International Mr. Leather [Edit]

 

International Mr. Leather (IML) is an international conference and contest of leathermen held annually in May since 1979 in Chicago, Illinois.

The International Mr. Leather conference is a multi-day and activity event to recognize International Mr. Leather. Shared interest events, such as speakers, socials, themed dance parties and a leather market are part of ways in which the competitors become known to the evaluating committee and enthusiasts, including the BDSM community, can share in the experience.

IML is an international recognized distinction with an informal relationship with how contestants qualify: contestants must either be a winner of a lower level feeder competition of a bar, local or regional leather contest or be sponsored by a leather-related bar, business, club, or organization.

The forerunner of the competition was the 1970s “Mr. Gold Coast” bar contest held at Chicago’s Gold Coast leather bar, owned by Chuck Renslow and his then-partner, Dom Orejudos. The “Mr. Gold Coast” contest became one of the bar’s most popular promotions causing the need to locate the competition to a larger venue (starting in 1979), and title change to International Mr. Leather. The International Mr. Bootblack Competition was added (1993) to the IML program.

In 1993, 1994 and 1995, the Leather Archives & Museum existed as a growing collection and appeared in public only as exhibits at International Mr. Leather (plus a couple of abortive attempts to appear on the road).

In 1995 “Chuck Renslow – IML” (among others) received the International Deaf Leather Recognition Award.

In 1996 International Ms. Leather 1993 and then-International Ms. Leather owner and producer Amy Marie Meek became the first woman to judge International Mr. Leather. It was then and there she got the idea for the International Ms. Bootblack contest.

The Leather Archives & Museum has placed IML in a trust (May 2009) with event profits to benefit the museum. The museum also holds the records of IML.

In 2010 IML was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

IML Contest

Preliminary round

Contest finalists are selected following:

1. A preliminary interview with each of the nine judges, up to 8 minutes in length, are held in private (60% of the preliminary score).
2. Stage presence and personality at a Saturday “Pecs and Personality” event (40% of the preliminary score).

The judge’s highest and lowest scores for each contestant in each criteria are dropped, and the contestant’s remaining seven scores are tallied to determine the 20 contestants with the highest combined scores to proceed as finalists at the Sunday IML contest event. The only time that the dropped scores are included in the tally is when there is a tie for the 20th place; the contestants in question have their dropped scores included in the tally but if the stalemate continues then each of the nine judges must vote for only one of the two contestants. Preliminary judging scores are not carried forward. There are also two tally masters.

Final round

Each of the 20 finalists is judged at the Sunday IML contest on a scale from 0 to 100 in the following order:

1. Leather image (up to 40 points).
2. Presentation skills that include a contestant speech (up to 40 points).
3. Physical appearance (up to 20 points).

The highest and lowest scores for each finalist are dropped, the remaining seven scores are added together, and the top three scores designate the second runner-up, first runner-up, and winner, International Mr. Leather. A tie for the title is resolved by adding to the tally the dropped scores of the two contestants; if the stalemate continues then each of the nine judges must vote for only one of the contestants in question.

IML Winners

Year	Winner	Title	City/State/Country
1979	David Kloss	Mr. Leather Brig	San Francisco, CA
1980	Patrick Brooks	Mr. Leather Australia	Sydney, NSW, Australia
1981	Marty Kiker	(sponsored)	San Francisco, CA
1982	Luke Daniel	Mr. Drummer	San Francisco, CA
1983	Coulter Thomas	Mr. Texas Leather	Houston, TX
1984	Ron Moore (the first black International Mr. Leather. His sister Genelle Moore was International Ms. Leather 1997, making them the first siblings to hold international leather titles.)	Mr. Leather Colorado	Denver, CO
1985	Patrick Toner	Mr. Chaps San Francisco	San Francisco, CA
1986	Scott Tucker	Mr. Philadelphia Leather	Philadelphia, PA
1987	Thomas Karasch	Mr. Leather Europe	Hamburg, Germany
1988	Michael Pereyra	Mr. Leather San Diego	San Diego, CA
1989	Guy Baldwin	Mr. NLA	Los Angeles, CA
1990	Mark Ryan	Mr. Boston Leather	Boston, MA
1991	D Cannon	Mr CC Palm Springs	Hollywood, CA
1992	Lenny Broberg	Mr. San Francisco Leather	San Francisco, CA
1993	Henri ten Have	(sponsored)	Amsterdam, Holland
1994	Jeff Tucker	Mr. San Jose Leather	San Jose, CA
1995	Larry Everett	Mr. Oklahoma Leather	Collinsville, OK
1996	Joe Gallagher	Mr. Leather New York	New York, NY
1997	Kevin Cwayna	Mr. Minnesota Leather	Minneapolis, MN
1998	Tony Mills	Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather	Washington, DC
1999	Bruce Chopnik	Mr. Rocky Mountain Leather	Denver, CO
2000	Mike Taylor	Mr. Heartland Leather	Cincinnati, OH
2001	Stefan Mueller	Bavarian Mr. Leather	Munich, Germany
2002	Stephen Weber	Mr. Texas Leather	Dallas, TX
2003	John Pendal	Mr. Hoist	London, United Kingdom
2004	Jason Hendrix	Mr. DC Eagle	Washington, DC
2005	Michael Egdes	Mr. Ramrod	Ft Lauderdale, FL
2006	Bo Ladashevska	Mr. Leather Montreal	Montreal, Canada
2007	Mikel Gerle	Mr. Los Angeles Leather	Los Angeles, CA
2008	Gary Iriza	Mr. Palm Springs Leather	Palm Springs, CA
2009	Jeffrey Payne	Mr. Texas Leather	Dallas, TX
2010	Tyler McCormick (the first openly transgender International Mr. Leather, and the first wheelchair user to be International Mr. Leather)	Mr. Rio Grande Leather	Albuquerque, NM
2011	Eric Guttierez	Mr. Leather Europe	Paris, France
2012	Woody Woodruff	Mr. Michigan Leather	Waterford, MI
2013	Andy Cross	Mr. San Francisco Leather	San Francisco, CA
2014	Ramien Pierre	Mr. DC Eagle	Washington, DC
2015	Patrick Smith	Mr. Los Angeles Leather	Los Angeles, CA
2016	David “Tigger” Bailey	Mr. New Jersey Leather	Howell, NJ
2017	Ralph Bruneau	Mr. GNI Leather	Los Angeles, CA
2018	James Lee	Mr. Kentucky Leather	Lexington, KY
2019	Jack Thompson (the first openly transgender man of color – Thompson was black – to be International Mr. Leather)	Leatherman Of Color 2019	Baltimore, MD

See Also

Title Contests
Tallymaster