It’s hard to imagine there are any non-yuppified streets in Manhattan anymore, but West 13th Street is now home to the Highline-straddling Standard Hotel, which means the Meatpacking District has standards, people. Not wanting to upset hotel guests with the West Village Leather and Bear Street Fair October parade of leather daddies and bull whips, the Standard took its opposition to the annual event to the mayor’s office, which happily complied.
Meaning: Bears and cubs have to move somewhere else. With six weeks to go, The Villager reports there’s still no home for the event which bills itself as an educational opportunity to teach BDSM aficionados proper rope-tying and spanking techniques.
A series of events all the more ironic, since the Standard Hotel has been lapping up the free press from its carefully orchestrated exhibitionist advocacy. Naked people: Good. Leather-clad almost naked people: Bad.
Fitz
It is so hard for me to not laugh derisively in the direction of someone who says that they deserve equal rights and then dons a hood and slave harness.
ggreen
Hey NYC just vote Bloomberg mayor for life.
Darrien
@Fitz: So straight people in BDSM clubs don’t deserve equal rights either?
terrwill
WTF? The Standard the one who advocates hetros fuck in front of the floor to ceiling windows in front of Highline visitors including families and kids? But yet they have a problem with Homos on the streets????? Thanks for nothing mayor Boobooberg!
MoHoTo
How about hosting it at the old Gotti place up in Jersey?
Fitz
@Darrien: Nope- not a bit. If you don’t think you are a full human, then i ain’t gunna bother thinking you are a full human.
alan brickman
I guess we’re not staying at the Standard now…
alan brickman
double standards definately, lots of straights wear leather too!!..
Fitz
@alan brickman: And I feel the same for them.
hyhybt
@Fitz: I’m missing something here… who, exactly, doesn’t think who is fully human, and why not?
schlukitz
@Fitz:
It is so hard for me to not laugh derisively in the direction of someone who says that they deserve equal rights and then dons a hood and slave harness.
Do you not hear yourself sounding just as ridiculous as the fundamentalists who deride gays? Do you really think they would approve of you as a “normal” homo, just because you look down your nose at certain members of your own peer group?
I hate disturb your reverie, but the same people who decry bdsm and leather daddies, hate your queer ass just as much even if you are wearing tulle and Peau de Sois pumps.
alan brickman
Fitz is too fat and jealous to wear leather…and that is an accomplishment in itself…
newport
I am so tired of these boring crazy yuppie “white” people taking over shit.
z
Fuck The Standard (and fuck Bloomberg for backing them). It’s a hideous structure, and adds nothing but further pretension and artifice to an already annoying neighborhood. The neighborhood, I might add, used to be one where yuppy scum like The Standard’s guests would never have ventured to 15 years ago, but boys in leather would have been perfectly at home.
schlukitz
@newport:
That makes two of us.
And notice, that they do not decide to take over until we have “Fluffed” it up for them. Only then, do they want to move in.
When it was a shit-hole, they couldn’t be bothered. LOL
jason
If men want to dress in leather, that’s fine with me. However, it must be stated that leather in itself is not gay. Leather doesn’t have a sexual orientation. Men who dress in leather and seek sex with other men dressed in leather are engaging in a fetish. It’s a fetish, pure and simple.
The thing that irks me is when men dressed in leather are promoted as somehow being representative of the gay community. Honey, you’re representative of a selfish fetish, and not a community.
Jeton Ademaj
Having no interest in the time commitment, elaboration or expense of leatherwear, I still find the assimilationist hostility toward the leather community laughable. Jason and Fitz are an old commodity in the gay community…no different than the gays that rant about drag queens, hiv+ people and everyone else they feel makes them look bad. Spineless, self-hating pussies…freaked out by Queer Freaks but always willing to partake of the rights Queer Freaks tend to establish. Bougie homos usually get little done anyway…their opinions exist for public derision from all sides, because (of course) they’re still every bit as queer as the rest of us. They tend to get politically paralyzed by the need for external validation.
As for the Standard, fight fire with fire…someone should videotape guests at the Standard having window-wide sex, and *press* a complaint with the Manhattan DA about it.
schlukitz
@jason:
You know, you really don’t have a clue as to what the fuck you are talking about.
Obviously you have never been to Germany, where it common practice for men to wear lederhosen as street wear and especially when performing the traditional “shoe-plattle”.
You must be looking the other direction while leather jackets, coats, dresses, skirts and footwear are being worn by both sexes as fashionable street wear in all parts of the world.
Handmade Dehner boots and other equestrian wear are apparently unfamiliar to you.
Guess there are no motorcyclists in your little part of the world either. Otherwise, you would have noted that cyclists often specially padded leather jackets and pants and motorcycle boots for protection in case of a spill.
Forget about the fact that almost all shoes and boots are made from leather, as they have been for centuries.
And, of course, you probably haven’t been around long enough to have ever seen a picture of the village smithy wearing a leather apron as protection while plying his trade, have you?
Yes, and many people do enjoy wearing leather (or latex) as a fetish and even enjoy doing so in their bedroom scenes. You say it like it is a bad thing. FYI, it’s called leathersex. Let’s hear you huff and puf, moralize and pontificate on that “evil” too which is making all gay people look bad. *Sarcasm font on*
You obviously have as much of a hang-up about leather, as many str8 people do with gay-sex.
