Welcome back to the newsletter! I am writing this yesterday (from time of publishing) from not-Glasgow. But hopefully when you read this I’ll be on my way back to sunny (Greater) Govan.

I am pretty excited to say that there is now an Edinburgh Leatherdykes! They are unaffiliated with us, but we do share a kithship with our leather/dyke pals on the other side of the central belt. You can check out their insta here, and they’ve asked us to promo this interest form, which you can use to register interest here (just a google form; name & email are optional). They’re planning on starting up events in Autumn, so keep an eye out.

Anyway, on with the usual stuff.

Upcoming Events

Bar Night

Our next bar night will be on Wednesday 1st of July, at Game Over on Drury Street (G2 5AA) from 7pm till 11:30pm(ish). Same deal as usual! Remember to bring cash for bootblacking tips but I can also take card payments now! (£5 for the basic stuff; £10 for more involved care.)

Trans Fem Rugby

There will be trans fem rugby happening with Trans Fem Rugby on Sunday 5th July at 2pm in Elder Park. This is for the trans fems of y’all. Not officially affiliated with us but run by a pal of the org! Check out the insta here.

Bootblack Social / Erotic Bootblacking Workshop

Our next bootblack social is on Wednesday 15th July, at Adrian’s on Victoria Road (G42 8RW) from 7pm till late. The workshop is going to be on erotic bootblacking, so, if you interested in getting hot and heavy at the stand then this is the workshop to go to. No prior bootblacking experience needed, and I can do a quick 101 afterwards for anyone who wants it.

Solidarity Pride Hub

As mentioned in the last email, we’re going to the Glasgow Solidarity Pride Hub all day on Saturday 18th July, at The Pyramid at Anderston on Argyle Street (G3 8DS) from 11am till 5pm. (Shameless cross promotion here cause this is also a me and Bootblack Rowan joint.) If you also want to get involved either as a volunteer or as an org you can sign up here. Anyway it’ll be good fun, so see you there after the sit in at Glasgow Green.

Lesbian Summer Bar at Adrian’s

Some of our femme pals are running a bar night at Adrian’s on Friday 31st July, at Adrian’s on Victoria Road (G42 8RW) from 6pm till late. I have been told it’ll be “sweaty summer vibe horny femme ran”, which sounds great to be (and although I won’t be able to make it, I’m sure you’ll see some of the admin team there).

August Bar Night

Next next bar night is on 5th of August at Game Over as usual. This one will actually be our 1st birthday, which, in firm tradition of ignoring this type of thing, we probably won’t do anything in specific for. But still! There’ll be celebratory vibes, certainly.

Queer Classics Club

As per the last email, Queer Classics Club is running Thursday 13th August, at Category Is on Allison Street (G42 8NN) from 7pm. Their first book is Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood. Join their mailing list by emailing here.

Leatherdykes Recommend…

Nightbreed (Director’s Cut) (1990), dir. Clive Barker (Morwen)

“It's a small sample size but this is the best Clive Barker work I've interacted with thus far I think. Maybe I'm just always thinking about this (I probably am), but to me this film really has something to say about what the AIDS crisis and the visibility of the activism required to fight that did to gay sex spaces, and it made me really sad. There's a lot of hope in this film, that the perverts will make new spaces and flourish elsewhere with time. I hope that we will.

David Cronenberg is also fucking brilliant in this. That's right, he's in it.”

Tangles (2026), dir. Leah Nelson (Yvette)

So I had the pleasure of watching this yesterday (from time of writing) at a festival screening and good lord it earned the standing ovation it got for the entire duration of the credits (and then some). It’s about a woman whose mother’s health starts to deteriorate, but it’s one of the only films I’ve seen (certainly the only animated film I’ve seen) that has lesbians who actually act like dykes. So, go in for the genuine dyke representation, stay for the tears. Also there’s nice animation. And honestly I have no idea when this is going to see wide release but really do take the polycule or whatever out to the cinema for this one.

Blog

This feels like a longer email than usual! Lot of stuff happening this summer I guess. We are provisionally planning on doing a Leatherzine #2 soon, with open submissions! Wow! So, not to bait it all out but you’ll basically have all of July to think of something good and then all of August to get it in to us. Any money we make is going to go back into the org for costs of publishing and costs for the bootblack contest we’ll be doing in October (and future costs, like maybe running something fun at CJ’s at some point, though not this year). Which is just to say the zine won’t pay out for any of us, though if you have your own zines you want distro’d at the front desk you can get in touch (and we’ll send you the revenue from that, obvs). Anyway! We do listen to feedback, and the feedback from the first one seems to have been “more pornography”. So get hype for its release in October (god willing).

At any rate, I think that’s about all the news that I have. Make sure to reapply your sunscreen every few hours. We should probably try to take care of our actual living skin as well as our leathers. I love you, and I’ll still massage your burns with aloe if it comes to that.

With unadulterated longing, as well as adulterated (potentially adulterous) longing,
yr girl, yvette, for Glasgow Leatherdykes