pueblo heritage through his mother. He studied art at New Mexico Highlands University and began pursuing devotional art professionally in the late 1980s.
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Sources: The Leather Journal, including 2010, 2018, and 2020 coverage; New Mexico Leather Wolves archived websites; Albuquerque Leather Daddys archived website and Facebook page; Rio Grande Leather materials; Amber Garland and community interviews; Smithsonian Folklife Festival; Tradición Revista artist profile; Ruben Gallegos and Rex Swanda interviews or personal collections.
Sir Magnum with Ruben Gallegos when he was patched in Albuquerque Leather Daddys. Leather Curious series by Albuquerque Leather Daddys, 2017.
Jayson DaBoi Johnson
Communities: Leather, LGBTQ
Associations: International Ms. Bootblack, Corazon Leather, MaST, ABQ Eagle, Southwest Bootblack Contest, NM Fantasy, Mr New Mexico Leather.
Period: ~1996-present
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Jayson DaBoi Johnson is an Albuquerque bootblack, educator, titleholder, contest producer, and longtime Leather community volunteer. Although now somewhat retired from regular bootblack work, Jayson remains an important link between New Mexico’s historic bootblack tradition and its contemporary Leather and kink communities.
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Jayson was mentored in bootblacking by Leslie Anderson, Albuquerque’s resident bootblack from approximately 1996 until Leslie moved to Chicago in 2005. Jayson subsequently became a prominent working bootblack in Albuquerque, serving as the Official Bootblack of the Albuquerque Eagle and operating bootblack stands at Leather and kink events in New Mexico and throughout the Southwest. Jayson has taught leather care and bootblacking classes and mentored other bootblacks, including Rowan. Jayson’s work has included boots, vests, chaps, corsets, and other leather garments. <d> Jayson was the 1997 Ms. New Mexico Fantasy title winner.
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Jayson won Ms. Rio Grande Leather 2010 at the contest held in 2009. They subsequently competed at International Ms Leather and International Ms Bootblack and were selected International Ms Bootblack 2010, representing Albuquerque and the Rio Grande Leather title. Two bootblacks competed for the international title that year. <c>
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Jayson understood bootblacking as more than leather maintenance. Their title philosophy described boots as a person’s foundation for walking through Leather life and proposed that everyone should have access to a strong and well-cared-for foundation. Bootblacking also created an intimate service space in which skills, history, conversation, and community relationships could be shared.
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Jayson remained active in regional bootblack culture following their title year. They regularly worked at the Southwest Leather Conference, served as head judge of the Southwest Bootblack Contest in 2014, moderated bootblack discussions, restored donated boots for fundraising, and supported other bootblacks and titleholders. In a 2014 interview, Southwest Bootblack 2009 slave tabitha arie described Jayson as a “phenomenal bootblack” whose passion and energy influenced others working beside them. <b>
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Jayson also helped preserve the history of women and gender-diverse bootblacks. Following the twenty-fifth anniversary of International Ms Leather, Jayson and L.E. LeGirl proposed a documentary recording the experiences and contributions of International Ms Bootblack titleholders. In late 2011, Jayson approached filmmaker and archivist Christina Court about the project. Their efforts developed into the documentary High Shine: 15 Years of International Ms Bootblack, which premiered at CineKink in New York in 2015. The production gathered interviews with former titleholders and recovered historical recordings stored on VHS, mini-discs, and other aging media. <e>
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In 2023, Andrew “Andy” Walden-Montoya transferred ownership and production of the Corazón Leather Contest to Jayson. Jayson moved the contest into a new stage of its development, initially producing it at the Albuquerque Social Club. They removed gender designations from the awarded titles and placed greater emphasis on service extending across different parts of New Mexico’s Leather, kink, BDSM, and alternative communities. Under Jayson’s production, the contest awarded titles to Lash Onyx and Stellar in 2023, Candy and Tatra in 2024, and Phoenix Arisen in 2025. The 2025 contest expanded into a daylong event at the Black Cat Cultural Center incorporating classes, a Carter/Johnson Library annex, the title contest, and a play party. <f>
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​Jayson’s legacy combines hands-on service, teaching, international title representation, historical preservation, mentoring, and community leadership. Their career illustrates how the bootblack stand can function simultaneously as a workplace, classroom, gathering place, spiritual space, and point of connection between generations.
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Sources: nmleatherleague.com/instructor/jayson-daboi/ <a>, theleatherjournal.com/news/imsbb-2014-contestant-slave-tabitha-arie <b>, nmleatherleague.com/new-mexico-leather-title-heritage/ <c>, nm-real.org/nm-leather-history-artisans/ <d> The Leather Journal 22Mar2015 theleatherjournal.com/news/tag/High%20Shine-%2015%20Years%20of%20International%20Ms%20Bootblack/ <e>, corazonleathernm.com/ <f>
Ceremony where Jayson DaBoi Johnson was acknowledge and honored as being an "Official ABQ Eagle Bootblack" with patches and stickers. Sidewinders S4200 cabaret, 4 June 2022.
Jayson DaBoi Johnson, erotic bootblacking, for Lash Onyx, 2022, Albuquerque Social Club.
Corazon Leather Contest 2023, Jayson DaBoi Johnson on stage with his two title holders for this event, past titleholders, and others helping with the event, Albuquerque Social Club.
Sir Magnum / Magnum Masters
Communities: Leather, Kink/BDSM, LGBTQ+, Men of Color
Associations: FetishMenSanDiego, Butchmanns Experience, Albuquerque Leather Daddys, Corazón Leather, New Mexico Leather League, ONYX.
Period: ~2013/2015–present; active in New Mexico since ~2016
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Sir Magnum, also known as Magnum Masters, became active in Albuquerque’s Leather community after moving from San Diego around 2016. In San Diego, he was associated with FetishMenSanDiego, the gay men’s Leather, kink, and fetish community founded by Papa Tony Lindsey. Magnum was mentored or “covered” by Papa Tony and brought experience in Leather culture, education, and community organizing to New Mexico. In January 2015, before moving to Albuquerque, Magnum worked with Butchmanns Arizona to bring the Butchmanns Experience, an intensive exploration of Leather identity, heart, and spirit, to San Diego for the first time.
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After arriving in Albuquerque, Magnum became involved with the Albuquerque Leather Daddys, then the city’s principal organization for gay and bisexual Leathermen. He was patched into the organization by cofounder Ruben Gallegos and participated in its socials, Pride appearances, educational programs, Leather fairs, fantasies, and community-service activities. Magnum also helped establish a munch associated with the Leather Daddys, providing a more informal entry point for people interested in meeting the community. The primary location for this munch was Carraro's and Joe's Place, on Vassar SE near Central which is now closed. At this location on Nov 13th, 2018, Magnum capped Ty the Gentleman. During this time Magnum became a member of Mama Sandy Reinhardt’s Leather family under the name Mama’s Strong Black Bull.
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In 2018, Magnum and boy Christian won the Mr. Corazón Leather titles at the Sheraton Albuquerque Airport Hotel during a New Mexico Leather League event. The two remained the reigning titleholders through the interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and formally passed their titles to Uncle Jaie and boy Chris during Spring Pandemonium in April 2022.
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Education became an important part of Magnum’s contribution to New Mexico. In 2019, he organized Masters Academy BDSM: New Mexico, a multi-month educational program held at the New Mexico Clubhouse on Hawkins Street. The academy was intended to provide participants with broad and structured exposure to BDSM skills, safety, relationships, protocols, and community culture, culminating in a graduation. The project continued the educational emphasis Magnum had previously demonstrated through FetishMenSanDiego and the Butchmanns Experience.