In the immortal words of Joan Rivers – “Oh grow up”
Closet much, do you?
Charles Merrill
@jason: Well said Jason. I have a feeling Schulukitz is a Nazi admirer stuck in a Tom of Finland fantasy. Some of Tom of Finland drawings have the swastika and leather boots of the SS. That alone would put me off leather.
The APD is mostly made up of black law enforcement officers, so I am rather suspicious that racial resentment exists from the white clients and owners of the Eagle. The protest was all white, not one black gay man in the crowd.
Chitown Kev
@Charles Merrill:
OK, and you know what.
the fact that one of those APD officiers would even fix their mouth to say that that raid was more fun then raiding “niggers on crack” makes your note about the racial composition of the APD even more disturbing to me, quite frankly.
Chitown Kev
@Jeton Ademaj:
Amen!
Charles Merrill
@Chitown Kev: Are you assuming that officer was white that used the “N” word ? Black people use it all the time the same as we using the “Q” word. I am not against sexual fetish, leather, rubber, or smelling dirty underwear, just don’t assume the L in LGBT stands for leather. It’s a fetish not LGBT identified but universal.
Chitown Kev
@Charles Merrill:
I’m not assuming that at all, I would not be surprised if a black police officier said something like that, Charles. I am the son of a parent who worked for the Detroit Police Department. I’ve been around cops of all races. Police Officier tend to talk very rough and given that conducting a raid like this would cause their aderenline to rise, I would not be surprised at all. during such a raid And just because a black police officier may have used that word doesn’t mean that I would find it acceptable. I got a black woman suspended from work who used the n-word on me during the course of a highly charged disagreement that we had.
Chitown Kev
@Charles Merrill:
Forgive my typos in #23.
And you never know Charles, that racial resentment could work both ways.
Charles Merrill
@Chitown Kev: That’s interesting. If another bisexual, or GLT called me a “queer”, not sure I would be offended. Depends on what kind of shit went on before.
Chitown Kev
@Charles Merrill:
Queer i could deal with because I know of the movement to reclaim the word, although I am also aware that it was an insult for the longest time. Now “fag”…you have to know me really, really well for a very long time before you get to do that and there is noone in my circles like that at the present time.
rudy
Sounds like the hotel preferred catering to the Rachel Ray crowd.
Well, the bears could always hop aboard Amtrak and be part of the Cleve Jones march. Isn’t it the same weekend?
http://www.nycwineandfoodfestival.com/2009/events.php
schlukitz
Well, I see that Mr. Merrill is up to what he does best;
Character assassination.
I have a feeling Schulukitz is a Nazi admirer stuck in a Tom of Finland fantasy.
Mr. Merrill does not know me, of course, but I am sure that he is sure of what he speaks with assuredness.
Some of Tom of Finland drawings have the swastika and leather boots of the SS.
This “supports” Mr. Merrill’s first “feeling”.
That alone would put me off leather.
And this “supports” his “feeling” and his condemnation of Tom of Finland’s artwork.
Open and shut, iron-clad case! Oh, did I mention that Mr. Merrill himself is a self-professed artist?
The APD is mostly made up of black law enforcement officers
This is a disingenuous statement designed to try to make us believe that the APD is pretty much all black. Actually, that is not quite true.
Breakdown of the makeup of the rank and file of APD [1]: (Source: Wikipedia)
* Male: 83%
* Female: 17%
* African-American/Black: 57%
* Caucasian/White: 41%
* Hispanic: 1%
* Asian: 1%
I am rather suspicious that racial resentment exists from the white clients and owners of the Eagle.
Another one of Mr. Merrill’s “feelings” that he would like to have us believe is fact.
The protest was all white, not one black gay man in the crowd.
As usual, no sourcing or documentation has been made available to us. All we have is his word.
or smelling dirty underwear
Never one to miss a golden opportunity to take a swipe at the Leather community, Mr. Merrill favors us with another of his picturesque commentaries to drive home the fact that does not approve of the Leather community, nor does he think that these “sleazy” perverts should be included in the struggle for LGBT civil rights.
While he bestows the title of “gay activist” upon himself, truth be known, Mr. Merrill has made no bones of the fact, that he feels superior to the Leather community and that they are an embarrassment to him.
Frankly speaking, it is Mr. Merrill himself, who is an embarrassment to the LGBT community.
Charles Merrill
@schlukitz: You twist my words around to make it seem like I am against the leather community. I am not. I just don’t understand where a fetish for leather fits in with LGBT civil rights anymore than a fetish for fur. The civil rights I am talking about is being fought now in Congress, ENDA, DOMA and DADT. You don’t understand me, and because I questioned whether sex was happening in the backroom of the Eagle because of the reviews from past patrons and neighborhood complaints, you jumped to conclusions that I hated men who wear leather. In my message about the guy who feared being gangbanged, I had not followed the link that further explained the patrons remark. I had only read the headlines.
I have seen Tom of Finland art with boots and SS symbols. I didn’t say you were a Nazi. I said I had a feeling because of your posts of German footwear. I don’t think the leather community should change or tone down, and I prefer there community over the rigid LGBT religious community trying to act like Martin Luther King leading the LGBT community to the mountain top. We are all LGBT’s, and not defined by the likes or dislikes of one group.