INDIANAPOLIS, IN – This past weekend I had the pleasure to attend and cover the Great Lakes Leather Alliance Weekend. The weekend featured a number of events and parties including seven title contests. This year I have decided to write two articles on the weekend, the first focusing on the contests themselves and the second focusing on the rest of the weekend. This would be the first article in the series and the second article in this series will release early next week.
Great Lakes Leatherboy 2016, boy Woody & Great Lakes LeatherSIR, Ivan Nunez.
The titles competed for at GLLA include the Great Lakes BootBlack title, the Great Lakes LeatherSIR title, Great Lakes Leatherboy title, Great Lakes Ms Leather Pride title, Great Lakes Master/slave title, & new this year the Great Lakes Puppy & Trainer titles. The contest takes place over both Friday & Saturday evening.
This year’s contestants for the Great Lakes Bootblack Title included: Illinois Community Bootblack 2015, Sparkie; Bluegrass Leather Pride Bootblack 2015, Meghan; Michigan Community Bootblack 2015, Elisa; & Ohio Bootblack 2015, Chrissi.
Competing this year for the Great Lakes LeatherSIR title: Minnesota LeatherSIR 2015, Ivan Nunez; & Ohio LeatherSIR 2015, Sir Warren Stauffer.
Competing for the Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride title this year were: Ms. Indiana Leather Pride 2015, Rhee; Ms. Bluegrass Leather Pride 2015, Ms. Mory; Ms. Michigan Leather Pride 2015, Megan; Ms. Minnesota Leather Pride 2015, Aurora Lee; Missouri Ms. Leather 2015, slave nanon; & Miss Ohio Leather 2015, D’Lyla Rose.
Contestants for the Great Lakes Leatherboy title this year included: Indiana Leather boy 2015, boy scott; Michigan Leatherboy 2015, boy bradley; Minnesota Leatherboy 2015, boy Woody; & Ohio Leatherboy 2015, boy morgan.
Great Lakes Master/slave contestants this year included Illinois Master/slave 2014-15, Master Jon & slave amendah and Missouri Master/slave 2015, Master Saladin & slave Sadia.
Competing for Great Lakes Trainer was Michigan Native Bellum & Illinois Native Daddy John.
Great Lakes Puppy 2016, Pup Rococo & Great Lakes Trainer 2016, Daddy John.
Those competing for Great Lakes Puppy title were Illinois Leather Puppy 2015, Pup Rococo; International Best in Show 2014, Pup Scout; & Co-Holder of Illinois Leather Pup 2015, Pup Axel.
The contests started on Friday evening with Emcees, Gabrielle & Randall Kinnear. They informed the audience that this year there was a record number of contestants & of the addition of the Pup & Trainer titles.
During this first night of the contest we seen the Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride contestants perform their fantasies, Introductions from the Master/slave contestants, and speeches from the Great Lakes LeatherSIR, Great Lakes Leatherboy, & Great Lakes Bootblack contestants.
Time was taken to remember the Leather Men & Leather Women who came before us and are no longer with us with the “We Remember” reading. This year it was particularly emotional with the news of the passing of Sir Bear just the day before. Without a dry eye in the house, the moment of silence ended and the contest continued.
During the second half of Friday’s part of the contest we seen the Great Lakes LeatherSIR & Great Lakes Leatherboy contestants show off their physiques while sporting their jocks. This was then followed by the Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride contestants answering their pop questions. Friday night’s contest finished up with a portion dedicated to the Great Lakes Pup & Trainer contestants for them to complete their routines.
Great Lakes Bootblack 2015, Meghan.
There was an entire day of fun things to do (that will be highlighted in our next article) before Saturday evening when the second half of the contest was to take place. Some of what took place during the day on Saturday included contestant interviews and the bootblack skill portion of the contest. The GLLA contests are really a weekend long commitment by those competing. In this journalists opinion, win or lose the amount of hard work and time put in by the contestants is reason enough to be proud of them.
The Saturday evening portion of the contest started with the Great Lakes Pup & Trainer contestants giving their speeches. The Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride contestants also gave their speeches on Saturday evening. The LeatherSIR & Leatherboy contestants both performed their fantasies on Saturday evening. The highlight of these fantasies for me was Mr. Michigan Leathers surprise participation in boy bradley’s fantasy. The Master/slave contestants then took stage for their pop questions.
While scores were tallied, the outgoing titleholders gave their step down speeches. Step down speeches were given by Great Lakes slave 2014, arcane; Great Lakes Master 2014, Ms. Brenda; Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride 2014, riches; Great Lakes Bootblack, Marta; Great Lakes LeatherSIR 2015, Sir Jim; & Great Lakes Leatherboy 2015, boy tim.