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Magnum later served as president of New Mexico Leather League, helping oversee its pansexual educational, social, dungeon, and conference activities. He was also involved with ONYX, the national organization for Leather people of color. In 2020, The Leather Journal identified Magnum as one of four ONYX members in Albuquerque participating in a virtual CLAW cigar social. In 2021, he joined Bear Marvin, Bear Mike, and Pup Spike in hosting an ONYX-sponsored, first-Saturday Albuquerque munch that welcomed members of the wider Leather and kink community.
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Magnum’s history illustrates the transfer of Leather knowledge between regional communities. He brought experience and mentorship from San Diego, became a titleholder and educator in Albuquerque, and helped connect the Leather Daddys, New Mexico Leather League, Corazón Leather, ONYX, and the broader pansexual kink community.
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Sources: theleatherjournal.com/news/content/26-club-news, mamas-family.org/boys_girls.html, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-may-16-2022, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-november-4-2020, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-april-28-2021, local interactions by Bear Mike.
Sir Magnum with Ruben Gallegos when he was patched in Albuquerque Leather Daddys. Leather Curious series by Albuquerque Leather Daddys, 2017.
Sir Magnum capping Ty The Gentleman in a ceremony at Carraro's & Joes Place, Daddys Munch, 13 Nov 2018.
Richard (Dick) Marleau (1933-1996)
Communities: Leather, Levi, Gay, Motorcycle Clubs
Associations: Hijos del Sol, Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, Rocky Mountaineers Motorcycle Club, A.C.L.O.A., Albuquerque Social Club, Albuquerque Civic Light Opera Association (ACLOA)
Period: Before 1967–1996; principal New Mexico activity 1971/1972–1996
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Richard or “Dick” Marleau was an early organizer of Albuquerque’s gay Leather and Levi community. He co-founded Hijos del Sol in July 1978, participated in the creation and early activity of the Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, and was a founding member and longtime board member of the Albuquerque Social Club. Based on the surviving record, Dick may be the earliest presently identified individual to bring direct experience from the established California motorcycle-club and Chicago Leather cultures into organized Leather activity in New Mexico.
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Dick was born in Los Angeles on July 22, 1933, the only child of Clyde and Mabel Marleau. His family home was in Corona, California, and he later lived in Laguna Beach. He served in the United States Navy. Photographs preserved by his friend Richard Van Steenburg show him with a motorcycle in California before 1967, indicating that his association with motorcycle and Leather culture began well before his arrival in New Mexico.
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Community recollections initially identified Dick as a member of the Satyrs Motorcycle Club of Los Angeles. Subsequent inquiry with the Satyrs found no record of him as a patched member. The most accurate description is therefore that Dick participated in the Los Angeles gay motorcycle-club environment and likely rode or socialized with members of the Satyrs, but his formal membership has not been established.
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Dick subsequently moved to Chicago, where he worked in furniture sales at the downtown Marshall Field & Company store, now Macy’s on State Street. There he met Richard Van Steenburg, who worked in the store’s men’s department. They became lifelong friends. Dick also met Mike Pierson through their Marshall Field employment, and Dick and Mike became lovers.
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Dick and Mike moved from Chicago to Albuquerque around 1971 or 1972. The contemporary obituary states that Dick became an Albuquerque resident in 1971, while Richard Van Steenburg remembers the couple leaving Chicago in 1972. Richard began visiting them in Albuquerque in 1974 and moved to the city himself in 1981. He and Dick later lived together as friends from approximately 1984 through 1988. Richard ultimately served as executor of Dick’s estate.
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In July 1978, Dick and Tom Harris established Hijos del Sol, or “Children of the Sun.” Hijos del Sol was an early men’s Levi and Leather organization centered on camping, social gatherings, travel, and participation in the regional gay motorcycle-club network. Although commonly described as a motorcycle club, ownership of a motorcycle was apparently not required. The organization developed formal officers and levels of membership and maintained relationships with groups in neighboring states.
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Hijos del Sol met at venues including Foxes and the Albuquerque Social Club. It later operated in association with Common Bond, an important early Albuquerque gay and lesbian organization. The club’s recurring Balloon Run, held during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, brought visitors and members together for outdoor activity, hospitality, and Leather fellowship. Documented runs include Balloon Run VI in 1983 through Balloon Run IX in 1986, although the numbering indicates that the tradition began with the organization’s founding period. Contemporary directories continued listing Hijos del Sol through at least 1992.
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Dick was also an associate member of the Rocky Mountaineers Motorcycle Club of Colorado and attended its Golden Fleece Runs. These relationships connected Albuquerque to the older gay motorcycle-club system of the western United States. Pins, advertisements, photographs, and club materials show Hijos del Sol exchanging hospitality and friendship with organizations including the Tucson Knight Owls and participating in events held by other regional clubs.
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In 1981, another group of New Mexico riders incorporated the Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, commonly called MMNM or the M&Ms. Dick became involved in the organization’s early development and eventually shifted his principal participation from Hijos del Sol to MMNM. The two organizations overlapped for several years but remained separate groups. Dick’s movement between them helped transfer relationships and club traditions from Albuquerque’s first identified Levi/Leather organization into the motorcycle club that became central to the city’s Leather activity during the 1980s and 1990s. Leslie Anderson knew Dick through MMNM and became an associate member in the organization.
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Dick also helped establish the Albuquerque Social Club, which became one of the principal institutional homes of Albuquerque’s LGBTQ+ community. He served on its board for many years. The Social Club functioned not merely as a bar but as a meeting place for community organizations, fundraising, entertainment, and social support. Both Hijos del Sol and MMNM used it as a gathering place, making Dick’s involvement in the club particularly important to the developing Leather community.
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After arriving in Albuquerque, Dick also became active in the Albuquerque Civic Light Opera Association (ACLOA), the community musical-theatre organization now known as Musical Theatre Southwest. ACLOA adopted that name in 1972, around the same time Dick moved to Albuquerque from Chicago. His participation demonstrates that his community involvement extended beyond Leather and motorcycle organizations into Albuquerque’s broader cultural life.
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Dick was diagnosed with or became seriously ill from HIV/AIDS by approximately 1989. Despite declining health, photographs and recollections document his continued connection with friends and community into the mid-1990s. He also remained active in fundraising for AIDS-related charities. This work joined his earlier organizational leadership with the urgent service needs created by the epidemic.
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Dick died in Albuquerque on November 2, 1996, at age 63. His obituary requested memorial contributions to New Mexico AIDS Services or the New Mexico Breast Cancer Coalition. Cremation followed his death. Richard Van Steenburg managed Dick’s affairs and preserved some of his personal Leather history, including an early California photograph and his club vest. Richard later donated the vest to the Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago, returning an artifact from Dick’s New Mexico life to the city where the two men had first met.
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Dick Marleau appears to be one of the foundational individuals in New Mexico’s organized Leather history. His importance does not rest upon a title or a single event. He carried experience from California’s gay motorcycle culture and Chicago’s Leather environment into Albuquerque at a time when the city had little formal Leather infrastructure.
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Through Hijos del Sol, Dick helped establish New Mexico’s earliest presently documented men’s Levi/Leather organization. Through the Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, he helped connect that beginning to a more durable motorcycle-club tradition. Through the Albuquerque Social Club, he helped provide the physical and organizational setting in which Leather people and other LGBTQ+ residents could gather, build institutions, and respond collectively to the AIDS epidemic.
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The surviving record may eventually reveal Leather activity in New Mexico predating Dick’s arrival. Until such evidence is found, however, Dick is the strongest identifiable link between the established postwar gay motorcycle-club movement and the organized Leather culture that emerged in Albuquerque during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Sources: Richard Van Steenburg interview (30Dec2024), Casey Newkirk interview (14Jun24), Leslie Anderson interviews (14June24, ...), Dennis Dunnum interviews (12Jun24, ...), Dick Marleau obituary, November 10, 1996, Hijos del Sol advertisement listing, photographs, pins, and run materials, Leather Archives & Museum research and inspection of Marleau's vest, GROUPS, EVENTS, email exchange with Saytrs M/C about Marleau.
