Get over to Pleasures & Treasures or your favorite leather store because San Diego Leather Pride 2009 is coming on fast and ferociously.

There are a few major changes this year, the first being Adam Latham and Micheal David are now the producers of the Mr. San Diego Leather Contest. The second major change is San Diego Leather Pride Inc. is now a California not-for-profit corporation. San Diego Leather Pride Inc. will oversee the entire leather week which includes the Ms. San Diego Leather Contest, the Mr. San Diego Leather Contest, All Club Night, The Leather Brunch and everything in between. Congratulations to all who made this change happen. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.

All Club Night hosted by Club X and produced by former Ms. San Diego Leather, Karen Yew, kicks off San Diego Leather Pride as always. The fun and games begin on Thursday, March 12 and will take place at the Joyce Beers Community Center at 7 p.m. That’s an hour earlier than before so don’t be running on leather time. This is an opportunity for any and all clubs to put together a three-person team to compete in the “Leather Olympics.” Technically, we can’t call them the “Leather Olympics” or we may be sued by the International Olympic Committee. Also, stay away from performance enhancement drugs, as I’m sure they’ll be testing for steroids, growth hormone and testosterone. Actually, a little more testosterone may give you a sizable advantage at the play parties later.

You don’t have to be leather people to put together a team so we expect to see the bears, cowboys, court, Sisters, sports teams, bar teams, PFLAG, and whoever else is interested involved. Don’t worry about being a “real” leather person. This is all for fun and to make money for charity. Therefore, be ready to give up $5 at the door and buy raffle tickets.

The Meet ’n’ Greet for Ms. San Diego Leather this year will take place on Friday the 13th at the San Diego Eagle, which should make things very interesting. I’m sure the leather women involved will make the date work to their advantage. After the Meet ’n’ Greet is a dungeon play party, and since it’ll still be Friday the 13th those women will be doing some serious damage.

Saturday night is the Ms. San Diego Leather Contest at Rich’s with the VIP reception beginning at 5:30 p.m. with the contest at 6:30 p.m. They also have tables available for both contests for $50 so you can seat your closest leather friends and look very important.

Leather Pride continues the following week with the “Leaders in Leather Cocktail Reception” to be held on Thursday, March 19. Keep checking the Web site for updates and locations. You may remember last year we held a dinner featuring guest keynote speaker Larry Townsend, best known for authoring The Leatherman’s Handbook. Sadly, Larry left this world shortly after the dinner and he will be missed by all whose lives he touched.

The Mr. San Diego Leather Meet ’n’ Greet will be at the Eagle on Friday, March 20, followed by a dungeon play party. The Mr. San Diego Leather Contest will also be at Rich’s with the reception beginning at 5:30 p.m. The contest will begin at 6:30 and L.L. Bear will immediately follow. Sunday you will have a chance to meet the new Ms. and Mr. San Diego Leather at brunch beginning at 11 a.m. at Park Manor.

That’s the rundown for the week. More details will be in my next column, but mark your calendars now. You can write me at inthepitsd@aol.com.