Become A Card Carrying Member of the Leather Community:
Then Leave the Rest of us Alone



As many of you know, I am a Libertarian (www.lp.org) and have no truck with the government doing things to "better" society. I am very Pro-Freedom. Those who would use government to force their vision of a perfect society on others are supporters of tyranny and will get no applause from me for the "strides they make for society." I've included a link to the Libertarian Party because several in the Leather Community, in an attempt to silence me, are smearing me (you know who you are GB) by saying I'm some sort of radical and a founder of the John Birch Society (www.jbs.org). I have nothing to do with the John Birch Society, now nor ever nor will in the future. As to my so called radical politics, I have a radical belief in freedom of men to lives of their own choosing and to reap the rewards or pay the penalty associate with their exercise of free will. That is what I believe. If that makes me radical in the reader's view, then challenge me on the fact that I am a Libertarian - but please do so after you have taken a few minutes to find out just what a Libertarian is. You will find that those who advocate state control of people's lives and private corporations are definitional Nazis. hng_rer[1].jpgAnd I know just how perjorative the word Nazi is. It is truly the second N word in society.

As a Libertarian, I carry a membership card which attests to my loyalty and belief in certain principles. Chief among them are the primacy of individual freedom and the renunciation of force to effect social change. For instance, if a private group wants to help the homeless, there should be no barriers to them doing so. If this same group wants to use tax money to effect change, they should be stopped cold. It is not right to "force" those who may not wish to help the homeless to do so via taxation. Taxes which people must pay or suffer jail for refusal to pay - Forced to pay to live in free society, if that is not oxymoronical. Free men should have the right to keep that which the earn via an exchange of their labor. It is truly slavery to make a man work and then for others to take the fruit of his labor, even if it is in the name of creating a nuclear free, save the whales, environmentally pure, utopian society of diverse, multi-cultural peoples who all exist in perfect equality - or else.

Jeb feminized and ready for
punishment by Leatherian Party

Which brings us to the Leather Community and it's "A List" leadership. Many of our leather community leaders never play. For them the community is just a Politically Correct clubhouse to work their mischief in and engage in control trips. If the leather community wants to make up rules on what constitutes "abuse" then they should create a voluntary association to which a leather person may belong or not. We could call it the Leatherian Party. Their party mascot would be the purple and black striped Cow symbolizing the sun source of Leather and the Leather Pride flag. (the cow would also symbolize the girth of some of the most renowned tops in the Leather Community). The universal safe word would, logically, be "moo". The cow would also emphasize the feminine gender, thus showing inclusion and a willingness to embrace inter-species equality.

Leatherian Party Poll

Is there really an "A List" of Leather?

Members of this association would have a membership card attesting the fact that they subscribe to Leather Community dogma. Since they voluntarily joined, there is no loss of freedom to them. Any member who is accused of violating a Leather Community policy on "SSC" or "Abuse" or whatever policy would be tried by a "Leather Court" and then acquitted or convicted and sentenced to community service or expulsion from the leather community.

When meeting a Master/slave/Top or bottom it would save a lot of time to simply ask for the person's Leatherian Party membership card (Libertarian's carry them, why not leather people?). Each card would be numbered instead of having a name. This serves a twofold purpose: One, it protects the anonymity of the card carrier and two, society is getting big on numbering everyone. You can't do anything without a Social Security Number now so why you should be allowed to do anything in leather without one? There is a strong desire to be numbered in society, why buck the coming trend?

The cards would also be striped in color codes on the left or the right. Stripes on right, indicate "bottom", stripes on left indicage "Top." Colors of stripes indicating interests much the same as the Hanky Code. When a top and bottom met and held their membership cards together, the more the stripes lined up, the closer the match in interests. (BTW: Another benefit to this is that Hanky Code would finally be standardized, though I suspect it would be about one hundred single spaced pages long with descriptions like: Blue Paisley, with red accent = Androgynous, switch, versatile, light to heavy play, male/female partner okay, no physical/racial preference for partner. (i.e. will take whatever he/she can get))

On the Leatherian Party web site one could look up this persons number to not only check out the persons interests, but to find out if they are indeed a dues paid member and if they have any Leather Community sanctions against them. (i.e. 05APR00,0320HRS, Failed to Honor SafeWord during Wax Scene, Sentence: 20 hours community service stuffing envelopes for Hillary Clinton Senate campaign)

Dungeons owned by members would be certified by Leather Party DungeonMasters. DungeonMasters would be made up of those who never play, but love to exercise control of other people's sex lives since they don't get any in their own life. Any Dungeon not bearing a "Certificate of Dungeon Hygiene and Safety" could not be played in by in Leatherian. Dungeon owners would be encouraged to put in WebCam's so their dungeon play could be subject to 24/7 monitoring by the party security apparatus.

