It’s award season and while Beyonce may be taking home a statue as “if she were a boy,” real leather boys and their leather families will be nominating leather people who have made significant contributions to the leather world during the past year.

The Pantheon of Leather Community Service Awards began 19 years ago by Dave Rhodes of the Leather Journal and will be presented at International Mr. Leather, in Chicago, on Friday, May 22, at the host hotel. While most of the categories are for national awards, there are some more localized ones, including a Southern California Regional Award, Small Event of the Year and Small Club of the Year. The deadline for nominations is Saturday, Jan. 31. The nomination form can be found at www.pantheonofleather.com.

On the local front, join Club X tonight for inspiration, self-placement, and exploring the future of BDSm, the leather tradition, and the spirit of our tribe. The Club X “How to be Kinky, Happy, and Successful” workshop will take place at the Joyce Beers Community Center, located at 1230 Cleveland Ave., Thursday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m. While some of us are trying to get to the gym for a second time after the New Year, you may have decided to skip the physical transformations and stick to working on your inner leather person. This workshop is an opportunity for you to take a mental deep breath and to consider your role in your own life, tribe and greater community. Bring your thoughts and ideas for the future of the leather community and participate in its growth and your own.

LA’s premier leather bar, The LA Eagle will host the Mr. LA Eagle Contest this Saturday, Jan 10, at 9 p.m. Mr. LA Eagle will go on to compete at Mr. LA Leather, which will take place the last weekend in March. If you’re in LA you must stop by the contest because the LA eagle does it the right way. While you’re not watching the contest or cruising the audience, check out the bartenders. They have some of the hottest bartenders of any Eagle – or any bar – I’ve ever been in… and I’ve been in a lot of bars. The LA Eagle is located at 4219 Santa Monica Blvd.

In a couple of weeks leather people from all over the world will descend upon our nations capitol to experience the second largest leather contest weekend outside of IML. The host club, Centaur MC, has held that claim for years but contest organizers from San Diego to the Hoist in London are starting to dispute it. Whether or not Mid-Atlantic Leather (MAL) weekend is indeed the second largest is irrelevant this year, because the 2009 contest will undoubtedly be one to remember. Fortunately (but yet unfortunately), Mid-Atlantic Weekend is taking place during the historic inauguration week of the first black President of the United States. This will also be Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend in most of the country, or Robert E. Lee weekend if you’re a Civil War holdout from Virginia. If you’re lucky enough to have bought plane tickets and a hotel room for under $600 a night allowing you to stay for the inauguration then you’ll undoubtedly have the MAL experience of a lifetime. If not then you’ll probably be with the rest of us, checking out of the host hotel on Sunday afternoon, hoping some kinky politician invites you to play “Dungeons and Masters” for the rest of the week.

The following weekend, Jan. 23-25, leather people in Phoenix will present one of the fastest growing and respected leather weekends in the country. Southwest Leather Conference (SWLC) is a national non-profit educational organization that was first launched in December 2002 and has since become recognized as “The Gathering of Leather Heart & Spirit.” What makes SWLC different is its emphasis on the interpersonal and spiritual dynamics of D/s relationships and S/m practices. This year’s conference, “Light the Fire Within,” will feature a variety of feature workshops, from “BDSm Laughter” and “Making A Scene,” to “Body Punching and other Contact Sports.” SWLC is also one of the few that welcomes participation from various aspects of leather life, including heterosexual, pansexual, bisexual, gay and everyone in between. It’s also the most “let’s all hold hands, feel good and sing a Native American version of Kumbaya” conferences you’ll ever attend. For more information, visit www.southwestleather.org.

As January goes, I assume most of the events are more “feel good about yourself,” because it’s too cold to get dirty in the dungeon. Just keep putting on more leather until it’s hot again and remember to support your local bars and businesses. See ya In the Pit.