Dick Marleau, co-founder of Hijos del Sol and Motorcyclemen of NM, taken in California, before 1967. <e>
"At the MNM Installation of Officers for 1990, standing: Frank, Richard (Saiser), Walt, Pat, and Paul. Unable to stand: Larry, Dick (Marleau), and Bill. We chose not to print the photo of the entire group because the flash made everybody look like zombies. (at least, we're pretty sure it was the flash)." From MMNM Newsletter, Issue Number 29, Dec-Mar 1990.​
Dick Marleau's vest, Leather Archives & Museum research (17Oct24).
Bear Marvin, Lash Onyx
Communities: Leather, Kink, BDSM, Bear, LGBTQ+, BIPOC
Associations: Onyx Men of Color, Onyx Lone Star, Onyx High Desert, Domum Corium Cordis, Albuquerque Leather Daddys, the 15 Association, Mama’s Family
Period: ~1993–present; New Mexico Leather leadership ~2018–present
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Bear Marvin, also known as Lash Onyx, is a New Mexico Leather titleholder, organizer, educator, and advocate for BIPOC participation in Leather and BDSM communities. He is a co-founder and past president of Onyx High Desert, co-head of Domum Corium Cordis—House of Leather Heart, New Mexico Leather Bear 2019, Corazón Leather 2023, and a recipient of the Onyx Mufasa’s Lion Strength Award.
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Marvin’s community service predates his organized New Mexico Leather involvement. While serving in the United States Navy, he volunteered in HIV/AIDS awareness and education. He also participated in the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. These experiences occurred when military service, open LGBTQ+ identity, and HIV/AIDS advocacy could carry significant personal and professional consequences. They provided an early foundation for his later emphasis on visibility, inclusion, health, and service. <a>
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After becoming active in Albuquerque’s Leather community, Marvin participated with the Albuquerque Leather Daddys and in events including Leather Fiesta. In November 2018, he won the New Mexico Leather Bear 2019 title in a contest produced by the Leather Daddys. One of his first title-year activities raised $370 and three boxes of food for Southwest CARE Center, which provides HIV and LGBTQ+ health services in Albuquerque. He later judged the 2020 New Mexico Leather Bear and Cub contest. <g> <h>
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In 2018, Marvin and his husband, Bear Mike, established Domum Corium Cordis, Latin for House of Leather Heart. They serve as co-heads of the Leather family house, which is organized around the principles of family, integrity, and altruism. The house has produced educational resources, community events, recorded dungeon-monitor training, and programs addressing BDSM skills, inclusion, conflict, and Leather history. Its back patch was added to the Leather Quilt in 2025. <b>
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Because New Mexico did not yet have an Onyx chapter, Marvin initially joined Onyx Lone Star in Dallas, Texas and adopted the name Lash Onyx. Beginning in 2019, Marvin and Bear Mike worked with other Albuquerque-area members to establish a sustained Onyx presence in New Mexico. Their activities included socials, munches, men’s play parties, educational programs, Gear Nights, and the February 2020 Onyx Black & White Fetish Ball at Sidewinders Ranch. The inaugural ball raised money for the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marvin helped maintain community connections through virtual Onyx bar nights, educational programs, and CLAW Virtual. When in-person activity resumed, the Albuquerque Onyx group established recurring munches and Gear Nights at Sidewinders S4200 and ABQ Eagle. These gatherings combined social interaction with education, demonstrations, sexual expression, and visibility for men of color within a local scene where BIPOC people had not always seen themselves represented in organizational leadership.
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After approximately three years of development, Onyx High Desert was approved by the Onyx National Council on November 13, 2024, becoming the national organization’s eleventh chapter. It subsequently became an independent nonprofit organization. Marvin served as a co-founder and president during its formative period and is now identified as a past president. In April 2025, the chapter’s first male-identifying play party drew approximately 85 participants.
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In October 2023, Marvin received the gender-neutral Corazón Leather title. The contest emphasized service across different parts of the community rather than representation of a single gender or identity. His New Mexico Leather Bear and Corazón titles place him within both the gay men’s bear and broader pansexual Leather traditions of New Mexico.
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Marvin has become a frequent panelist and educator on BIPOC experience, participation, and leadership in Leather. At South Plains Leatherfest 2026, he and Euphonious Onyx presented Navigating Community as BIPOC, addressing the challenges people of color encounter while entering, participating in, and assuming leadership within Leather and BDSM organizations. <c>
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He has also participated in Mufasa Ali’s LeatherU educational programming at International Mr. Leather. During IML 2026, Marvin presented Better BDSM with Passion, a program examining how emotional and interpersonal connection can produce more intentional and memorable BDSM encounters. His teaching draws upon his identity as a switch and his experience with impact, sensation, rope, and power exchange. <d>
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Marvin and Bear Mike have taught together at local and national events. Their programs include Better BDSM with Passion, Born Kinky—Discovering Kink, Improving Community Inclusion, electroplay, Kinky Naked Yoga, and other topics. Marvin’s educational work combines practical BDSM experience with discussion of identity, trust, intimacy, inclusion, and the different ways people construct a Leather journey.
At Onyx’s Blackout 30 anniversary gathering in Chicago in October 2025, Marvin received the Mufasa’s Lion Strength Award, described by The Leather Journal as Onyx’s highest honor. The recognition placed him among several nationally significant Onyx and Leather figures honored during the organization’s thirtieth anniversary. <e>
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Marvin’s national travel has informed his local work. He has participated in Onyx Blackout, International Mr. Leather, Folsom Street Fair, Up Your Alley, Southwest Leather Conference, South Plains Leatherfest, CLAW and CLAW Virtual, the 15 Association’s Bootcamp, and Chicago Hellfire Club events. Rather than treating these solely as destinations, Marvin has used them to study how different organizations create brotherhood, play, education, and BIPOC visibility, bringing those experiences back to New Mexico.
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Bear Marvin and Bear Mike were married in Albuquerque on July 18, 2020. Their ceremony brought together local and online participants from Onyx, Albuquerque Leather Daddys, Leather houses, artists, and several generations of community friends. <f>
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Bear Marvin’s principal contribution to community has been helping establish durable BIPOC Leather representation in New Mexico. His work transformed a small group of Albuquerque members affiliated with a Texas chapter into Onyx High Desert, a recognized national chapter with recurring events, education, play spaces, and nonprofit structure. His titles, HIV/AIDS service, educational work, and national relationships support that larger contribution: creating places where men of color can participate visibly, develop leadership, and understand themselves as part of New Mexico’s Leather history.
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Sources: clawinfo.org/skills-handouts?download=21:sensual-rope <a>, leatherquilt.com/panels/domum-corium-cordis <b>, southplainsleatherfest.com/docs/2026%20docs/SPLF%202026%20Ed%20Grid.pdf <c>, internationalmrleather.com/events/leatheru-session-1--1-better-bdsm <d>, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-november-27-2025 <e>, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-july-29-2020 <f>, interviews, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-november-7-2018 <g>, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-january-9-2019 <h>.
Tyler McCormick
Communities: Leather, Gay, Transgender, Disability, Master/slave, LGBTQ+
Associations: New Mexico LeatherWolves, New Mexico Leather League, Rio Grande Leather, New Mexico AIDS Services, International Mr. Leather, Corazón Leather
Period: ~2000s–present; principal New Mexico involvement during the 2000s and early 2010s
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Tyler McCormick is a gay transgender Leather man, educator, community organizer, and international titleholder. During his years in Albuquerque, Tyler participated in several parts of New Mexico’s Leather community. He was a member and officer of the New Mexico Leather Wolves, serving as vice president during 2006–2007; New Mexico corporate records also listed him as one of the organization’s directors. Tyler and his partner, Steve Wearden, participated together in local organizations, educational activities, title events, and gatherings associated with the New Mexico Leather League. Tyler’s community service also intersected with his professional work as a case manager for New Mexico AIDS Services.
