![male hide leathers gay bar chicago male hide leathers gay bar chicago](https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/H66d210c4fa694c01ad2325b533900400p/201679457/H66d210c4fa694c01ad2325b533900400p.jpg)
But instead of Miss Rhubarb taking home a trophy for her cobbler, a leatherman will be awarded a the sash as International Mr.
![male hide leathers gay bar chicago male hide leathers gay bar chicago](https://www.advocate.com/sites/advocate.com/files/styles/vertical_gallery_desktop_1x/public/2017/11/07/04-dos-and-donts-gay-leather-bar.jpg)
“It takes a hotel and turns it into a leather bar for the weekend,” says writer Dan Savage, a frequent attendee.Įvery year, IML concludes with a pageant to select the men and women best suited to represent the community, with titles reminiscent of Midwestern agricultural festivals.
![male hide leathers gay bar chicago male hide leathers gay bar chicago](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/BOoAAOSw8L5cAnV1/s-l300.jpg)
#Male hide leathers gay bar chicago full
What began as a humble bar party at Chicago’s Gold Coast in 1979 – a celebration of animal-hide uniforms over muscular male physiques – has grown to fill the downtown hotel with thousands of fetishists, allowing organizers to expand their offerings from a simple social gathering to a full multi-day convention. It’s a fundamental shift in the boundaries and values of the community – a shift that, depending on whom you ask, may disintegrate the community, or may be necessary for it to go on. But in recent years, the leather scene has experienced a rapid expansion, testing its elasticity as it stretches further than ever before. So it has always been, as in so many subcultures: A cascade of generations, each one rippling from young into old. For decades, the old guard has grumbled about the new guard, until the youngsters age into old-timers who roll their eyes at yet another wave of newcomers. There’s always been a tension in the leather community between the “old guard” and “new guard.” One has always been more conservative and devoted to tradition the other more experimental and open to change. In the world of unusual tastes, IML has functioned for decades as a sort of annual conclave. And then, nestled inside of leather, are smaller stripes like pups, hypnotists, foot fetishists, floggers, superheroes and kinks yet to be named. While the broader LGBT community encompasses everything from lesbian bookstores to the occasional gay Republican, the leather tribe inhabits a few narrow bands of that spectrum. The leather enthusiasts who convene at IML inhabit a mid-point between subcultures. In the hotel lobby, attendees mingled with giant phallic balloon interpretations of the blue and black leather pride flag, drifting through the colorful inflated tubes like fish in the tentacles of sea anemones.