Before there was L'boNE, there was a previous club called the New England boys of Leather. From what I've been told, they had their start in 2002 by a guy named Kip Davidson. I'm told it ran for a year before Kip moved away to the DC area. Their website is actually still up and running, at http://www.sailing.iwarp.com/nebl/nebl.html. They had a set of club colors, which looked like this:
A short time later, a few members of the Bay State Marauders discussed the idea of restarting the New England boys of Leather. I am told that Alex Bettencourt wanted to do this, and actually reached out to Kip, who said to "run with it". There was allegedly one meeting at Diesel in Boston, which had a large turnout. Unfortunately, this incarnation went cold pretty quicky, and all sat quiet until the 2009 timeframe. Thank you to Scott Erickson for providing historical notes for this section of this post.
Anybody who was aware of Leatherboy clubs back in the mid-to-late 2000's would have known about the DC boys of Leather. Founded in 1999, they were the world's first boys club. I was fortunate enough to meet one of their members online by the name of boy Eddie, at a time when I needed to reach out to others who were like me, as I worked out my identity as a leather boy. I had wished there was a resource like this for boys in my own back yard, and wondered what it would take to make it come to reality.
I had met a guy by the name of Christopher Lambing on New Years Eve of 2008/2009. A mutual friend by the name of Daddy Mike Deely had invited him down from Boston to the Northeast Ursamen's "Neumen New Year" bash. I am not sure exactly when Christopher and I began chatting about the need for a leatherboy club in New England, but by September 2009, we were deeply engaged in conversations about it. I was the President of the Northeast Ursamen at the time, and in no way had the bandwidth to start another club, but I certainly had (and used) my ability to network and talk it up. Christopher and I saw each other again at the Ursamen's "Bear Night" at the Alley in Boston on September 26, 2009. We talked a lot about it over brunch the next morning. I learned he had been actively involved with the Kansas City boys of Leather, so I knew this would be the guy to take the lead on a New England-area boy's club. By mid-October, I was posting about it on Facebook to drum up support for it, and Christopher had already put together his first meeting agenda and draft club colors:
We arranged to have our first meeting at Frank's Place in New London on Saturday, November 14,2009. We held it on the same night as the Ursamen's "Big Bear Baskets" but several hours earlier. Scott Erckson and his partner Thom came down from Boston to lend support & assistance. Also present were myself, my partner Matt (who identified as a boy at that time), boy Scott Logan, and Christopher. Joe Mannetti, a big time activist and fund raiser, popped in later in a show of support. Here are a few snapshots from that evening:
The guys joined us later for dinner with the rest of the Ursamen at a local restaurant afterwards.
Christopher's vision at this time was to create a group of self-identified leather boys, where education, community service, and socializing would all play a part. Scott Erickson had put Christopher in toch with Alex Bettencourt to ensure she was done with her version of the NEboL, which she was, and she gave the ok for Christopher to move forward. Scott Erickson also provided Christopher with a large body of documentation to help get us started. Included in this set were documents from the Bay State Marauders and the Minotaurs of New Hampshire, both of which were based on those created by S.T.A.R.S. MC of upstate New York. Ultimately, we chose to use the Jersey boys of Leather's bylaws as our starting point. Matt and I spent a large amount of time editing the first draft of bylaws in 2010, and for the most part were done, pending formalization of the club colors. Christopher and I stayed in touch through most of 2010, all the while trying to keep interest alive with the boys we had reached out to over the last year. Those who were hopeful of joining made a showing in 2010 at the Northeast LeatherSir/Leatherboy contest at the Ramrod in Boston later that year. The date was May 8, 2010:
Life, being what it is, always has a way of putting us on different paths. Christopher ultimately moved away for employment reasons. I went up for reelection as President of the Northeast Ursamen in 2010 for another two year term. The Leather boys of New England sat on ice again for another year until Scott Logan decided to take the helm. And that is where Part 2 will pick up next time.
In Service,
boy Skeeter