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Tyler received the 2010 Mr. Rio Grande Leather title at the contest held in 2009, alongside Ms. Rio Grande Leather Jayson DaBoi Johnson. They became the final Rio Grande Leather title class before the contest ceased operations. Representing Rio Grande Leather and New Mexico, Tyler competed at the 32nd International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago on May 30, 2010. He won the title from a field of 52 contestants, becoming the first openly transgender man, the first wheelchair user, and the first person representing New Mexico to win International Mr. Leather. As of 2026, Tyler remains New Mexico’s only IML winner. <a> <b>
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Tyler’s victory challenged assumptions about masculinity, physical ability, and who could represent the international gay men’s Leather community. Although frequently described in the press primarily through his transgender and disability identities, Tyler explained that the core of his identity was that of a gay Leather man. He advocated against unnecessary divisions within queer and Leather communities and emphasized Leather as a culture grounded in heart, spirit, honor, integrity, trust, and respect. <c> Tyler experienced significant discrimination and personal impact breaking barriers in the Leather community through this title win.
Tyler continued to support New Mexico after winning IML. He returned to Albuquerque as one of the judges for the inaugural Corazón Leather Contest in 2015, helping connect the new title system with the state’s earlier Rio Grande Leather history. Nationally, he served as a judge for International Mr. Leather in 2011 and continued appearing as an educator, speaker, judge, and advocate. He was often seen volunteering at IML. Tyler and Steve later left Albuquerque for St. Louis.
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During his New Mexico years, Tyler and his husband and Master, Steve Wearden, shared a long-term Master/slave relationship. Together they participated in local organizations, education, title events, and the production of Rio Grande Leather. Steve died while receiving hospice care on August 27, 2023. A community memorial was subsequently held in Albuquerque at Soft Corners Studio Center, operated by Sera Miles, owner of People Exchanging Power. The gathering reflected Steve and Tyler’s enduring connection to New Mexico’s Leather and alternative communities after they had moved away.
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Sources: advocate.com/news/daily-news/2010/06/01/trans-wheelchair-user-wins-iml-2010 <a>, chicago.gopride.com/news/article.cfm/articleid/11046100 <b>, gaycities.com/articles/12707/iml-2010-winner-tyler-mccormick-talks-trans-acceptance-in-the-leather-world/ <c>
Bear Mike, Poppa Savant Onyx
Communities: Leather, Kink
Associations: Domum Corium Cordis (House of Leather Heart), Kinktoberfest, NM-REAL, Inc., NM Leather & Kink Fair, Low Sensory Leather Social, 15 Association, Chicago Hellfire Club, Used & Abused Swap, SLaP! (Social Learn and Play), national educator (Tools for Resolving Internal Community Conflict, Dungeon Monitoring Training from Different Perspectives...), History of NM Alternative Communities, Albuquerque boys of Leather, Albuquerque Leather Daddys, Onyx Men of Color, CLAW, CLAW_Virtual, Women of Drummer, House of Shangrila.
Period: ~2015–present
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Bear Mike, also known as DaddyBearMike and Poppa Savant Onyx, is a New Mexico Leather organizer, educator, event producer, historian, and community advocate. His work has connected Albuquerque’s gay men’s Leather organizations with the broader pansexual BDSM community, national Leather organizations, event producers, educators, artists, and historical institutions.
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Mike became active in Albuquerque’s organized Leather community in 2016. He was a member of the Albuquerque boys of Leather and later became a fully patched member of the Albuquerque Leather Daddys. Within the Leather Daddys, he served on organizing committees and helped develop and operate social and educational events. These experiences connected him with an earlier generation of Albuquerque and national Leather participants while introducing him to the practical work involved in sustaining volunteer organizations. These early engagements led Bear Mike to realize much of the history of the community was not being preserved or passed forward for many reasons. As early as 2016 he started collecting artifacts from the community.
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Mike and his husband, Bear Marvin, also known as Lash Onyx, established Domum Corium Cordis, or House of Leather Heart, in 2018. The Leather family house is organized around the principles of family, integrity, and altruism. Mike and Marvin serve as co-heads of house, maintaining relationships with other Leather houses, clubs, organizations, and individuals around the country. In 2025, the house’s back patch was added to the Leather Quilt. <a> Their interest in national Leather community led them to attend many pansexual, gay, and women's events across the country. During this time Mike's service to the community was recognized through induction into Mama’s Family as Mama’s Alpha Tech. Marvin was singled out by Mama at Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, instructing him to enter a photograph of Mama's family members, as she pointed to him and said, "He's my next victim."
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Mike supports Deaf Leather Fraternity gatherings, particularly their run in Albuquerque, and efforts intended to make local events more accessible to Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants. His connection originates through learning some sign language from his deaf former girlfriend in Albuquerque.
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Bear Mike’s connection with artists working in New Mexico’s alternative communities began through Ruben Gallegos and later expanded through his friendship with Delmas Howe. Delmas, who lived in Truth or Consequences, explored gay men, Leather, spirituality, and Southwestern imagery throughout several major bodies of work. Mike and Marvin became friends with Delmas, who later asked Mike to document his art and life on video. Their collaboration resulted in three substantial public videos and an additional short feature focused on Delmas’s relationship with the Leather community.
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85th Birthday Retrospective Talk - https://youtu.be/T-LRglbCfJ4
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Autobiographical Mural Description - https://youtu.be/CJi8n7Lx8XA
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GoNaked Magazine Interview - https://youtu.be/YR8Jj016WfE
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Meeting Bear Mike & Bear Marvin's friend, Pup Spike at the 85th Retrospective inspired Delmas to create one of his last paintings depicting the duality of a pup and the man behind the pup.
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As Poppa Savant Onyx, Mike helped establish an Onyx Men of Color presence in New Mexico. Before a New Mexico chapter existed, he became associated with Onyx Lone Star in Dallas, Texas where he obtained four Associate of the Year Awards. Mike and Lash Onyx organized Albuquerque activities including Onyx socials, men’s play parties, educational gatherings, Gear Nights, and the February 2020 Onyx Black & White Fetish Ball at Sidewinders Ranch. This event and several years of continued organizing contributed to the eventual formation of Onyx High Desert in New Mexico in late 2024.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, they helped maintain community connections through virtual gatherings for CLAW_Virtual and Onyx Lone Star, including educational programs. Mike took over Albuquerque Men's Naked Yoga event when former leader, Doc Hohmen, moved out of town in late 2018. When the pandemic struck, the event moved to Zoom growing a following of at least 400 men and regular attendance by men across the world. Mike combined BDSM and Yoga into a class and periodic "Kinky Naked Yoga" sessions at events across the country. Bear Mike designed the ABQ Eagle identity and logo around 2019 for the Leather and kink presence established at Sidewinders Bar & Grill, later Sidewinders S4200. <f> Although Albuquerque did not have a separately operated Eagle bar, the branding helped identify a recurring Leather environment within an existing LGBTQ+ venue and connected Albuquerque symbolically with the wider network of Eagle Leather bars.
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Bears Mike & Marvin developed a sustained working relationship with CLAW in alignment with the great energy it had provided through the pandemic with CLAW_Virtual and later into restored in-person gatherings. They assisted the founder and the organization at other national gatherings, including the Folsom Street Fair, and has supported CLAW through personal hospitality, volunteer work, education, and organizational consultation.
