IML 2019

Jack Thompson

Jack is biracial. He’s gay. He’s transgender. He’s extremely kinky, depending on what scale you use to measure such things.

Jack is also utterly transparent about all that he is, to a disarming degree. His speech at the IML competition (“You are enough.”) laid bare all of his identities and became an instant viral meme.

Over breakfast at his favorite diner in his newly adopted home city of Baltimore, Jack discussed coming out (as many things), sex, drugs, HIV — and his reaction to a transphobic social media post by a leather community leader that nearly eclipsed the drama of Jack’s win at IML.

Here is our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Mark S. King: You spend a lot of time here, at Valentino’s Restaurant?

Jack Thompson: Oh yeah, they’re open 24/7. I can have breakfast any time of the day.

You’re running around already as Mr. IML. Just this weekend, you were in DC for Pride, then up to Philly, and then back here for an event at The Eagle in Baltimore.

Yeah, after IML there isn’t much of a break. You run right in to Pride. And being on the east coast you can get to so many different places for events.

Your husband, Geoff Millard, was 1^st Runner Up for Mr. Bootblack at IML this year.

His was 1^st Runner Up for Mr. IML in 2017, too. He’s the first person to place in both events.

I’m ignorant. I think Mr. IML is for the big dominant guys, and Mr. Bootblack is for the submissive ones.

Unless you are running for a “Boy” title or a “Master” title, you can identify as anything you want. I identify as a submissive. My husband identifies as a Daddy. But a lot of people have that idea, that you compete for IML and put on that leather cap, and you are the domest dom in all of dom town.

I went to IML once, more than a decade ago, but only because I was living off the remnants of my muscle boy body and I wanted to strut around in a harness.

That’s 90% of the people who go to IML.

Yeah, but I also never left the hotel. I stayed in my room shooting up crystal meth and having sex. For five days without sleep.  I have so much shame and regret about it. Do you see much of that? Does it concern you?

It’s a community problem. I’ve seen it for years, and seen friends’ lives destroyed for periods of time. And there’s people who just assume you do drugs because you go to these events. Actually, there are more and more spaces for sober people there.

There’s been an explosion of trans awareness over the last few years. My trans activist friends would point out that this has been a long, hard road, though.

I came out as trans when I was 15 (living in the Bay area). That was 18 years ago. And it was exploding because there were a lot of hate crimes going on.

I know several trans men who were lesbians first, who thought they must be, before they realized they were trans. And gay. It’s a perfect example of the difference between gender and sexuality.

I didn’t even start dating men until I met my husband. I still am attracted to women. It gets very deep very fast between us, with women. I just got out of a long relationship with a woman about a year ago.

IML 2018

James Lee

The New Face of Leather Hopes To Make Things A Whole Lot Friendlier

Mr. Kentucky 2017 James Lee (center) named International Mr. Leather 2018 with first runner up Mr Leather Belgium 2017 Sandro Cossero (left) and second runner up Mr. Friendly SF 2018 Stephan Ferris (right). Photo courtesy of IML

As the new International Mr. Leather, the Kentucky kinkster already has some plans for the scene. BY MIKELLE STREETJUNE 01 2018 12:32 PM EDT

A year ago, James Lee was having a pretty bad time at International Mr. Leather. As with every Memorial Day weekend for the past four decades, leatherfolk had descended on the city of Chicago for what continues to be one of the largest and most important leather events in the world. Lee, then Mr. Crossings Leather 2017 of Kentucky, was fresh off a break up with a partner of nine and a half years and in town for his first-ever IML. “It was the most horrible experience I ever had,” Lee told OUT in an interview this week. “I had just broke up with my partner and I saw him there with his Sir, a guy that we both had thought was attractive. It felt like he left me to be with someone else and I had to see them there the entire weekend.”

“So I was dreading IML this year,” he continued. “But low and behold, I end up becoming International Mr. Leather.” The title makes Lee the highest ranking holder in the leather world, on a year that’s particularly important for the competition.

This year was the 40th anniversary of IML. What started originally as a photoshoot organized by Chuck Renslow, an iconic leatherman, eventually morphed into the Mr. Gold Coast contest named after the leather bar he owned. The success of that contest saw it outgrow that bar, and thus its name, becoming IML.ADVERTISING

For 38 years Renslow was intimately involved in the contest, placing the sash on its winners and giving his “State of Leather” addresses every year from the IML podium. Last year, for the first time, he was not at the event as he was sick making Ralph Bruneau, IML 39, the first to ever be announced by someone other than Renslow. A month later he passed, a street in Chicago later being named after him as a testament to his influence and impact, making Lee the first titleholder in a post-Renslow leatherworld.

