Dallas, TX -The board of directors of the International Leather SIR/boy and International Community Bootblack organization announced several major changes today, which impact the structure of the contests and the regional feeder contests. First, ILSb/ICBB is dissolving contracts with the regional producers. Second, contestants for International LeatherSIR and International Leatherboy must be a cisgender (biologically-born) gay male. Lastly, no appointed titleholders may run for ILSb/ICBB.

Jeffrey Payne, President of the board of Directors, first broke the news to the current regional producers via email on this past Friday. Leatherati contacted several regional producers for this article and each declined to comment on the changes at this time.

Jeffrey Payne bought the contest from Mark Frazier just over a year ago and in the wake of that ownership change the new, ILSb/ICBB Board felt the changes were necessary to uphold their mission statement and to reflect their vision for the organization.

Prior to the ownership change at ILSb/ICBB, regional producers had signed contracts with the international producers. However, ILSb/ICBB just completed the process to become a non-profit 501©(3) organization and the new board felt that the previously signed contracts would make ILSb/ICBB liable for regional financial actions.

“We don’t have the man power to audit the books of all the regions. If we continue to sign contracts then those events fall under the umbrella of ILSb/ICBB. So we are discontinuing all contracts that are currently with ILSb,” stated Jeffrey Payne.

Since there will be no contracts with ILSb/ICBB, the result is that regional, state, city and bar producers now are liable for their own financial operations.

Jeffrey Payne explained, “The contestants and producers are no longer required to go through a regional contest in order to compete at International Leather Sir/boy ICBB. The producer gets to decide how they feed. A bar title can also feed into ILSb as well without it having to be fed to the regional.”

Producers now can draw out their own regions geographically and have a bigger voice in what areas fall under the title they produce. With the announced changes any bar, city, state or regional title can feed directly into ILSb/ICBB without the requirement to feed into a larger contest.

“What we have done is created a way for community members, regardless of location, to have the potential to become involved with the ILSb/ICBB contest. For those communities that didn’t have a lot of interactions where the main city was located in a region, they now have a chance to produce a contest and get a contestant to International, rather than not ever having that chance,” continued Payne.

This structure dates back to the International Mr Drummer and International Drummerboy contests where cisgender gay male titleholders had a chance to win a Drummer Title.

Operating without regional contracts isn’t the only major change that will be reminiscent of the Drummer contests. According to Payne the requirement that all International Leather SIR and International Leatherboy contestants must be cisgender gay males also echoes the International Drummer days.

Payne stated that originally ILSb was a contest for cisgendered gay males until the international contest moved to California five years ago. In order to comply with California law, the previous owners opened the contest to individuals who legally identified as male.

Payne explained, “For any person who wants to run for International Leather SIR, Leatherboy you must be a bio male in order to run. Even the Transgender Leather Community has an International title now. ILSb used to be bio male only and we will be returning it back to the Drummer days. We are not turning our back on any segment of the community. It is okay for an international title to belong to a gay man. But we welcome everyone to the party as far as the weekend events and so on. As far as the Leather Sir and Leatherboy, it will belong to the gay male community. ICBB will again have no change there because it is a community title that is open to anyone”

The International Mr Drummer contest started in 1980 and International Drummer boy contest in 1989. The ILSb Bootblack title didn’t begin till 2003. The first winner of that title was boi Gwen Hardy, a female. In 2004 the title changed to International Community Bootblack (ICBB). Another change to ICBB occurred when Mark Frazier introduced a separate judging panel for ICBB. Jeffrey Payne stated that ICBB will remain open to any gender and will stay that way.

Jeffrey Payne further stated that the board of the ILSb/ICBB wishes no ill will on current producers who have spent time and energy to create successful contests.

“The hard work and blood sweat and tears that every current and past regional producers has put in are not negated. It is worshipped and appreciated. But we have to learn how to grow and move forward with it. This is the best way to do so. It wasn’t that they didn’t do their job and didn’t do well,” continued Payne.

The final change announced stipulates that no appointed titleholders may run for an ILSb/ICBB title.

“There will be no appointments. You must run and be a contestant in order to compete at ILSb/ICBB. A lot of people felt that appointing happened behind closed doors. If you are good enough to be appointed then you are good enough to run. We want to promote the mission of ILSB and ICBB,” explained Payne.

Editor’s Note: We at Leatherati have received clarification to historical facts listed in this article. Mark Frazier states: