Published in the April 2025 Edition
By Rodney Burger
At a cocktail party at the beginning of 2005, I was asked by good friend and co-owner of the Baltimore OUTLoud newspaper, Jim Williams, if I would be interested in writing a column about Baltimore’s leather community. Knowing that I had produced both the Mr. & Ms. Baltimore Eagle Contest and the Maryland LeatherSIR/ Leatherboy Contest, had been a leather titleholder (Maryland Mr. Drummer 2001), and had been a member of the ShipMates Club of Baltimore since 1997, Jim thought I would be the right person to ask. I didn’t have to think about it. It was one of those questions like: “Can I buy you a drink?” On February 18, 2005 the first Leather Line hit the streets. A new one followed every two weeks. I never missed an issue. Spreading the news about my beloved leather community was too important to me. In 2020, when the pandemic hit, Baltimore OUTLoud kept going with on-line only issues. Although I always preferred to sit down with leather titleholders in person for interviews (I feel like Oprah with I have a Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather titleholder on my sofa), I discovered that Zoom allows me to interview someone in Pittsburgh or DC without the traffic and the long drive. The leather community in the Mid-Atlantic region is second to none. With countless leather contests, leather club events, and new stars rising, I was never without something to write about. Then it all came to a crashing end. With dwindling revenues from advertisers struggling from the pandemic, Baltimore OUTLoud went dark.
Those pandemic years brought lots of changes. Nationwide so many LGBTQ+ bars and businesses, many that I wrote about, went away. Even some leather clubs and organizations that were around for years folded. I’ve always kept my columns upbeat and away from politics, but 2025 brings even more challenges.
If there is one thing I’ve learned in my many years in the community, it is one must embrace change. Otherwise, you become a grumpy old person clinging to the past. As Dionne Warwick once sang, “A fool will lose tomorrow reaching back for yesterday.” Everything changes. Bears, Bikers, and Mayhem has always been held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This year it is at the Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore on May 29th – June 1st. For years International Ms. Leather and International Ms. Bootblack was held in California. On April 24th the contests will be held at the Holiday Inn in Piscataway, New Jersey. Things change. Not all change is bad.
Baltimore OUTLoud may be gone, but thanks to Adam Romanik and Mary Taylor, Maryland OUTLoud has been launched. Plus, like my ShipMates Club, who celebrated fifty years of service in April of 2025, I’m still here. Spring brings rebirth and it is time to start again. Now, where’s my cocktail?