This past weekend I finally travelled up to Edinburgh and Glasgow, a trip that has been too long on the dream list.

Travel is good for the soul, meeting others and learning about their history, where they came from, etc. It’s been at the core of my life as a gay man. It used to be that, certainly within the Bear community you could connect with someone online and instantly have a circle of people to connect with, you could go out for dinner, get a city tour, and learn where all the gay haunts were. That seems to have gone by the wayside, though I’m finding aspects of the Leather community still operate this way – thankfully.

A few weeks prior to heading to Scotland, I learned that there was a Leathermens social taking place in Glasgow on Sunday AND it was Mardi Gla on the Saturday before. Well didn’t that just change my plans for spending time in Edinburgh.

All in all, I accomplished what I wanted to in Edinburgh, and some of what I hoped to do in Glasgow.  Most importantly, though, I’ve created some connections up here.  Some great connections.

On Saturday, I marched with the Glasgow Leathermen, local Rubbermen and a few BearScots that were out.  A great way to learn a bit about the city, or certainly one way to do so! It sounds like we may have also made a bit of history as that, we think, may have been the first time an actual organised group of Leathermen, Rubbermen and others of kinky persuasions marched. Congrats men!

The Glasgow Leathermen Social, held on a Sunday at The Gallery, is something that has been running since April 2019. Prior to that it sounded like there really wasn’t much of a Leather or kink community in Glasgow.  Sure, there are definitely kinky men anywhere, and Scotland is no exception looking at Recon.  

Scottish men would head to Manchester, London or Berlin to get their fix. There certainly was MSC Scotland after digging around on the net to find them – sadly a group that is no more. A group of men are resurrecting something in Scotland, and such a nice group of men! It’s refreshing to see the formation of something rather than the decline. 

I was sad leaving The Gallery Sunday night to make my way back to Edinburgh, to then head back to London.  I wish I could have stayed longer because I felt like the right space for me.

This fed my soul.  Thank you Glasgow!

The next Glasgow Leathermen Social is Sunday August 18th, 2019 at the time of writing this blog entry.