It’s been three whole weeks since I last emailed! This hasn’t happened since late December, I think? Let’s never be apart for that long again. Anyway! I do have some serious stuff to foreground.

So, Glasgow Leatherdykes have updated our policies and written some new ones. Please give them a read:

• Code of Conduct

• “How we work”

• Safeguarding Statement

• Accessibility Statement

Really, please do give these a read. So, for a little background if you weren’t at the last bar night, the bar manager had to make an announcement to tell the crowd 1) Don’t take your drinks outside, 2) Don’t take outside drinks in, and 3) Certain people need to shower more. I had a chat with them last week and I would like to say here that they are in our corner. Like, the bar manager in specific really does like us and care about the event – in case anyone had gotten the impression otherwise from that.

We’ve updated the safeguarding statement following that conversation and written a code of conduct and “how we work” document. If you’re reading this, I trust you well enough, and if you see someone else taking glassware outside (we’ve all done it tbf) or bringing outside drinks in, or honestly if you know someone who could just do with a shower, please say something to them. The GM is going to be there on Wednesday and he will just kick out / ban anyone who is breaking the bar’s rules. So, presumably we’d all prefer to have an awkward chat with a dyke we only kind of know than have that happen.

Anyway! Onto the normal stuff. There’ll be a bit more about all this in the blog section.

Upcoming Events

Bar Night

Our next bar night is on Wednesday 6th May, at Game Over on Drury Street (G2 5AA) from 7pm till 11:30pm(ish). Same deal as usual (except the GM will be there)! Remember to bring cash for bootblacking tips!!

Becoming Archived

There is an event by the Lesbian Snapshot Collective at GWL that just seems cool as hell, so we’re pointing it out to y’all now. This will be on Saturday 9th May, at Glasgow Women’s Library (G40 1BP) from 2pm till 4pm. Tickets & info are here.

Bootblack Social / Kit Development Workshop

Our next bootblack social is on Wednesday 20th May, at Adrian’s on Victoria Road (G42 8RW) from 7pm till late. The focus for this one will be on developing your bootblacking kit.

Glasgow Zine Fair

We will be tabling on both Saturday and Sunday 23rd/24th May at the Glasgow Zine Fair. We’ll be there from 11am to 5pm. It’s held at The Briggait (G1 5HZ). We will have a reasonable amount of zines!

June Bar Night

The next next bar night will be on Wednesday 3rd of June, same time of day, same place. Get it in your calendars now!

Leatherdykes Recommend…

Underscores – U (2026) (Synthie)

"I-O-U"

Sad girl disco in the backrooms. I'm too tired to stop dancing. I have no bed to sleep in tonight so why can't I stop thinking about my ex?

Recommended Song: Hollywood Forever

Album Link: https://underscores.bandcamp.com/album/u

Sexuality Beyond Consent, by Avgi Saketopoulou (Yvette)

This one makes my brain bbrrrrrr. For the psychoanalysis girlies out there, this is a book about why being sadistic is good ethical actually. Open yourself up to an experience at the limits of your consent and p l e a s e give this one a read.

Blog

It’s been another month! Really we’ve just been working on a lot of policy. And some zines, as usual.

Let’s start with that: We’ll be at Glasgow Zine Fair! If you haven’t gotten the Glasgow Leatherdykes Zine #1 yet, this’ll be your best opportunity (I will also be putting them out at Category Is this week, and there are already some at Good Press in the zine box). Also we’ll be tabling yr girl’s Leathersex Triptych (as published by One Handed Press), BLOOD WORK by Milo, hopefully also Pick-Up Play (an as-yet-unreleased novella by yr girl about lesbians in Glasgow wow!!!!), Anti-Protocol, plus I think some extra zines from pals. Check the next newsletter for what those will be because I will have figured out what’s going on by then. Oh! And I’m going to be distroing a free zine entitled Excerpts on Leathersex at the next bar night. Low quality just on copier paper but like, it’s free. And it’s just what it sounds like.

Onto policy. We have had a series of long conversations about the statements we’ve now put out. If you haven’t yet, please do read the policy statements. Everything we’ve put out has been written with the idea in mind that there should be more leather/dyke events. Due to the nature of running an unticketed event out of a bar, we aren’t able to have firm lines with regards to attendance. Even the “it’s a dyke event” thing is, like, formally unenforceable (the way it actually gets enforced is by having a vibe that non-dykes will bounce off of). While this is the way we’re running our event, other events in other spaces from other organisations are possible. We are – and I am personally – genuinely happy to help out anyone who wants to start their own leather/dyke nights. Please get in touch if you even just have an idea and want to talk to myself or whoever else on the team about how to make that a reality. The thing the scene lacks right now is variety, and we never intended to be the Glasgow dyke event, so let’s get some competing events going. Genuinely.

As always, and this is always worth repeating, I love y’all in general and you in specific. Please get in contact if you want to talk. I am unemployed as all hell and will always make the time for other leatherdykes.

With minor sunburn and major heartache,
yr girl, yvette, for Glasgow Leatherdykes