Mama's Family at Up Your Alley street fair in San Francisco in late July. Photo by Richtrove Photography

Welcome to Dave Rhodes' Hump Day - Wednesday, August 16, 2017. This column will appear here every Wednesday on TheLeatherJournal.com

Share this will all of your friends on Facebook. We want 10,000 Leatherfolk and kinksters reading timely news regularly.

Mama interviewed in San Diego

Sandy "Mama" Reinhardt had a full feature article on Mama's Family in Gay San Diego by Ian Morton - Profiles in Advocacy. This is worth reading. http://gay-sd.com/mamas-international-family/

Jeffery Payne for Texas Governor

Dallas Eagle owner Jeffery Payne announced on July 14 that he is running for governor of Texas. Payne has a record of success in the business world and is International Mr. Leather 2009. He is known for his community service as well, founding the Sharon St. Cyr Fund which provides funding for American Sign Langauage certified interpreters for the deaf. This is going to be exciting and to follow the Payne campaign trail go to http://www.jeffrey4texas.com See photo below.

Tom of Finland Art Fair

The Tom of Finland Art Fair will be September 29 - October 1 in Los Angeles, CA. Check out https://www.yelp.com/biz/tom-of-finland-foundation-los-angeles

Pantheon of Leather Awards

The Pantheon of Leather Awards will be presented on Thursday night, August 31 during International Leather Sir, Leatherboy and Community Bootblack contest weekend, August 31 - September 3, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Dallas Near the Galleria in Dallas, TX. Check out http://www.ilsb-icbb.com

Ritual Fire: A Tribal Bonfire Social

Sunday, September 10, from 6:30 - 9:30 PM, at Fiesta Island Park, as Fetish Men San Diego in conjunction with Club X San Diego will host Ritual Fire: A Tribal Bonfire Social. Local kinksters from FMSD and Club X will be performing various feats of Fire Play throughout the night. No tickets sold at the door. https://fetishmensandiego.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-new-kind-of-ritual.html?zx=7625f41a0159466c

Orange County, CA title

Mr. and Ms OCIC Leather and Mr. OCIC Bear contest will be September 8-10 at the Frat House Nightclub, 8112 Garden Grove Blvd, Garden Grove, CA.

Leather Cruise on San Francisco Bay

The Golden Gate Guards' Seventh Annual Leather Cruise on San Francisco Bay will be on September, Saturday, 23. This Leather and Uniform event is during Folsom street fair weekend. The Leather Cruise includes: three-hour boat cruise on San Francisco Bay with great views for hot Leathermen and Leatherwomen. Complimentary navy cap, pin and lei, appetizers and cash bar. Net proceeds from this event will go to San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance. http://ggguards.org/events/cruiseTickets.htm

Palm Springs Leather Pride

Palm Springs Leather Pride 2017 will be held October 26-29 in Palm Springs, CA. The big news is the Friday night Parking Lot Party will return to lot behind the Tool Shed. Tom of Finland will have an exhibit and there will be a Saturday afternoon pool party. And oh, the Mr. Palm Springs Leather contest will be held in the newest hangar at the Palm Springs Air Museum. https://www.palmspringsleatherpride.org/

T’Hayla Ferguson resigns from HOTFF

T’Hayla Ferguson - I want to thank the members of Heart of the Flag Federation (Toronto, Canada, Leather Pride organization including Mr. Leatherman Toronto) for allowing me to hold the position of President these past several years. I have had such a wonderful time working with our community and with some truly amazing titleholders. Life is presenting me with several new opportunities that are going to take great deal of my time which is why it is time for me to step aside as President of the Heart of the Flag Federation.

Philadelphia Leather Pride Night

Philadelphia Leather Pride Night will celebrate its Ninth Annual charity auction event on Saturday September 30 from 5 PM to midnight inside Voyeur Nightclub in the heart of Philadelphia's Gayborhood. Jo Arnone will once again take the stage with her booming voice as auctioneer. http://www.leatherpridenight.com

Ms LA Leather Scarlett Sin is teaching

On Saturday, August 19, Ms LA Leather Scarlett Sin is teaching The Art of Impact at The Stockroom, 2121 Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake, from 12 - 2 PM. The class is designed for all ranges of experience and gives an insightful and in-depth understanding into the numerous elements of impact play. Go to https://www.stockroom.com/everything-else/stockroom-university.html for details.

Mr. Los Angeles Leather preliminaries

Most of the schedule for the Mr. Los Angeles Leather preliminaries is known. Mr. CSW is known since the first in the series was held in June. Those with set dates are Mr. Sister Leather produced by the LA House of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence September 16 at Eagle LA; Mr. Precinct Leather at the Precinct November 19; Mr. and Ms Sanctuary Leather at Sanctuary Studios LAX December 8-10; Eagle LA Mr. Leather at Eagle LA January 13-14; Mr. SoCal Leather at Eagle LA January 14; Mr. LA Leather Bear by Bers LA at Eagle LA January 18-21; Mr. Oil Can Harry's at Oil Can Harry's January 26-28; Mr. Bullet Leather at the Bullet Bar, February 2-4; and Mr. Regiment Leather by the Regiment of the Black and Tans at Eagle LA February 16-18.

Leather History Preservation

Leather History Preservation Weekend, October 20-22, Radisson Hotel High Point in High Point, NC will be a weekend of shared journeys, camaraderie and fellowship, with multiple historiographers sharing their experiences. Among the historians are JAH Holiday, OB Hamm, Sir Tom Matt, JP Garner, and Angel Propps. Go to http://www.lhpfoundation.org and make your plans.

Butchmanns board

A change of leadership took place at the June Annual General Meeting of the Butchmanns board. After nine years as Chair, Thay Z (aka Master Z) asked to step down from the office. Ches Clark was elected to chair the board for a three-year term. Wayne Brawner and slave bonnie were reelected to two-year terms as Vice Chair and Secretary respectively. Thay Z remains on the board as treasurer, an appointed position. slave tina is currently serving as Executive Director of the Southwest Leather Conference. Master Bob Blount, slave Angie, Ms Kendra, slave kirk thomas and Patrick Mulcahey affirmed their board membership for another year. http://www.butchmanns.com

Butchmanns Experience

The next Butchmanns Experience weekend will be a pansexual event in Phoenix, AZ, October 20-22. http://www.butchmanns-experience.org

How you can help make Dave Rhodes' Hump Day better - no, the best. If you come up with a date and basic information on a new event, please send us the date and a short detail or two. This is designed for the web site and less so for print, so there is no 45 days-in-advance deadline. If your event is happening on August 27, make sure I have it by Monday afternoon, August 21. Make sure to add your events to the Leather Community Calendar by clicking on Calendar above - follow the directions.

You had a contest over the weekend - send us the names of the winners and a photo and a brief bit about it. We have it by mid-Monday and it will appear on Wednesday. Your events hotel room block opens - that is news. Send the link and a brief. Someone passes, let us know - photo please if available, but do not let lack of an immediate photo stop you from sending. This is news shorts.

If a news item comes in which we feel should also be a larger article we will contact you about it. Send to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Photos need to be jpg format.

Please share us on Facebook.

Dallas Eagle owner and International Mr. Leather 2009 Jeffrey Payne launched his bid to become the Governor of Texas.