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Bear Mike and Bear Marvin were married in Albuquerque on July 18, 2020, in a ceremony officiated by House of Shangri-La (Phoenix) officiant Boy Scotty, and attended locally and online by members of several generations and branches of the Leather community. The participants included representatives of Onyx, Albuquerque Leather Daddys, Leather houses, artists, and longtime community friends—an illustration of the national network that their work has helped bring into conversation with New Mexico.
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His frequent travels to other leather events and organizations led to associate membership in the 15 Association and the Chicago Hellfire Club drawn by the camaraderie and brotherhood he encountered in those spaces. He also enjoyed attending Esprit de Corps by Discipline Corps, in Dallas. Bear Mike was honored to be selected as the male judge during Women of Drummer Contest Weekend 2022, Camp Ramblewood by its director Toni Soloni, after assisting Toni in a regional Women of Drummer event in Albuquerque.
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Bear Mike is a founder and vice president of New Mexico Respect Ethics Acceptance in Leather, Inc., known as NM-REAL. This nonprofit supports education, community events, safer gathering spaces, charitable activity, rights advocacy, scholarship, volunteerism, and cooperation among New Mexico’s Leather and alternative-lifestyle communities.
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Through Domum Corium Cordis and NM-REAL, Mike has created or produced several Albuquerque events. He is the principal producer of Kinktoberfest, an educational, social, vendor, and play weekend developed in cooperation with NM-REAL, SpectrumABQ, Purgatory Dungeon, Onyx High Desert, Four Corners Collective Kink, and other organizations. The inaugural Kinktoberfest was held in 2025. Its vendor area became the beginning of the New Mexico Leather & Kink Fair, conceived as an accessible public interface where people could encounter Leather artisans, vendors, organizations, education, and community resources. <d> <e>
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Mike also created the Low Sensory Leather Social, an earlier, quieter, conversation-oriented gathering with sober-aware options for people who find conventional bars, nightclubs, and large events difficult or inaccessible. Its design expanded the meaning of accessibility beyond physical access to include sensory environment, time of day, volume, and social expectations.
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Other projects include SLaP!—Social, Learn and Play, a monthly combination of social time, parallel educational classes, entertainment, and BDSM play produced collaboratively by NM-REAL, SpectrumABQ, and Purgatory Dungeon. Mike also developed Used & Abused, an original concept from Michko and with her collaboration - a kinky sale, swap, and social intended to bring community together and recirculate Leather clothing, equipment, toys, and community materials.
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As an educator, Bear Mike has presented locally and nationally, frequently teaching with Bear Marvin. Their subjects include community conflict, organizational inclusion, dungeon monitoring, electroplay, sensation and impact play, sexuality, Leather identity, and New Mexico Leather history. Mike’s programs on "Tools for Reducing Internal Community Conflict" and "Dungeon Monitor Training from Different Perspectives," are taught live and are also freely available as recorded programs. His educational work emphasizes the less-visible skills necessary to maintain community: communication, conflict resolution, consent, volunteer management, event safety, accessibility, and cooperation between groups. Much of this work is available on Fetlife at LeatherHeart.
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Gathering information from his past historical work since 2016, Bear Mike undertook formalizing History of New Mexico Leather and Alternative Communities in 2024, including additional interviews, collecting organizational papers, newsletters, event programs, websites, archived webpages, physical artifacts, and research at the Leather Archives & Museum. The project documents both prominent organizations and short-lived groups, venues, events, artists, titleholders, educators, and community connectors whose contributions might otherwise disappear. The project was publicly recognized by The Leather Journal in 2025. <b> This effort has resulted in multiple artifacts and sets of information provided to Leather Archives & Museum, The Carter Johnson Library, and The Leather Quilt Project. For instance, Dave Crawford's Motorcyclemen of NM patch is now cared for and displayed with the Leather Quilt.
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​Bear Mike has contributed about 20 bylined news reports and community-history articles to The Leather Journal since 2020, covering New Mexico Leather events, Onyx, Deaf Leather Fraternity, Women of Drummer, Leather Leadership Conference, Chicago Hellfire Club, artists, community members, and historical preservation.
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Bear Mike’s primary approach for contribution has been the development of connective infrastructure. His work joins older gay men’s Leather traditions, Onyx and people-of-color-centered Leather, pansexual BDSM spaces, education, accessibility, event production, historical preservation, and public engagement. Rather than creating a single isolated organization, he has repeatedly developed projects in collaboration with existing groups. His historical work adds another dimension to that service by preserving the experiences of earlier New Mexico participants while they can still tell their own stories.
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Sources: leatherquilt.com/panels/domum-corium-cordis <a>, theleatherjournal.com/news/dave-rhodes-humpday-july-16-2025 <b>, theleatherjournal.com/hump-day/dave-rhodes-hump-day-july-29-2020 <c>, Bear Mike's archives, kinktoberfest.com <d>, nmleatherkinkfair.com <e>, abqeagle.com <f>.
"Bear Marvin and Bear Mike wed in Albuquerque" Article in The Leather Journal, Hump Day, July 29, 2025. <c>
Pat Sanchez
Communities: Leather, Gay, Motorcycle Clubs
Associations: Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, Rocky Mountaineers Motorcycle Club, New Mexico Drummer, Southwest Drummer, International Mr. Drummer, New Mexico AIDS Services
Period: 1984–1995
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Pat Sanchez was a New Mexico Leatherman, motorcycle-club officer, titleholder, contest producer, judge, and AIDS fundraiser. During approximately eleven years of documented Leather activity, he held repeated leadership positions in the Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, won Mr. Southwest Drummer 1991, competed for the International Mr. Drummer title, established New Mexico’s Drummer feeder contest, and became nationally recognized within the Leather community.
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Pat first attended a Motorcyclemen of New Mexico dinner in November 1984. He was soon accepted into the organization and elected secretary. Over the following decade, he held an office every year, serving four terms as road captain, three terms as president, and at least one term as treasurer. A contemporary remembrance described him as one of the organization’s best treasurers. He also participated in the club’s motorcycle rides, social gatherings, charitable work, and annual Hot Air run held during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. <e> <f>
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Pat was closely associated for a time with fellow Motorcyclemen member Walt Lang. Dominick Zurlo recalls meeting Walt and Pat through the Motorcyclemen during the early years of Albuquerque’s organized Leather community. The Motorcyclemen’s principal gathering place was the Albuquerque Social Club, although members also frequented Cuffs and other gay and Leather-oriented venues.
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In 1991, Pat represented the Motorcyclemen in the Southwest Drummer contest in Phoenix. Contemporary title records identify him as Mr. Motorcyclemen of New Mexico and confirm that he became Mr. Southwest Drummer 1991. He subsequently competed at the national Mr. Drummer contest in San Francisco. Although he did not win the international title, his participation made him one of the earliest New Mexico Leathermen to advance into a major national Leather contest system. <g>
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After his Southwest victory, Pat helped establish a New Mexico Drummer and Drummerboy contest within the Motorcyclemen of New Mexico. This gave local contestants a structured pathway into the Southwest regional competition rather than requiring them to enter the regional contest independently. The resulting title lineage included Chuck Floyd and Allen Gates in 1992, Steve Benoit and James Danforth in 1993, and Dominick Zurlo in 1994. James Danforth subsequently won Southwest Drummerboy, while Dominick placed second at Southwest Drummer in 1994.
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Pat remained directly involved in producing and promoting the contests. He was the listed contact for the April 15–16, 1994 New Mexico Drummer weekend and appeared in its Drummer magazine advertisement. He also co-produced the 1994 Southwest Regional Drummer contest and served as a judge at International Mr. Leather 1994. His appearances as a contestant, producer, organizer, visitor, and judge carried New Mexico’s comparatively young Leather community into a wider national network.
