The Western Canada LeatherSIR/boy & Community Bootblack contest occurs this coming November 18th to 20th at The Calgary Eagle. GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine spoke with outgoing Western Canada Leatherboy Rene Hebert (aka. boy rene) about his experiences with the event last year. From his win at the regionals, boy rene then went on to compete in the International Leather SIR/Leatherboy and Community Bootblack in San Francisco this past July.

For him, while both contests were important and enjoyable, the regional one left more of an impression. Much like this year’s event, the contest ran over three days. Friday night was the introduction to the weekend, as the contestants and the judges socialized on an informal basis.

As boy rene described it, the real "nerve-wracking" portion happened on Saturday. Judges conduct a twenty minute interview process of each contestant. In the evening, contestants give a two minute speech onstage. Next is the jockstrap event where contestants "...go onstage in nothing but a jockstrap and boots, to show that you’re comfortable in your own skin," he told us.

Finally, there’s the fantasy category of the contest. Every region has a different fantasy theme that contestants must illustrate in a five minute demonstration. Last year the theme was "cyber" and boy rene had his own take on this: "the theme I did involved a lot of electricity...almost like a cyber-Goth / cyber-punk fantasy."

How the international event in San Francisco was staged was very similar, he told us. In addition to variations on the above three events, all the Sirs and boys competing had a fifteen minute block to put on a demo showing how they play, or some skill they like to use. "Because bottom line this is a player’s title. They want to make sure the people who win the title are actually into it for the sexual aspect and the kink and the play and all that."

In San Francisco there were 12 regions competing; however, while boy rene was nervous going into the international event, he was more nervous on the regional. "For the international one, you’re kept so busy you don’t really have time to get stressed...and once it starts it just goes." Unfortunately, he was a 1st place runner-up internationally, losing out to one of the judges for this year’s event, boy Nitro from Atlanta.

Yet even now, boy rene is still buzzed about both events – especially San Francisco, he said. "You find yourself thrown into a room with only the other contestants as company, and it was amazing to see the change in everyone. Within five minutes, everyone started bonding. It’s almost as if the competition didn’t matter as much anymore, it was all about helping each other get through the weekend."

Looking back over the past year and the two events, he said it has really imparted a strong sense of self-confidence within him. "I just feel much more comfortable in my own skin through the whole experience...All I know is that I feel that I’ve grown as a person, and really come into my own. I’ve gained more confidence in myself, my abilities, and as a sexual being as well."

Furthermore, by winning the regional title and with the work he has done in the leather community, he has found a sense of self-respect, acceptance, and belonging he was not able to find elsewhere within the gay community. Through his whole year he’s also met many wonderful people: "It really is almost a sense of family...the people that you befriend through this, especially the international contest...you end up keeping them as friends your entire life."

The event also gave a boost for boy rene to continue work with Edmonton Players in Gear (E-PIG), which is working on building interest in kink/leather/gear in the GLBTQ community. "One thing that I am finding...with E-PIG...a lot of gay men, they have an interest in it (leather/kink) but they don’t know where to go to explore it, they don’t know who to talk to, to have these questions answered. We are actually finding there are a number of younger guys coming out of the woodwork saying I kind of want to find out about this so it is kind of a cool thing to see."

This is important because to a certain degree, boy rene feels leather dykes and leathermen are underrepresented in our community. "Here in Edmonton, it’s not represented anywhere near as well as it could be, or used to be. In recent years, many leathermen have gone into retirement, backing away from going to events and bar nights. And as far as the leather dykes... there’s almost no representation at all. I’m currently working on trying to get some visibility from the leather community into the larger Edmonton LGBTQ community, and will soon be trying to actively bring out the leather dykes as well to get more involved."

As he is finishing the year as regional division holder, boy rene would like to thank the producers of the regional contest. Additionally, he appreciates the support he had this past year in both the Edmonton and Calgary communities. "One thing I would like to say specifically is, I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did, or done as well as I did, without the support that I got. I was the only one representing the region title-wise, but there were a lot of people backing me up. So this is by far not a solo effort." He’d also like to thank his title Sir, Sir Scott, as he was such an amazing support.