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Jeffrey Payne, International Mr. Leather 2009 (Dallas, TX). Photo courtesy of IML organizers. This year ’s International Mr. Leather (IML)o—the gay communityN’s largest annual leather event in the worldo—is seeing a healthy uptick in attendees for 2010, according to IML coordinator RJ Chaffin, thanks to a rebounding economy. (Yes, even tough leathermen feel the sting of escalating travel costs.) Now in its 32nd year, IML has evolved from the e“Mr. Gold Coastr” bar contest held at Chicagoo’s Gold Coast leather bar in the A‘70s, to an international conference and competition for leather men and women, although an overwhelming majority of attendees are gay men. Held annually in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend since 1979, IML attracts everyone from the casual voyeur to the seasoned fetishist.
IML's forerunner was the 1970s Mr. Gold Coast bar contest held at Chicago's Gold Coast leather bar, owned by Chuck Renslow and his then-partner, Dom Orejudos. As the Mr. Gold Coast contest became one of the bar's most popular promotions, it expanded to a larger venue in 1979. Along with the change of venue came a change in name to International Mr. Leather.[3]
The International Mister Bootblack (IMrBB) Competition runs throughout the IML weekend. Contestants are given a location in the IML Leather Market at which they perform bootblacking services. Weekend ticket package holders (as well as judges, contestants, and vendors) are each provided with a bootblack ballot which is redeemable for one shine by the bootblack of the voter's choice. Bootblacks are free to shine the boots of any person, regardless of whether that person has a ballot, although it is made clear that the ballots are the means by which the winner will be determined. Tipping is not required, but is quite common.
At its inception in 1993, the competition was properly titled the International Bootblack Competition, and both men and women were allowed to compete. In 1998, it was announced that the competition would be changed to the International Mister Bootblack Competition and that a separate competition solely for women would be held at International Ms. Leather. This change was made largely because it was commonly held that women had a significant disadvantage competing for ballots from the mostly gay male IML attendees, who often base their bootblack selection at least partly on their sexual attraction to the bootblack. Since 1999, competitors for IMrBB are restricted to persons over the age of 21 who can provide a valid government-issued form of identification that identifies them as male.
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