These photographs were made at the American Brotherhood Weekend and the Mid-Atlantic Leather Convention. This network of GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender) BDSM (Bondage, Dominance, Sadomasochism) meets at venues around the country with enthusiastic regularity. The fetish of leather is the tie that binds. This movable feast is a place where sex is simultaneously referred to as play and a transcendent spiritual experience. Mr. Palm Springs Leather describes the importance of this network to the participants by saying, “There’s much more to any leather organization than S&M. It’s about the brotherhood and bonding that having an identity gives you. It’s the opposite of being deeply closeted, being afraid of revealing your true nature to others. No human being should have to suffer such aloneness.”