Well, I’m off to New York next week for five days for some political meetings, a major AIDS benefit and NGLTF obligations. Sherman Mendoza of the Caliph is going with me, and we’re going to see the Color Purple on Broadway. It is one of my all time favorite movies, so I’m very excited to see it.

This past weekend, I had the honor of attending the Mr. San Diego Leather contest at Rich’s. The event was packed with hundreds of men and many women as well. There was a great deal of brotherhood and sisterhood, and you could feel the pride and kinship in the room.

I’ve seen the leather community grow in San Diego since the 1970s, and, trust me, it’s now bigger, more powerful and more together than ever before. It was great to see so many new and younger leather people in the crowd. It was also nice to see so many people of color, bisexuals, transsexuals and straight people too. Everyone was welcomed.

The producers of the 2007 contest were the very handsome Adam Latham, popular Rocket magazine columnist Graylin Thornton and Ms. World Leather 2001 winner Annie Romano. They produced an outstanding event that kept everyone’s attention until the very end. If only all of our local contests were run so well.

One of the highlights for me was meeting Mr. International Leather Bo Ladashevska, who is one hunky Canadian. It was also a complete joy for me to sit with my longtime good friend of more than 35 years, Mr. Marcus of San Francisco, who is a legend in the international leather community and truly one of its pioneers and leaders. Marcus has agreed to serve on my International Court Cabinet as the Minister to the International Leather Community.

As always, this was a benefit and thousands of dollars were raised for Being Alive, one of my favorite AIDS agencies, and the Tom of Finland Foundation. Bravo to Mr. San Diego Leather Adam Buster Wentzel, a true gentleman. I urge you all to support and attend some leather events and get to know this part of our community. I also want to thank all of you who came up to me just to thank me for coming. Trust me, it was my honor and I hope to be able to attend more of your events.

America’s No. 1 national GLBT magazine, The Advocate, named San Diego as one of the best places for GLBT people to live. Dallas, Columbus, Portland, Ore., Santa Fe, Tucson, Lexington and, strangely enough, Missoula, Mont., were also among the top 10. Of course, our weather was one of the reasons the magazine cited for San Diego’s inclusion. Other reasons included our GLBT Center, the hot military men and the Hillcrest neighborhood. The magazine also mentioned our many GLBT public officials including California Senator Chris Kehoe, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Fire Chief Tracy Jaman, Superior Court Judge David Rubin, City Housing Commissioner Todd Gloria and City Councilmember Toni Atkins.

While this is all good and nice that they rate us as one of the best, does this mean that we’ll get homos by the thousands getting in planes or U-Hauls and moving here? Well, we will probably get some, but I hope that we will mostly just get a lot more visitors and vacationers, especially during Pride.

I read with interest Carson McIntyre’s letter criticizing Mayor Jerry Sanders’ endorsement of Senator John McCain for president. Carson said that the mayor would be better off concentrating on our city’s problems. With all due respect, Carson, you’re wrong on most counts. Senator McCain is not one of the most anti-gay candidates running. In fact, he is considered one of the most pro-gay Republicans and has spoken out against homophobia and denounced the “faggot” comments aimed at Senator John Edwards. He was one of the few senators who spoke out against changing the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

I’ve met Sen. McCain and, yes, Carson, I too am not pleased that he is kissing up to the religious right, but they do control the party.

As for Mayor Sanders, almost every mayor of a major city endorses a presidential candidate, and what I found most disturbing were your remarks about the mayor concentrating on our city’s problems. If you only knew, Carson. If you only knew. Everyone knows that Mayor Sanders works day and night for our city. Just ask his family, who hardly see him. He is doing his very best to undo the mess that he inherited when he came into office. As his friend, I wish he would take more time off and take care of himself, but he won’t.

Once again, the new Brass Rail lived up to its reputation for community involvement with a local charity bachelor auction. Of course, much of the success was due to auctioneer extraordinaire, the one and only Empress Ophelia, who has auctioned off guys in the tens of thousands. Hats off to Brass Rail manager, Wes Edwards and everyone who was involved. The event was produced by the popular Buy Me Love Benefits, which organizes auctions to raise money for charities. What a great idea for a business. If you’re interested in organizing a charity auction, the organization’s telephone number is 760-412-0055.

Community leader and veteran Bob Lehman is recovering at Scripps Memorial Hospital after going through major surgery. He is improving and doing better but shouldn’t have any visitors. Let’s keep this great guy in our thoughts and prayers, as well as his longtime lover, Tom Felkner, who has been sleeping at the hospital to be near Bob.