Front row: Pup Dodger (W, Pup), boy kaz (W, boy), boy bolt, boy mike, bot matt. Second row: Aazura, Duckie, Angie (W. Ms.), Megan, Sir Mitch (W, Sir), Sir Kel, Sir Roman, Sir Shadi, Elisa (W, Bootblack), Kiltgrrl, Master Doug/slave lori (W, M/s). Third row: Sir Tim/slave sarah, Vick, slave nanon, Sir Krzysztof. (Photo by Pandora Productions)
Sir Travis and Gwendolyn in the “Rough Body Play as Edgeplay” class. (Photo by Brett Peugh)
INDIANAPOLIS –Last weekend saw the 15th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Leather Alliance (GLLA).
The event started off Thursday night with Ms. Kendra talking about her life, journey and the beginnings of GLLA with her parents in the audience at a fireside chat. She ended the program with some questions from the facilitator.
Friday began with a choice of 17 different classes while various interviews, presentations, and bootblacking trials were being done for the contest. At noon was the vendor fair and the silent auction that ran throughout the weekend. The Puppies had a mosh pit at noon and the Bootblacks had an ice cream social fundraiser starting at 3pm. The Het/Pan playspaces opened at 8pm with the men’s and women’s spaces opening at 9pm.
The first night of the contest started at 8pm. There were 22 contestants in this year’s contests. If you are reading this you mostly likely have been to a contest and know all about the speeches, interviews, fantasies, questions and general shenanigans and have probably seen some of this contest’s floating moments around so I will not do the detailed description.
Ms. Kendra at her Fireside Chat. (Photo by Pandora Productions)
At the end, Riley announced they were resigning from the Bootblack Director position. The night ended with drag queens preforming and the tips going to the GLLA fund.
Saturday started at 9am with the Bootblack Technical Shine. Fourteen classes followed at 9:30am at three different times. During the classes the judging, interviews and presentations continued. There was an auction and cookout that started at 11am poolside sponsored by Great Lakes Puppy/Trainer with burgers, hot dogs and fries provided. At the same time, Step-UP did HIV and STD testing.
Tri-State Contest Weekend had a cocktail party at noon in the hospitality suite. Apparently Mark Frasier auctioned himself off to do nude wresting with the winner and this happened during his class later in the afternoon. I hear two women won the bid so I have no idea what happened in there but I could hear it through the wall. A well-represented puppy pool party started at 2pm. The bootblacks also did another ice cream social at 2pm and there was supposed to be some sort of cocktail hour also but somehow it seems the two got combined to no one’s dismay.
The final night of the contest started at 8pm. The winners for 2016 are Angie of Minnesota for Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride, Elisa of Michigan for Great Lakes Bootblack, boy kaz of Ohio for Great Lakes Leatherboy, Sir Mitch of Michigan for Great Lakes LeatherSir, Master Doug and slave lori of Kentucky for Great Lakes Master/slave and Pup Dodger of Michigan for Great Lakes Puppy.
“Honestly at this point I’m still in shock that I am the new Great Lakes Puppy,” said Dodger. “It feels amazing though. I am very honored to have been given this opportunity and hope to do my community proud.”
“We hope that we will comport ourselves in such a way that will make y’all proud,” said Doug and lori later. “We hope to be able to present the ideas that M/s can be taken seriously and still be fun and hot.”
The brunch was held Sunday. It was announced that there were 518 attendees from 26 different states. Over $12,000 was raised for the titleholder’s travel fund. Five recipients were honored with earned pieces of leather after their accomplishments were read by their sponsors. Bob Miller of CLAW gave the keynote speech titled “A 2016 Primer on LGBTQ Civil Rights and Sexual Freedom.” Bob Miller and CLAW also gave each contestant a CLAW 2017 package. The event ended with a Thank You to everyone from Ms. Kendra.
The GLLA Board had this to say, “GLLA 2016 had the most successful event ever this year. With over 500 attendees and three sold out hotels, GLLA 2016 was the best 15th anniversary we could have hoped for. There were 22 contestants competing. Our future looks very bright and we hope to make GLLA 2017 even better. The Board of Directors and Coordinators have already begun working on GLLA 2017.”
Next up, Tri-State Weekend 2016.