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His influence extended beyond men’s titles. Leslie Anderson remembers sitting with Pat in the dual bootblack stand at The Ranch in 1994 and discussing the increasing participation of women in Leather. Pat predicted that a corresponding system of Ms. Leather titles would develop. New Mexico’s first Ms. New Mexico Leather title was awarded the following year, and New Mexico women soon became highly successful in national and international contests. The conversation suggests that Pat recognized the direction in which Leather culture was changing and supported a broader title structure before it was fully established locally.
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Pat also maintained ties with the Rocky Mountaineers Motorcycle Club in Colorado as an associate member. The relationship reflected the regular exchanges among Motorcyclemen of New Mexico and clubs in Colorado, Arizona, Texas, and elsewhere. These clubs visited one another’s runs, contests, and anniversary events, creating a regional Leather network in which Albuquerque was an active participant rather than an isolated community.
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AIDS service was central to Pat’s public Leather activity. He consistently encouraged fundraising for New Mexico AIDS Services and used his visibility at Leather contests across the country to advocate for organizations responding to AIDS. A contemporary remembrance characterized his appeals as passionate and articulate. This work connected the fundraising traditions of the motorcycle clubs with the urgent care needs created by the epidemic. <d>
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In 1994, Pat received The Leather Journal’s Rocky Mountain Regional Award, recognizing his broader contribution to Leather in the region. The publication later remembered him as Mr. Southwest Drummer 1991 and a multi-office holder within the Motorcyclemen of New Mexico. <h>
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Outside the Leather community, Pat worked as a salesperson for the Stanley door company and lived near the Rio Grande in Belen, approximately thirty miles south of Albuquerque. He was also a father. His son, Steven, spent the final three weeks of Pat’s life helping care for him. Pat’s life partner, Michael Coker, was with him when he died at home during the night of July 20–21, 1995. He was 42 years old. A Motorcyclemen memorial and Catholic Mass were held later that month.
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Community oral history identifies Pat as one of the many New Mexico Leather people lost to HIV/AIDS. His death removed one of the Motorcyclemen’s most active leaders during a period when the organization was already confronting aging membership and changes in Albuquerque’s social environment. Although the club continued for a few more years, participants remember Pat’s loss as one factor in its declining energy.
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Pat Sanchez was a transitional figure in New Mexico Leather history. He entered through the traditional gay men’s motorcycle-club system, became a regional Drummer titleholder, and then transformed his individual opportunity into a local feeder contest for others. He helped connect Albuquerque to national Leather contests, regional motorcycle clubs, and AIDS organizations while anticipating the growing inclusion of women in Leather title culture.
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His legacy is therefore larger than his 1991 title. Pat helped move New Mexico Leather from an informal network centered on motorcycle rides and bars toward a more visible structure of contests, regional representation, fundraising, and community leadership. His death in 1995 also embodies the profound loss of leadership and institutional memory caused by the AIDS epidemic.
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Sources: Drummer Magazine, Issue 150 - Page 64 <a>, Leslie Anderson (interviews) <b>, Casey Newkirk (interviews 14Jun24, +conversations) <c>, David Crawford (interview 5Jan24) <d>, archive.org/stream/BAR_19950810/BAR_19950810_djvu.txt <e>, nm-real.org/nm-leather-history-groups <f>, theleatherjournal.com/news/leather-titles-in-1991 <g>, theleatherjournal.com/news/1995 <h>.
Tony Travis
Communities: Burlesque, Queer Entertainment, Alternative Performance
Associations: Burlesque Noir, Teatro Burlesco
Period: ~2001–present
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Tony Travis is the stage name of an Albuquerque dancer, choreographer, performer, artistic director, and producer whose work connects burlesque with queer entertainment and the broader alternative-performance community. After receiving a BA in Dance from the University of New Mexico in 2001, he became involved in Albuquerque’s early twenty-first-century burlesque revival and has remained active for more than two decades.
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Tony performed with Burlesque Noir for approximately fifteen years and eventually assumed an artistic-director role. Burlesque Noir represented the more neo-burlesque branch of Albuquerque’s developing scene, incorporating contemporary music, theatricality, sexuality, and experimentation rather than concentrating exclusively on classical burlesque. Tony recalls that the troupe continued for approximately one year after his departure before its remaining activity developed into other productions.
Tony subsequently founded Teatro Burlesco, a mixed-gender Albuquerque troupe presenting burlesque and variety entertainment. Teatro Burlesco began around 2018 and celebrated its seventh anniversary with Burlesque La Bohème at JUNO in July 2025. The troupe has continued presenting themed programs featuring performers of different genders, styles, and performance backgrounds.
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Tony describes burlesque as “a tool toward sexual freedom.” In his view, it exists along a broad performance spectrum incorporating dance, theater, music, gymnastics, comedy, sexuality, and resistance to normative culture. Its many forms include boylesque, queerlesque, nerdlesque, classical burlesque, and neo-burlesque. Performances may range from all-ages entertainment to explicitly adult productions.
Burlesque intersects with Leather and kink through sexual performance, costuming, role-playing, fantasy, audience engagement, and the conscious ownership of sexuality. Both communities may use performance to explore desires or identities that are restricted by mainstream expectations. Burlesque also overlaps with drag, cabaret, sex-worker communities, goth and alternative music, swinger entertainment, and body-positive performance.
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Tony particularly identifies consent and safety as shared concerns. Burlesque productions may begin with an audience orientation explaining acceptable behavior and how to respond when a performer approaches. In some productions, audience members can welcome interaction through open body language or decline it by crossing their arms over their chest. Performers may similarly use an established distress signal if an audience interaction becomes unsafe or difficult to control. These practices parallel the negotiations, safewords, monitoring, and consent expectations found in Leather and BDSM spaces.
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Like Leather and kink communities, burlesque transmits knowledge through informal peer education. Performers teach choreography, costuming, stagecraft, character development, audience management, and safety to one another. Social working sessions sometimes called “Stitch and Bitch” gatherings combine costume construction with mentoring and community conversation. This resembles the informal workshops, mentoring relationships, and shared preparation that surround Leather contests, fantasy performances, and BDSM demonstrations.
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Tony’s historical importance to this project lies in his work at the boundary between mainstream entertainment and alternative sexual culture. Through Burlesque Noir and Teatro Burlesco, he has helped create public performances where diverse genders, bodies, sexualities, and performance traditions can share a stage. His description of burlesque as a means of sexual freedom helps explain why the form repeatedly intersects with Leather, kink, drag, goth, cabaret, and other communities that challenge normative expectations.
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Sources: Interview 23Dec24 w/Bear Mike, facebook.com/teatroburlescoABQ, eventbrite.com/e/teatro-burlesco-7th-anniversary-burlesque-la-boheme-tickets-1363824809719.
Kevin Watson
Communities: Leather
Associations: Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen, New Mexico Fantasy, International Mr. Fantasy, Mr. and Ms. New Mexico Leather
Period: ~1996–1998
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Kevin Watson is a New Mexico Leather titleholder best known as International Mr. Fantasy 1996. Kevin first won Mr. New Mexico Fantasy, a title produced by Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen as a feeder into the International Fantasy competition. With substantial support from the organization, he represented New Mexico at the international contest in Omaha, Nebraska, where he became the second person to hold the International Mr. Fantasy title.
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The Fantasy contest was one of three title programs operated by Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen. Mr. and Ms. New Mexico Leather were the organization’s principal titles. Mr. and Ms. New Mexico Leatherfest provided a less-formal preparatory opportunity for prospective contestants, while Mr. and Ms. New Mexico Fantasy selected performers for advancement to the international Fantasy contest. Kevin’s 1996 victory demonstrated that this feeder system accomplished exactly what it was created to do: prepare and support a New Mexico representative capable of winning internationally.
