The Cover Story: International Mr. Leather

International Mr. Leather has been living its life publicly, loudly, and without apology since 1979. And if you're not paying attention, you're missing one of the most consequential queer institutions still standing.

Think of IML as the Super Bowl of leather, kink, and BDSM culture—except the competitors are actually hot, the uniforms are intentionally revealing, and it's run entirely by and for the communities it celebrates. Every Memorial Day weekend, thousands of contestants and spectators descend on Chicago. As of 2024, more than 2,100 contestants from 27 countries have competed. This is a movement.

Here's what makes IML actually matter: It's a place where queer people built an entire culture when the world gave us nowhere else to go. When we had to hide in darkened bars to even know these communities existed, leather culture was being forged—technically, aesthetically, and intellectually. IML is the proof that it survived, thrived, and became something genuinely consequential.

The Architecture of a Community

IML isn't just about watching beautifully leather-bound men strut across a stage, though obviously that's part of it. The structure reveals something deeper about what the leather and BDSM communities actually value. There's the main International Mr. Leather pageant and International Mr. Bootblack—because of course your bootshine game can be competitive. Both have mandatory events, optional events, and a judging system built around community knowledge, presentation, embodiment. Bootblacks literally compete at shining boots. The detail work is insane.

Alongside the competition, there's infrastructure: panels, workshops, safety talks, consent education. This is actual community building happening in real time. The vendor market features leather crafters and artisans who've been doing this for decades—building legacy, not fast fashion. There's an official art show because aesthetics matter. The Open Shine competition exists because the work of care is itself a form of artistry.

And all of it matters because the proceeds benefit the Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M). When you buy a ticket, you're literally funding the preservation of queer leather history.

What It Means to Be Seen

The 2025 winner, Rene Hebert (Mr. Palm Springs Leather), with Zephyr Merkur as first runner-up and Michael Tikili as second runner-up—these guys are community leaders, educators, representatives of a culture that's been building itself brick by brick for generations. Being crowned IML winner means something. It means you've been vetted, celebrated, and entrusted to represent an entire way of being in the world.

IML reminds us why visibility still matters. Thousands of queer people gathering to say: this is who we are, this is what we've built, this is beautiful and worth fighting for. That's how you stay radical. That's how you stay necessary.

The event happens every Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. You can buy tickets for various events, request a hotel room (it's on a waitlist because everyone wants to go), browse the vendor market and art show, volunteer, or actually compete. There's even an official app.

Go to internationalmrleather.com. Look at the galleries. Just look at them.

We're living in a time when you have to be intentional about showing up for queer culture. IML is one of those moments—a place where leather, kink, power, and pleasure are honored as what they've always been.

See you in leather.

For everything that survived. For everything that's still standing.