Party Headquarters would be in New York City. Most of the PC leather crowd seems to orbit around NYC so it is appropriate that the home of the future universal government, the United Nations, would also be the home of a universal and authoritative leather body. It is not unusual for NY Leather to come up with a leather policy statement and then present it as a fait accompli to everyone else. This would only formalize that authority and give our "A List" Leather Leaders the authority that is their natural, though unelected, due.

Membership would be based on recommendation of two bottoms. The first year would be automatically granted, but probationary in nature. At the end of the first year a vote would be taken by the local affiliate. One "no vote" would be enough to black ball. Refused members could reapply in one year.

Given the huge discrepancy between the numbers of tops and bottoms, bottoms would totally rule the party leadership. In a magnaminous gesture the the party could create a Committee of SM (Sirs and Mam's) for Tops which would review party policy and rules, but be advisory in nature only. Tops would be accorded respect as long as they conformed to the party discipline, as established by the bottoms.

In this context we have free association so I have no problem with the Leatherian Party adopting reams of rules on what constitutes abuse. They may define Top, bottom, Master, slave as they wish. Those failing to hew to the party line could be punished without all the gossip that the community resorts to now when they want to ostracize someone from the ranks.

Those of us choosing not to belong would be deprived of the benefits of membership, but not expected to follow party rule nor be subject to party discipline nor surveillance. Nothing bad would be construed by a failure to join, but no benefits of party membership would acrue either. A party rule might be that members can only engage in SM with another member, so those of us choosing freedom of sexual expression individually would be denied access to the group in toto.

Some of the above is written to amuse (or piss off as the case may be). But, in truth I feel formalizing the Leather Community as a loose umbrella over all the clubs (Hellfire, 15, NLA, GMSMA, Renegades, etc.) would be a great way for those who need structure in their sexual community to get it. The clubs would still retain their seperate identities, customs and traditions. Those of us not carrying cards would not be accepted by the group, but we would not have to worry about being gossipped about either as we would not be of any concern to the community membership.

What can you do to make the Leatherian Party a reality? First, tell everyone you know in leather about this article. Second, especially tell anyone you know who is an "A List" leather leader. Make sure to tell them the idea is not really Jeb's, but rather an idea he stole from a Leather Leader and that Jeb is trying to take credit for. Leather Leaders suffer from "Not Invented Here" Syndrome and need to feel everything in Leather exists because they thought of it first.

I hope to be part of the process here. The sooner the Leather Community insulates itself totally from the rest of us, the better it will be for all. Us no safeword, "dangerous Top", radical, edge playing types will no longer be a bother to Leather, nor the subject of Leather dish. For it's part, the Leather Comminity in morphing into the Leatherian Party will finally have a true identity. A face if you will to put on the Leather Community with each member numbered, ruled, judged, surveilled and pigeon holed.

Leatherian Party Poll

Would you join the Leatherian Party?

 Jeb is a member of the Libertarian Party of Chicago. He is particularly active in the gun rights for gays movement seeking to eliminate hate crimes with self-defense measures versus the trend of punishing hate crimes after they happen. Jeb believes we are all better off with the crime not happenning in the first place than with dealing with prosecuting a hate crime after a brutal beating or murder. Jeb teaches self-defense conceal carry handgun use to individuals and groups on a voluntary basis. Contact Jeb if you like to sponsor a class. Jeb is also the former publisher of Metroslave Magazine which still maintains a web site at www.metroslave.com. Jeb also owns the very off-Halsted Leatherneck Bar at 209 W Lake St, Chicago, IL 60606, Tel: 312 332-7070. Email jeb at jeb@metroslave.com or call him at 630 986-8550. As usual, if you hear a nasty rumor about Jeb would you please call Jeb directly before passing the rumor on to your friends? Thanks! This means you GB. My phone number again is 630 986-8550!

Jeb and Selective Publishing, Inc. grant Copyright for use on the Leatherweb server and grant one-time publication rights to the Leather Journal and SandMUtopian Guardian Magazine, as long as this article is printed in full to include all end matter. Other groups requesting re-publication rights in whole or in part should contact Jeb for a copyright release.

Copyright 1999 Jeb and Selective Publishing, Inc.

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