Happy October everyone! We at Glasgow Leatherdykes are really locking in for the lead up to the Ms Bootblack Glasgow contest (get your tickets!!!). If we seem cagey about it, it’s cause we’re still securing the finer details. The key to these community events is not being hard on yourself, so I suggest we just enjoy the pressure of this month and find a way to let it out in November after the comp.

Anyway… we have four contestants whom I’m really excited to see compete. We should have four judges. We will definitely have a fun time. But in the meantime, here’s the usual stuff!

Upcoming Events

If you are a leatherdyke or otherwise think that leatherdykes in & around Glasgow would benefit from your event, email us at [email protected] to get advertised here.

October Bar Night

Next bar night is on 7th of October 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.)

Bootblack Social / Basic Leatherwork Workshop

Our next bootblack social is on Wednesday 21st October, at Adrian’s on Victoria Road (G42 8RW) from 7pm till late. We’ll be having a workshop on basic leatherwork (hopefully for real this time! assuming no illness at least). No prior bootblack experience or bootblacking kit is needed, and there will be a 101 afterwards for anyone who needs it.

Trans History Festival

It’s the Trans History Festival! Put together by our favourite queer historian, this is a whole week of events from the Thursday 22nd to Friday 30th October, (mostly) at Category Is on Allison Street (G42 8NN). It’s all free, but you should still book a spot in advance if you can. Link for all the events is here. Check it out to go see Jaye Hudson, Roz Kaveney, Nat Raha, and Susan Stryker (as well as, of course, Glasgow’s own Sam Rutherford). I have also been reliably informed that if anything at Cat Is is sold out then it’s still worth chancing it at the door.

Ms Bootblack Glasgow

The public day of the contest will be on Saturday 24th October, at Game Over on Drury Street (G2 5AA) from 1pm till late. Full details and tickets here. You do not need to show up to all of it and you’ll be able to go in and out as you please.

November Bar Night

November bar night is Wednesday 4th November, usual time & place. Get it in your calendars!

Leatherdykes Recommend

Touching Grass (everyone)

It is good to go outside sometimes. Take in the beauty of the world. Stare at a seagull for a while. Get a chippy. Let the seagull steal your chippy. Another beautiful day.

Blog

It’s been busy! Shout out to Glasgow University Magazine for giving us an interview and shout out to Offshore Coffee for letting us hog the couch for a bit to do a photoshoot to go with the interview. Archer and I had a great time chatting and hopefully y’all will get to read our ramblings about leather, dykery, and “the revolution” in due course.

Aside from that, the busyness has been mostly behind the scenes work. Some stuff that y’all know about (zine, contest); some stuff that y’all don’t ([redacted], [redacted]). I would like to say here though that this newsletter has been around for a year now, with the first being the late October newsletter back in 2025! Genuinely it brings me a great deal of joy every time I get to write one of these. Shout out to Drew at Luke + Jack for telling me to do a mailing list in the first place.

At any rate, I am going to spend today resting, maybe knocking back a couple vermouths on the rocks, Hedwig style. I love you.

With the kind of confusion and tiredness that takes a while to even parse as confusion and tiredness because I am too confused and tired,
yr girl, yvette, for Glasgow Leatherdykes