Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 10:15:02 -0700 From: Eros Publishing Subject: Letter to the editor Howdy guys, gals and in between! Has been quite a long time since you've read something or anything from Seattle Mr. Leather, so here it is. Along with the sash, come some "protocol" commitments. One was Tim and Coco's coronation ball with all the glitter and pomp an event and friends like them deserve. Also, there was the participation as a judge for the Gay Latino Pageant, where our brothers and sisters from the Latino community get together to elect their ambassador to the rest of our diverse gay community. Talking about diversity, it comes to my mind that sometimes we take that concept for granted as well as the concept of community. None of those two terms says anything about sexuality, color, background, size or age. At times we have a tendency to differentiate amongst our peers. We also not only recognize our differences, but we start pointing fingers at one another. We fail to recognize that after all we could be happier, if we let people be people, different and all, and just love them (or tolerate them in the least of the cases) for who and what they are. In our leather/s&m/b&d/fetish world, we know as a fact that we are in some ways "different" or "particular" about our sexual preferences. We are proud to be loudly vocal about it. It doesn't mean we all like to be involved in this or that game or play. It is not by default that we like to drink out of the same glass. We constantly need to remind ourselves about that and that we can co-exist with one another, that we, yes indeed, are diverse and have our own diverse comunity where we like to be different and we are proud of it. Vince Edd, WA State Mr. Leather 1997, welcome to our diverse community and congratulations once again. Yours Truly, Martin Seattle Mr. Leather Diversity in Leather