The step down speeches were followed by the announcement & decoration of this year’s contest winners:
- Great Lakes Trainer First Runner Up, Bellum & Great Lakes Trainer 2016, Daddy John.
- Great Lakes Pup First Runner Up, Pup Scout & Great Lakes Pup 2016, Pup Rococo.
- Great Lakes Bootblack First Runner Up, Elisa & Great Lakes Bootblack 2015, Meghan.
- Great Lakes Master/slave 2015, Master Jon & slave amendah.
- Great Lakes LeatherSIR First Runner Up, Sir Warren Stauffer & Great Lakes LeatherSIR 2016, Sir Ivan Nunez.
- Great Lakes Leatherboy First Runner Up, boy bradley & Great Lakes Leatherboy 2016, boy Woody.
- Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride First Runner Up, Megan & Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride, Aurora Lee.
Great Lakes Master 2015, Master Jon & Great Lakes slave 2015, slave amendah.
A lot of work goes into putting on a contest of this level, so I am going to take this time to mention those who have given their time to help make this contest possible.
This year’s Tally Staff included: Boot Black Tally Master, Tony Mayes; Leather Sir/boy & Ms Leather Pride Tally Sir, Sir Jim; Leather Sir/boy & Ms. Leather Pride Tally boy, boy Tim; Master/slave Tally Master, Ms Brenda; Master/slave Tally slave, arcane; and Puppy/Trainer Tally Master, slave george.
The Judges Support Staff this year included: Judges’ Boy, boy jim; Judges’ Sir, Sir Rob; and Bootblack Judges’ Wrangler, Jen Law.
The Bootblack Judges this year were: International Ms. Bootblack 2014, Dara Bryant; International Ms. Bootblack 2010, Jayson DaBoi; Mr. TriState Leather 2014, Brian “Pup Bolt” Donner; Great Lakes Bootblack 2013, Kai; International Ms. Bootblack 2015, slave tabitha; Ms. Texas Leather 2014, Summer Rae Banks.
This year’s Sir/boy & Ms. Leather Pride Judges included: Mr. Tri-State Leather 2013, Dennis Wood; Pantheon of Leather Lifetime Achievement Award & Leather Leadership Award winner, Mark Frazier; International Ms. Leather 2015, Sarge; International Master 2001, Master Jim; International Leather Sir 2014, Sir Mark; Mr. Wisconsin Leather 2014, TC Hammond; & International Mr. Transgender Leather 2014, Sir Dee.
Great Lakes Ms Leather Pride, Aurora Lee.
The Puppy/Trainer Judges for this year were: International Leather boy 2014, boy paul; production staff member for International Puppy And Trainer contest, Pup Rocko; host of “House of MNSN” radio show, Master Noel Leboeuf; International Mr. Olympus Leather 2011, Master Tallen; Great Lakes Leather boy 2011, Pup Snuggles; Illinois Leather Sir 2012/2014, Sir Justin; and Eastern Canada Leather Sir 2010, Sir Marc Poisson.
This year’s Master/slave Judges were: International slave 2014, Angie; founder of the Red Lions, Joseph; the Director Emeritus of MAsT, Master Alex; Southwest Master 2008, Master Malik; International Master 2006, Mistress Susan, webmaster for MAsT Indianapolis, Scott; and a charter member of the Knights of Leather, vicki.
GLLA Den Staff this year consisted of: Den Daddy, Russ Coulter; Den Mother, Lynn; Den boy, boy jonathan; Bootblack Den Daddy, Daddy Kevin; and Puppy/Trainer Den Pup, Pup gungnir.
The ASL Interpreter for GLLA is the Great Lakes Bootblack 2011, Gabriel.
GLLA couldn’t happen without their Board of Directors. This amazing group of people makes the contest and the weekend as a whole impossible. Executive Director, Ms. Kendra; Asst. Executive Director, slave garrett; Board Advisor, Eddy Bowers; Bootblack Director, Riley; Dungeon Director, Jules; Health & Hospitality Director, Ms Tammy; and Publications Director, boy brent; Event Security Director, Master Eric; Show Director, Carlos; Special Events Director, Mistress Constance; Tech Support Director, Larry; Vending Director, Tom Sizemore; and Workshop Director, Sir G.
As you can see GLLA Weekend takes a lot of hard work from many people to be able to present such a large and enjoyable event. I am thankful for the opportunity not only to attend but to cover this year’s Great Lakes Leather Alliance Weekend for the Great Lakes Den & highly recommend the GLLA Weekend to anyone who enjoys Leather Contests, or just fun filled time with other like minded Leather Folks.