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Kevin won the international title in August 1996 with a Western-themed fantasy involving a ranch owner and an unproductive ranch hand. Contemporary reporting praised the performance for its theatrical storytelling, ropework, and conclusion involving a branding iron. One account called it the strongest fantasy of the evening and reported general agreement among audience members and contestants that Kevin deserved the victory. He was the second person to hold the International Mr. Fantasy title, following inaugural titleholder J. D. Buchert in 1995. <a> <b> <c>
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Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen provided substantial support for Kevin’s international run. Numerous members traveled with him from New Mexico to Omaha and held what became a victory celebration at the contest hotel. Their participation illustrates the organizational and financial support local Leather clubs often provided when sending titleholders to regional or international competitions.
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During his international title year, Kevin made at least one documented appearance outside New Mexico. In April 1997, he appeared as the reigning International Mr. Fantasy at a fantasy contest and show held at The Saloon in Minneapolis. The event allowed contestants to compete for prize packages to International Mr. Leather and International Mr. Fantasy. <d>
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Kevin subsequently won Mr. New Mexico Leather 1998 at the Sandia Leathermen-produced contest held at The Ranch in Albuquerque on March 21, 1998. The contest was presented under the theme “Heavy Metal” and drew a packed audience. His selection connected New Mexico’s local title system with his earlier international recognition and made him one of the comparatively few New Mexico titleholders who had already held an international title before winning Mr. New Mexico Leather. <e> <f>
Kevin’s significance to this history rests primarily upon his two documented titles. As International Mr. Fantasy 1996, he represented Albuquerque in a developing international contest system centered on staged Leather fantasy and erotic performance. As Mr. New Mexico Leather 1998, he became part of the principal Leather title lineage produced by Sandia Leathermen during the 1990s.
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Sources: leathercolumn.blogspot.com/1996/ <a>, black-rose.com/cuiru/archive/3-1/contests.html <b>, theleatherjournal.com/news-2/content/96-living-in-leather <c>, leathercolumn.blogspot.com/1997/04/donnie-russo-in-his-own-words-part-2.html <d>, theleatherjournal.com/news/1998 <e>, nm-real.org/nm-leather-history-events <f>
Julian Addams-Wolf / Jack D. Nimble
Communities: Leather, BDSM and kink, LGBTQ advocacy, goth and industrial, burlesque, cabaret, visual and performance art.
Associations: NM:TNG, Rio Grande Leather, New Mexico Leather League, Albuquerque Pride, Equality New Mexico, National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, Albuquerque boys of Leather, Albuquerque Leather Daddys, Weekly Alibi, Alibi Fetish Events, Thee Sanctuary, Pridezilla, Audacious Productions and Albuquerque Leather & Kink
Period: ~2000–present
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Julian Addams-Wolf, also known as Julian Wolf and through performance identities including Julian Addams and Jack D. Nimble, is one of New Mexico’s most active cross-community connectors. Since approximately 2000, Julian has moved among Leather, kink, LGBTQ advocacy, goth and industrial nightlife, burlesque, cabaret, visual art and alternative entertainment. Their importance lies not only in the individual organizations and events they helped create, but in repeatedly bringing performers, educators, activists, titleholders and audiences from different communities into shared spaces.
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In 2002–03, Julian and Jesse established New Mexico: The Next Generation, or NM:TNG, for people between approximately 18 and 35 interested in BDSM and alternative sexuality. Julian served as chair and managed the organization’s business for seven years, stepping down as they approached the group’s upper age limit. Under its early leadership, NM:TNG organized meetings, education, play parties, Pride participation and hanky-code events and assisted with Rio Grande Leather and Spring Pandemonium. By its sixth anniversary, the organization reported more than 100 members. Julian’s own account dates the co-founding to 2003, while surviving NM:TNG history dates its establishment to November 2002.
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Julian became the inaugural Ms. Rio Grande Leather 2004, serving alongside Mr. Rio Grande Leather Ruben Gallegos, as title siblings. Julian subsequently assisted with the annual Rio Grande Leather conferences in several capacities. During Spring Pandemonium in March 2005, Julian led a public discussion about BDSM lifestyles, protocol, play-party etiquette and community participation.
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Julian was also a charter member of the New Mexico Leather League, serving five consecutive terms on its board. According to Julian’s biography, the organization took its name from a performance that Julian wrote and co-produced with former Mr. New Mexico Pride, Tony Carson. Julian later participated with members and friends of the Albuquerque boys of Leather and Albuquerque Leather Daddys, appearing at their social gatherings and on the Leather Daddys’ 2012 Pride float. They were also recognized in Mama’s Family as Mama’s Prince Julian. In 2017, Julian helped Bear Mike establish Albuquerque Leather & Kink as a cross-community event-information network.
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In 2006, Julian received the Ms. New Mexico Pride title and was identified as its first openly queer titleholder. Albuquerque Pride presented Julian with a tenth-anniversary crown in 2016 in recognition of their continuing work. Julian joined Equality New Mexico as an administrative assistant in 2008 and subsequently worked with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, first on call and later through an elected term. They have presented classes, workshops and keynote or plenary addresses for community organizations, colleges, conferences and spiritual groups, including the University of New Mexico Feminist Symposium.
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Julian’s performance work connected the leather and kink communities with Albuquerque’s goth, industrial, burlesque and cabaret scenes. As Jack D. Nimble, Julian worked with Thee Sanctuary in production, performance, stage management, decoration, writing and emceeing. Thee Sanctuary described Jack as the darker performance face of Julian Wolf and documented Julian’s participation in New Mexico’s goth and industrial scene since the beginning of the century. Julian later performed boylesque and cabaret as Julian Addams and became known as a “Monster of Ceremonies.” They emceed Pridezilla in 2016 and presented the Julian Wolf Cabaret at Pridezilla in 2019.
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Julian also wrote for the Weekly Alibi and became closely involved with Alibi Fetish Events. In February 2017, Julian produced Kinky Curiosities at Sister Bar, bringing together leather demonstrations, bondage, kink, drag, burlesque, alternative visual art and vendors. Participants included Albuquerque Leather Daddys, Albuquerque boys of Leather, the 2016 Corazón titleholders, several burlesque companies and independent kink performers. Julian later produced the Carnal Carnevale Masquerade, an immersive Alibi Fetish Event combining erotic art, BDSM demonstrations, wandering performers, music, food and formal masquerade attire. The event was deliberately structured as a bridge through which people from the broader public could encounter kink and alternative communities in a curated environment. Julian also published event announcements, commentary and reviews through the Alibi.
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Beyond leather and nightlife, Julian developed work as a visual artist, live painter, alternative model, writer, tarot reader and event designer. They operated Audacious Productions, including Cabaret Audacity, and produced performances that combined music, live art, burlesque, comedy and audience participation. Julian’s art has appeared at the UNM LGBTQ Resource Center, Albuquerque Press Club, Unseen Gallery, Corpus Arts and other Southwestern galleries and festivals. They participated in CURRENTS New Media in Santa Fe in 2023, whose biography describes Julian as a visual and performance artist, educator, producer and longtime consent-culture activist.
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After moving to Santa Fe, Julian continued developing visual art, performances and experimental community spaces. Recent reporting associates Julian and artist Jerome Morrison with Santa Fe DIY art and performance spaces including Ghost, Cocoon and The DL. This work continues the pattern visible throughout Julian’s New Mexico history: creating a project, building connections around it, and then carrying that experience into a new artistic or community setting.
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Julian’s career does not follow a conventional progression from one organization or title to another. It is better understood as a series of creative interventions. They have repeatedly entered communities, helped create events and institutions, encouraged participation and consent, and then shifted their attention toward another form of expression. This mobility made Julian an important conduit between New Mexico communities that are often documented separately but, in practice, shared many of the same people, venues and audiences.
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Sources: Interactions w/Bear Mike, julianaddamswolf.com/gallery.html, alibi.com/feature/alibi-events/, currentsnewmedia.org/artist/julian-addams-wolf/, facebook.com/professionaljulian/.
