DALLAS – The International LeatherSir/boy contest announced Sunday that it was dissolving all regional producer contracts and limiting contestants to only contest winners (no appointed) and only cisgendered (born) male contestants, removing transgender men from consideration.
Leatherati quoted ILSb owner Jeffery Payne as saying “For any person who wants to run for International Leather SIR, Leatherboy you must be a bio male in order to run. Even the Transgender Leather Community has an International title now. ILSb used to be bio male only and we will be returning it back to the Drummer days. We are not turning our back on any segment of the community. It is okay for an international title to belong to a gay man. But we welcome everyone to the party as far as the weekend events and so on. As far as the Leather Sir and Leatherboy, it will belong to the gay male community. ICBB will again have no change there because it is a community title that is open to anyone.”
The news on transgender contestants started an immediate firestorm on social media with many objecting to the change of contestants. Community members across the country declared that they would not support ILSb, the second biggest leather title in the country, while the policy on transmen stood. As of Monday evening, the producers of the Northern California LeatherSir/boy contest have said they would no longer hold their contest because of that policy change. Most other producers and current titleholders in the system are so far keeping silent because of the intense reaction to the announcement.
Jeffery Payne announced on his Facebook page that the ILSb board will be meeting on Thursday to revisit the issue. He also said that he had received threats of physical harm because of the policy change and had been called “the Hitler of the Leather Community” and “the Grand Dragon of the Leather Community” among other things. He stated that neither he nor the board would make a statement until the Thursday meeting was completed.
Tyesha Best of Leatherati reported that ILSb had changed its policy in 2007 to include transmen when it moved to San Francisco.
The other big decision has also had reaction. The contracts have been dissolved, but that did not mean that the contest could not be held. That decision means that new contests for self-described regions can be established with the winners going on to International. However, one producer, Vince Andrews for the Florida region, has already said that Florida Leather Weekend will no longer include a LeatherSir/boy contest because of the elimination of contracts.
From Vince Andrew’s Facebook page:
While we understand the concept of their long-term vision, we have disagreement on the integral details. It is unfortunate that a simple instrument like a licensing agreement wasn’t considered to protect the interests of the regional producers and the residents of the regions which are the major investors of the ILSb-ICBB, Inc.
With this in mind, we will not be conducting a Florida LeatherSIR and Leatherboy contest this year. We will continue actively supporting the North Florida and South Florida titleholders in their decisions of whether or not they proceed forward to the International competition. We will entertain the idea of holding Florida LeatherSIR and Leatherboy competitions in the future, should a favorable business agreement come to light.
The news comes at a time of high emotion in the national leather community with the announcement of financial irregularities in the International Ms. Leather contest. Many have been shocked at threats made to Jeffery Payne, but object to ILSb going back to a previous, more restrictive policy.
We’ll have more on the story as information comes in.