“I never got to meet Chuck face-to-face but the biggest thing for me this weekend that really hit hard is that you can do something so small [like a photoshoot] and it can turn out to be one of the most impactful things most of us value about our community,” Lee said.

Kentucky-based leatherman James Lee competing at IML 40 in Chicago. Photo courtesy of IML, Inc.

Lee got his start in the leather community back in 2012 though he says he’s been a kinkster all of his life. “When I was in middle school and high school I was always into being in the locker rooms with the jocks and doing odd things like smelling jocks and wrestling naked,” he said. “I thought it was all great and didn’t know at the time that those things were kinks and fetishes.”

But after an encounter with two daddies in Louisville, Kentucky he was exposed to his first leather bar: the now-shuttered Barracks. Dressed in chains and a jockstrap he was able to see “all of these great crazy people living their erotic fantasies in public.” The experience spurred Lee’s curiosity which would see him educate himself on the community and join it wholeheartedly.

On March 22, 2017, Lee ran for and won Mr. Crossings Leather 2017, his local bar title with plans on beefing up the local leather happenings. The win wouldn’t be his first title as back in 2011 he was Mr. Gay Houston USofA in the male entertainer version of the Miss Gay USofA drag pageant circuit. But this new leather title would set him on a track that would find him running for and winning Mr. Kentucky Leather 2017 before going up against 70 other men for the international slot. IML 40 would boost the largest competing class in the event’s history.

“I ran for [Mr. Kentucky Leather] as a thank you,” Lee, who is also a coach and a choreographer, explained. “It was a thank you to the community who helped me after my break up and told me I needed to continue to share with the world. I wanted to share with the world that through this community, you’ll always have a family.” That thank you has morphed into a year-long reign that will see the lifelong performer traveling across Europe and the Americas representing his leather family.

It is customary for each IML to have a cause. Last year, Bruneau’s was “Born Perfect” a campaign to outlaw conversion therapy for minors in all 50 states. At Cleveland Leather Annual Weekend in April he announced that he had raised $10,000 for the effort and legislative victories surrounding the campaign have recently been announced with Maryland recently passing their own bill to outlaw the anti-gay therapy.

While Lee is still deciding what causes he wants to take up, he does have a legacy in mind. “No one left behind,” he said. “By that I mean I really want to figure out a way to teach the community how to reach out to people who are coming to leather bars, or contests for the first time and seeing these radical sexualities being put on display, I want to teach the community how to incorporate these new people and make them feel in included.” It’s something that he’s already been doing on the state level with the Kentucky Leather Brotherhood.

International Mr. Leather 2018 James Lee and International Mr. Bootblack 2018 Lucky Rebel. Photo courtesy of IML, Inc.

But Lee’s win is also historic. He and his sash partner International Mr. Bootblack 2018 Lucky Rebel represent the first time in the contests’ history that both positions were filled by members of ONYX. ONYX is a leather club that hopes to educate, advocate for, and represent people of color in the community. This year will also be the second year that both IML and IMBB identify as people of color, the first being in 2014 when Ramien Pierre and Scout the Bootblack won.

“You know a lot of people are saying, ‘wow, there are ONYX members that are the IML and IMBB, are they going to turn it black or are they going to turn it all people of color?” Lee said. “No! We are there so that more people step out into the community and feel represented. We are there so our leather community grows and is not stifled.”

Sounds like a pretty good legacy from where we sit.

IML 2015

Patrick Smith

Early Life and Education

Smith was born on March 14, 1986 in Winnipeg, Canada. He is the only child of Judy Eastman, a real estate appraiser, and David Smith, a real estate broker. Smith graduated from Kelvin High School in 2004.

Smith enrolled at the University of Manitoba following high school, where he earned his Bachelor of Science. Upon leaving school, he moved to Ottawa, Ontario and accepted a job in federal politics as Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister. He later accepted a job as Director of Strategic Planning for the provincial Conservative party in his home town.

At age 25, Smith moved to Los Angeles to pursue his MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he met his husband Michael. He graduated in 2013 on the Dean’s List of Honor Students.

In the Leather Community

While a regular at leather community events such as the Folsom Street Fair since 2012, Smith did not consider running for a leather title until he was urged by a friend in 2015.

In 2015, Smith competed in a class of 6 contestants and became Eagle LA Mr. Leather. Two months later, he competed against the nine other Los Angeles-area titleholders to become Mr. Los Angeles Leather.