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Dominic Zurlo
Communities: Bear, Leather, LGBTQ+, Public Health
Associations: Bears of Mañana, Sandia Bears, Motorcyclemen of New Mexico, Sandia Leathermen/Leatherwomen, New Mexico Drummer, International Bear Expo, International Bear Rendezvous, New Mexico Fantasy, The Ranch and Cuffs
Period: ~1988–present; principal Leather and bear activity from the early 1990s
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Dominick Zurlo is a New Mexico bear and Leather titleholder, organization founder, emcee, educator, and early LGBTQ+ student activist. His history illustrates the close relationship among Albuquerque’s Leather clubs, bear organizations, gay bars, title contests, country-western dancing, and public-health work during the 1990s.
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Dominick moved to New Mexico in January 1987 and came out as gay the following year while attending the University of New Mexico. He became active in UNM’s Gay and Lesbian Student Union, wrote a recurring Daily Lobo column titled One Step Out, and ran unsuccessfully for student-body president as an openly gay candidate. He also participated in Albuquerque Pride activities. These early experiences in public writing and campus politics preceded the organizing, public speaking, and emcee work he later performed in the Leather and bear communities.
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After turning 21, Dominick became familiar with The Ranch, which had recently opened, and its Leather bar, Cuffs. His relationship with Walt Lang introduced him to members of Sandia Leathermen and the Motorcyclemen of New Mexico. Dominick joined Motorcyclemen of New Mexico and participated in motorcycle rides, campouts, and trips around the state, including excursions to Las Cruces, Pecos, Taos, and the northern mountains. Motorcyclemen gatherings were associated particularly with the Albuquerque Social Club, while Cuffs also served as a meeting place for Leather members and invited guests.
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Dominick also became a member of the Sandia Leather organization as it reconsidered its originally male-specific identity and expanded to include women and people of different genders. He later bartended periodically at both The Ranch and Cuffs. Cuffs was initially a controlled Leather space entered through club membership or invitation before becoming more publicly accessible under a Leather dress code.
In late 1992, Dominick and his partner David Guiney helped establish Bears of Mañana, one of New Mexico’s earliest organized bear groups. The name reportedly developed when participants, tired of trying to choose a name, suggested that they finish the discussion “mañana.” The informal organization had no dues, bylaws, officers, or formal titles; members contributed small amounts for postcards, photocopying, and newsletters. Its purpose was primarily social, bringing bears and admirers together for gatherings at The Ranch and activities around New Mexico.
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A related organization, Sandia Bears, later provided the formal structure needed for fundraising and charitable activity. Dominick and David helped operate the organizations during their formative years before other members assumed leadership. Dominick also emceed the first two Albuquerque bear contests. His work helped establish a visible bear community in New Mexico at a time when the bear movement was itself becoming more formally organized nationally.
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Dominick first entered the Mr. New Mexico Drummer contest in 1993 and returned in 1994, when he won Mr. New Mexico Drummer. The Leather Journal’s historical title reporting and the New Mexico Leather League title record both confirm his 1994 win. He advanced to the Southwest Drummer contest in Phoenix and finished second. <b>
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During the same period, Dominick competed at the 1994 International Bear Expo in San Francisco and received the International Bear Cub 1994 title. The International Bear Expo, held from 1992 through 1994, was the predecessor of International Bear Rendezvous, produced beginning in 1995 by the Bears of San Francisco. Dominick later personally corrected a published historical title list to identify himself as the 1994 Cub from Albuquerque. <c> <d>
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The simultaneous titles created an unusual intersection between Leather and bear contest systems. Dominick recalled that, before the Southwest Drummer contest, he was asked whether he would relinquish his bear title if selected as Southwest Drummer. He responded that he saw no reason the two identities or responsibilities could not coexist. His second-place finish nevertheless made him a regional representative of New Mexico’s Leather community while he also represented Albuquerque within the developing international bear community.
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Dominick became a familiar contest judge, emcee, and performer. He emceed New Mexico Leather, bear, and fantasy events and frequently worked with his Leather daughter, Michele, known as Lady Noir. He also helped participants—including Leslie Anderson and others—gain confidence performing onstage. His continuing national visibility is demonstrated by his service as emcee of the 2012 Mr. Bluegrass Leather weekend in Kentucky. <e>
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Dominick’s performances were often intentionally humorous rather than conventionally erotic. One recurring fantasy used Ernie’s “Rubber Duckie” song, a metal bathing tub, a rubber duck, and an increasingly adult collection of bath accessories. He performed versions of the number for several years, tossing signed rubber ducks into the audience; one reportedly sold at auction for approximately $200. In another production, he adapted a Boy Scout camp sketch into a Leather-camp fantasy involving knot tying and other “instruction,” with performers including Leslie Anderson and Julian Wolf improvisationally tying him up onstage. These performances broadened the prevailing idea of a Leather fantasy by using comedy, audience participation, and theatrical storytelling.
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Dominick was also active in Albuquerque’s country-western dance community. He won New Mexico rodeo dance competitions, taught dance classes at The Ranch, and eventually worked more regularly at the bar. Dance instruction, bartending, contest production, and emcee work placed him in a particularly connective role: he helped newcomers acquire social skills, stage confidence, and access to several intersecting parts of gay community life.
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Beginning around 1999, graduate research, international travel, employment, and education reduced Dominick’s direct participation in Leather organizations. He nevertheless continued to emcee and judge selected events. Beginning in 2007, he returned to International Bear Rendezvous as an emcee for approximately five years, reconnecting his 1994 Bear Expo title with the successor event. International Bear Rendezvous continued through 2011.
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Dominick’s later professional work has concentrated on education, harm reduction, infectious-disease prevention, and public health. He earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from UNM in 2017; his dissertation examined effective methods for teaching the administration of naloxone nasal spray. He subsequently served in New Mexico Department of Health leadership roles involving hepatitis, harm reduction, overdose prevention, medical cannabis, and related health programs. This work continued themes present in his earlier community involvement: public education, stigma reduction, meeting people where they are, and making health information usable within marginalized communities. <f> <g>
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Dominick Zurlo helped connect communities that were sometimes treated as separate: Motorcyclemen and Leather clubs, bears, bar culture, country-western dancing, title contests, comic performance, student activism, and public-health education. As a co-founder of Bears of Mañana, he helped give New Mexico’s emerging bear community an independent social identity. As Mr. New Mexico Drummer and International Bear Cub 1994, he represented New Mexico simultaneously in two developing national networks. His later work as an emcee allowed him to carry that history into another generation of bear and Leather events.
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Sources: Interview (17Jul24) <a>, theleatherjournal.com/news/content/121-tlj-leather-archives <b>, queerstoryfiles.blogspot.com/2013/02/grin-and-bear-it-for-17-years.html <c>, jprince85.wixsite.com/beararchives/bosf-records <d>, theleatherjournal.com/news/author/802-daverhodes <e>, graduation.unm.edu/fall_2017/program/_doctoral.html <f>, nmlegis.gov/handouts/LHHS%20081419%20Item%205%20Harm%20reduction%20presentation.pdf <g>, UNM Daily Lobo archives.
Photograph of title winners Michael Myhand, Dominic Zurlo, Al Fritsch, Rodger Ream (left to right) onstage at the 1994 International Mr. Bear contest held at the Golden Gate Holiday Inn in San Francisco, CA. Myhand, seen wearing the title sash, was selected as the year's International Mr. Bear. Zurlo was chosen as Cub Bear, Fritsch was chosen as Polar Bear and Ream was chosen as Grizzly Bear. The winners are all holding large stuffed animal teddy bears. The photo was taken by Mister Marcus (Marcus Hernandez). From Box 1, Folder 14 of the Timothy Wong papers (2021-24).