Good evening. My name is Henry, and I am proud to be your Atons President for 2025. On behalf of both our 2024 and 2025 executive teams, I thank you for being here.
Over fifty years ago, in the spring of 1972, a group of Twin Cities leathermen came together to form the Atons of Minneapolis. The first scientific calculator had just been released, the VW beetle was the world’s best-selling car, and the US was still in the midst of the Vietnam War. A good portion of our members hadn’t been born yet.
Bisexuality was just being discussed; it would be another year before the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders and almost a decade before AIDS would really hit our community.
Fast forward to today, while we are lucky that the Twin Cities is fairly LGBTQ-positive and Minnesota is even regarded as a “trans refuge” state, many of our siblings live in fear of what the “next 4 years” will bring. It is still illegal to be gay in 64 countries globally. In 2024 the ACLU tracked 533 anti-LBGTQ bills in the US. And there is a persistent epidemic of anti-trans and gender-based violence and rhetoric.
In the midst of this uncertainty stands our leather community, rich in diversity with varied interests and passions. Twin Cities Leather and our community have a new home at the Umbra Arts building. Thank you, Josh, Mike, Kurt, and Karri. The Atons are blessed with a growing membership. Life feels pretty good. However, we can’t rest on our laurels. We must continue our work to unite our community and to acknowledge that “community” must be inclusive.
The Atons now have several trans or non-binary full members and our associates have also been a plethora of diversity for years and years. 2025 provides a unique opportunity to walk our talk, to build bridges, and to evolve into the Atons that our current community needs while still honoring and recognizing our history.
We are actively working to amend our bylaws to be inclusive of all people regardless of self-identification. We want to strengthen our relationships with Twin Cities Bootblacks, MNLP, Spectrum, MAST, and the other leather organizations in and outside of our community. We need to be active participants not spectators.
We must never forget the strength of those men in 1972 and the dedicated efforts of so many over the last 50 years. Let’s use that foundation to become even more.
I stand before you, a proud gay man who happens to be trans. I respect and honor all our siblings, both past, present, and future. I am so lucky to have found a home and family in this community and with the Atons. I plan to walk until my boots are worn. And I and the incoming 2025 executive officers thank you for the trust you have placed in us.
Remember, we are the club we are today because of all of the experiences of the past. Let’s pave more road for the future.
Thank you