Over the next six weeks, Smith trained for International Mr. Leather with a team including Charlie Matula and Hunter Fox, producers of the Eagle LA Mr. Leather and Mr. LA Leather contests, Mike Gerle, International Mr. Leather 2007, and Lou Romano, former Mr. Oil Can Harry’s Leather and handler to Gerle at IML.

In May 2015, Smith competed among a class of 52 and won the International Mr. Leather title.

International Mr. Leather

Smith traveled over 106,000 miles during his title year, and was gone from Los Angeles for 37 of the 52 weekends.

Smith’s stated mission as IML was to broaden the reach of the leather community beyond its core following. As part of this, he spoke at non-leather related forums including at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, and hosted events such as the official pool party at Gay Days Anaheim.

International Activism

In September 2015, Smith traveled alone to Uganda to meet with gay rights activists, to learn about the experience of sexual minorities in African countries with repressive laws against homosexuality. He followed up his trip with visits to other countries considered hostile to sexual minorities, including Ukraine, Egypt, Morocco and Trinidad and Tobago. Upon the conclusion of his travels, Smith returned home to raise money and awareness for sexual minorities in countries in which they are persecuted.

In March 2016, Smith was featured on the cover of The Fight Magazine under the headline, “They Kill Gays, Don’t They?” He received a certificate of recognition from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, for his “dedicated efforts and untiring advocacy on behalf of disadvantaged LGBT domestic and global communities.”

In his IML step-down speech, Smith announced he would be continuing his international advocacy work with the Harvey Milk Foundation.

Buzzfeed

In May of 2016, Smith was the subject of a Buzzfeed documentary about leather contests. The video was viewed more than 500,000 times within the first week of its release.

The Leatherpedia Project

In April 2017, Smith launched the Leatherpedia Project, which is aimed at digitally memorializing the leather community in an encyclopedic format.

Career and Personal Life

Smith is Director of Business Development for Marvel Entertainment, where he has been employed since 2013. He lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles with his husband Michael Malenitza.

Awards and Honors

Certificate of Recognition – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (2016)

Harvey Milk Civil Rights Award – The San Diego Nicky Awards (2017)

George Wong Person of the Year Award, Southland Honors (2016)

Marcus Hernandez Leather Leadership Award (2016)

IML - 2014

Ramien Pierre

Left to right: IML first runner-up Steve Dupont; International Mr. Leather 2014 Ramien Pierre; International Mr. Bootblack 2014 Scout; and IML second runner-up Cody Troy. Photo by Steve Lenius

The 36th edition of the International Mr. Leather (IML) contest weekend was held May 22-26, 2014, in Chicago. This was the 21st time your humble columnist has attended. In those 21 years I have seen many changes to the event. Yet the basics—masculine men in masculine attire, who also happen to be great guys with noble hearts—have remained the same. No wonder I keep coming back every year. The following is my impressionistic take on the 2014 IML weekend’s events.

Thursday Evening
It’s the unofficial kickoff to the International Mr. Leather weekend: a “roast” of Andy Cross and Oil Tan Sam, the outgoing International Mr. Leather 2013 and International Mr. Bootblack 2013 titleholders. The roast is held in the auditorium of the Leather Archives & Museum.

When the IML first and second runners-up are two of the people doing the roasting, fireworks are almost assured, and the evening does not disappoint. The knives are out and the claws are sharpened. Sacred cows are gored, secrets are betrayed, and canonical leather beliefs are blasphemed.

No one escapes unscathed—the titleholders being roasted, the people on stage doing the roasting, some people in the audience, and even a few people who weren’t even in attendance. But it’s all in good fun and all for a good cause (the event benefits the Leather Archives & Museum). Along with the bitchiness, there is an awful lot of love on that stage.

Friday Evening
All 46 of this year’s contenders for the International Mr. Leather title are introduced at the official IML opening ceremonies. Then it’s time to party. The entire fourth floor of the hotel has been turned into Leather Central for the evening. While a silent auction benefiting the Leather Archives & Museum goes on in the hall, three ballrooms are filled with revelers at the San Francisco Party and Gear Blast. Approaching one of the ballrooms, I’m hit by blasts of both body heat and thumping sound waves.

Inside I see men in unitards, latex, leather aprons, sports gear, plush-headed cartoon costumes, kilts, harnesses, jocks, fatigues, spandex, cowboy gear, superhero suits, adult “boys” and human “pups” on leashes. The tribe is enjoying itself. I see all ages and all body types, and everyone seems to respect everyone else—it’s all good.

The music is not as loud as it has been in years past, so conversation is possible. I meet some men from Minneapolis and ask them if they have been to the Leather Market yet. They reply, “Only for necessities.”

