Leather Line - Is The Party Over?

Published in the April-June 2026 Edition
By Rodney Burger

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with social media. Although I really enjoy keeping in touch with friends who live far away, there is also the negative side. I like to use social media to post positive pictures of events and to promote and inform my friends about things that are coming up soon. Others take a more pessimistic approach and like to tear down places and people. Much like an accident on the side of the road, those posts get lots of views.

Call me a Pollyanna, but I try to keep my spirits up. (It is not easy in the times in which we are living.) I prefer to limit my drama to Netflix. Social media is very addictive and every few days I try to take a break and not look at it. It isn’t easy and it never fails that someone will text me and say, “Did you see what so-and-so posted?” It is an endless struggle.

This daily attack on our sanity that is social media has created a growing nostalgia for simpler times. I recently discovered a Facebook page called GayBarchives. It is filled with pictures and stories of the so-called good ol’ days before apps, cell phones, and computers. It was a time when cities were not only filled with LGBT bars, but they were packed every night. When I moved to Baltimore in 1984, I experienced this. Although it is fun to look back, I don’t want to live in the past. I hate it when I hear people say that they don’t go out anymore because there is no place to go or because some old bar or club is no longer around. How depressing to think that the party is over. Newsflash: It isn’t.

At the recent Miss Leon’s pageant at Leon’s bar in Baltimore, Sorority Heights was crowned Miss Leon’s 2026 during on of the best shows I’ve seen in years. Plus, the bar was jam-packed for the three-hour extravaganza. I was there will some of my fellow members of the ShipMates leather club and we had a blast. At the same time other ShipMates were in New York attending the sold-out Mr. Fire Island Leathe contest where Ser Harold was sashed Mr. Fire Island Leather 2026. Is the party over?

January’s Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend in DC was sold-out six months in advance. MAL 2027 will be held on January 15^th – 18^th, 2027 and after that MAL will move from the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill to a larger location. Is the party over?

Instead of complaining about what we have lost, why don’t we support the many LGBT business that are still around? Those who haven’t been out in awhile may be surprised that many places are still busy and lots of fun. Are the good ol’ days over? They needed be. Let’s stop tearing each other down on social media and go out and enjoy ourselves. The party isn’t over! In fact, I’ll have another beer.