I work my way down to the hotel lobby to see what’s going on there. The elevators are slow and infrequent and crowded with their own kind of (hot and sweaty) fun. The lobby is crowded, too. A table holds printed promotional flyers for vendors and events, but the table is half the size it has been in years past—perhaps more promotion is being done online? Next to the table is a cardboard box the size of a 55-gallon drum, and it is half-filled with condoms. (Tomorrow I will see two men refilling the box to the brim.)

Saturday, Leather Market
I run into a gentleman who is attending IML for the first time, and he is blown away by the size of the Leather Market. “I was expecting maybe a dozen vendors set up in the lobby,” he says. Instead he found a Leather Market filling two hotel ballrooms on the fifth and seventh floors of the host hotel (with an express escalator between the two floors). The Market is filled with 120 vendors selling all manner of leather and fetish goods. There is the expected (leather apparel, boots, paddles) and the unexpected (impressive iron dungeon beds and slings made from truck tires). The Leather Market welcomes 6,000 visitors each day it is open.

Saturday Afternoon
History is made as IML founder and Executive Producer Chuck Renslow officiates at the first legal same-sex wedding ever held at IML.

Sunday
This year’s IML Contest and Show is held at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The 46 contestants are introduced and then, based on preliminary judging, the top 20 finalists are announced. Each of the finalists shows his serious side by making a 90-second speech while dressed in formal leather. Each contestant also shows his playful side by getting a chance to own the stage and seduce the audience while wearing as little leather as possible.

While the judges’ scores are being tallied, the IML audience is entertained by—a string quartet? Yes, but the group, Well Strung, is not just any string quartet. Dressed in leather and displaying impressive physiques, these four classically trained musicians sing four-part boy-band harmonies while accompanying themselves on two violins, a cello, and a viola. The audience absolutely loves them—I even hear many audience members singing along.

At last, the winners are announced. Second runner-up is Cody Troy, Mr. Midwest Leather 2013; first runner-up is Steve Dupont, Mr. New England Leather 2014; and the new International Mr. Leather 2014 is Ramien Pierre, Mr. DC Eagle 2014.

In the theater lobby after the contest, and on the bus back to the hotel, I see people tapping out the news of the contest results on their jungle drums (also known as mobile phones). Once again, the tribe has a new leader for the year. Let the party continue.

IML - 2012

Woody Woodruff

Woody Woodruff is a Chicago-based titleholder and community leader. He is International Mr. Leather 2012.

Early Life and Education

Woodruff was born on June 29, 1979 and grew up in a small town in Michigan on a farm. He spent his early years raising beef cattle, sheep, pigs, and a horse that he rode in local barrel racing competitions from the age of 7 through high school. Woodruff graduated from Beaverton High School, and from Central Michigan University in 2004 with a degree in Spanish, International Relations and Latin American studies.

In the Leather Community

Woodruff had his first leather experience at the Ramrod Bar in Fort Lauderdale during spring break of his senior year of college, where he won their weekly Battle of the Bulge contest.

The first organized leather event Woodruff attended was CLAW 2007. There, he met James Finley, Mr. Detroit Eagle 2008, who welcomed him and encouraged Woodruff to become a leatherman in his example.

As a Titleholder

Woodruff ran for and won his first title in 2010 – Mr. Campit Cub. In 2011 he became Mr. Liberty Leather and in 2012 he became Mr. Michigan Leather, which feeds into the International Mr. Leather contest.

In 2012, Woodruff competed for and won the International Mr. Leather title. During his title year, he traveled over 78,000 miles to 50 events in six countries. He had the pleasure being asked to sing at many of these, as he is an experienced vocalist.

Current Activity

Woodruff has continued his involvement in the leather community by emceeing, producing and singing at various contests. He is the host of the annual IML contestant roundtable at CLAW. Woodruff is a member of the Michigan Band of Brothers, the Chicago Band of Brothers, and Titans of the Midwest. He also works within organizations as an educator on a wide array of topics such as BSDM, alternative relationships, and HIV Awareness.

Personal Life

Woodruff lives in Chicago with his partner and cub, Jim. He is a strong believer in polyamory. Professionally, Woodruff manages hospitality relationships for Groupon.

Awards & Honors

Mr. Wisconsin Leather Community Impact Award 2015
Nominee – Pantheon of Leather Man of the Year 2012
Nominee – Pantheon of Leather Couple of the Year 2012

IML - 2011

Eric Guttierez

IML - 2010

Tyler McCormick

IML 2009

Jeffrey Payne

IML - 2008

Gary Iriza

IML - 2007

Mikel Gerle

IML - 2006

Bo Ladashevska

IML - 2005

Michael Egdes

IML - 2004

Michael Egdes