2023 Board of Directors

2021-22 Board of Directors

AL RAHM LUJAN (Chairman)

Al Rahm Lujan is celebrating two decades in the Bay Area and four decades in the kink/leather community. He was SF Bay Area Sober in Leather 2017 and was first runner up in the Mr. SF Leather contest and was awarded Bay Area Leather Alliance’s Man of the Year the following year. Al Rahm started volunteering with Leathermens’ Discussion Group – working at the clothes check for Dore alley and Folsom Street Fairs and setting up for programs. He was admitted to the board as volunteer coordinator in 2017 and was voted Chairman in 2018. Al is a published writer, visual and performing artist. His first short film ‘SM in the Hood’ is distributed by Frameline. Al is very fond of boots and full leathers. He is known as Daddy to his boy Robb.

grunt (secretary)

grunt has been part of the kink community in the Bay Area and Chicago for the last twenty years. he started with LDG as a volunteer back in 2018, was admitted to the board in 2019 as Volunteer Director and voted into the Board Secretary position in 2020. grunt is very grateful to give something back to a community that has given so much to him over the years. he has a wide variety of kink/SM interests and is always open to trying something new. Besides LDG grunt enjoys traveling, the gym, playing video games and the dark corners of the Eagle.

RASCAL (Treasurer)

I have been a part of the kink and leather community for over 15 years. I am originally from the Central Valley, and after serving in the military, I moved to Sacramento and from there to San Francisco. The San Francisco Leather Community was there for me in my time of need, and it has been my honor to give back. I have been on the GearUp Weekend planning committee for 6 years, serving two years as the Party Chair and then three years as Chairman. I am also a current member of the 15 Association and sit on the SomeWest CBD Board of Directors as a representative of the greater leather community. I have been attending LDG Programs since I moved to San Francisco and am thrilled to be on the Board again this year!

ERIK WILL (Tech & Video Archivist)

Erik identifies as a service switchy kinkster. He’s been helping makes things go for LDG since 2011 (Volunteer Coordinator in 2011, Chairman 2012-2017, and Marketing/Technology Chair 2017-2019, Technology chair currently). He is programming director for Gearup Men’s Weekend, and a board member on the San Francisco Leather and LGBTQ District. He’s also helped out with The SF Bay Area Leather Alliance, and is an associate of The 15 Association. Favorite play includes play piercing (and blood!), mummification, tickling, impact/punching/canes, CBT, TT, handball, watersports, and edging. He has two asshole cats, and spends most of his time with two sweet human pups. In his muggle life, he is a product designer, strategist, and facilitator.

KENNY GIVENS (Board Associate)

Kenny is relatively new to kink but he has been curious for years. He started his kinky journey in 2017 when he went to his first play party and LDG event on impact play. From there, he started attending various kink and leather events and eventually started volunteering at events for Gearup, LDG and Rope Burn. He also walked with the leather contingent in the SF Pride parade in 2018 and 2019. As the Associate Board Member, Kenny is eager and excited to learn more the kink and leather company as well as the history and people behind it.

JAY HARCOURT (Programs Director)

Jay (he/him) has been active in the San Francisco community since arriving in the fall of 1993, and is most proud of serving as a founding member of the Community Advisory Board that planned and launched Magnet; being a member of the Local Organizing Committee for the Leather Leadership Conference 12 here in San Francisco; serving as Mr. Hayes Valley Leather 2005, and producing the Mr. SF Leather and Mr. Hayes Valley Leather Contests.

CHRISTAUF NICHOLAS (Marketing Director)

Christauf joined the SF kink scene in early 2015, very quickly found that Leather was for him, and dove into the deep end. He spent the first couple years taking classes, practicing, reading, writing, and volunteering — while playing as often as possible. Christauf is a heavy S/m Top with big love for impact, breath play, electricity, blades, and more. He considers Leather sexuality to be a gateway to deeper, more intense intimate connections. Sharing the nuts and bolts of making those deep connections happen is his passion.

2019-20 Board of Directors

RYAN MATTSON (Board Officer: Chairman)

After discovering leather in early 2003, Ryan has continued to engage himself in the community through social events, volunteering and kinky play. In February 2012, Ryan helped found the Young Leathermen's Discussion Group (YLDG) with the aim to educate and discuss important issues that impact and concern the younger generation of Leathermen.

THAO HILL (Board Officer: Secretary)

Thao spent his 20s coming out in New Orleans, but secretly sneaking off to the Phoenix and the Rawhide in his leather harness and hanging from the rafters.  After Hurricane Katrina, he made his next move to San Francisco. He spent his 30s with a tech startup, and was a senior executive of the company for 9 years until it was sold in 2014.  His sexual exploration during this time was largely hidden (and tormented).

When he turned 40 in 2015, he came out kinky, and was welcomed into a leather family that he continues to cherish today.  After attending his first LDG meeting with Sir Race Bannon in August 2015, he’s been volunteering for LDG and YLDG Meetings every month since.  2016 saw him attend his first IML, his first public play party, his first Gear Up Weekend, his first Mr. SF Leather Contest weekend (where he served on the volunteer committee as head of audience engagement), his first Leather Walk,  his first SF Pride Parade in the Leather Contingent, and his first live demo performances. His goal is to help those other “kinky closeted” gay men find a home in LDG where they can explore their truth.

ROBERT “ROBEAR” LIZARDY (Board Officer: Treasurer)

Robert is a newer member to the leather/kink community here in the Bay Area though he has lived in San Francisco for almost 10 years. Robert first discovered LDG about 4 years ago when his mentor and Daddy, Blade Bannon, invited him to a monthly event; from that point forward he was hooked. Since then Robert has served the community as a mentor with the LDG Mentoring Program offered by Richard Sprott, volunteered when possible for LDG programs and special events like Fetish Fair and Folsom, and has been exploring many different kinks, though already has a deep fondness for bondage and flogging (hint, hint). Other than grooming his beard, Robert is in the final steps of becoming a Licensed MFT (Marriage and Family Therapist) and hopes to continue to support and advance this community in both his personal and professional lives.

DÓNAL MOONEY (Board Member: Director of Programming)

An English transplant to the Bay Area, married, collared.  After 25 years of having hardly any sex with anyone, and none with men, Dónal found gay and kinky sex almost simultaneously. His first kinks were bondage and wrestling, and from that point on he just kept exploring, because his favorite thing is pushing boundaries.

Dónal worked for 11 years in gay men's health promotion in London, and has delivered both kink and vanilla sex workshops in London, Atlanta and Cleveland. He has also performed live shows at parties in London, Berlin, Chicago and San Francisco. In 2008, Dónal accidentally won the very first Mr. Eagle London contest, which led to his filming a few pieces of porn, and he prefers to assume that no one has ever seen it, but is very happy to know if people have enjoyed it.

Dónal is hoping to bring his skills and passion for helping other people push the limits of what they can enjoy to the programs at LDG

BLADE BANNON (Board Member: Volunteer Coordinator)

Blade Bannon has served in the Leather community for over three decades. He’s held multiple titles as a representative of the leather, BD/SM, kink, community.  Some of these titles include, Bum Steer Drummer boy 1991, Mr. Charlie’s Leather 1993, Southwest Mr. Drummer 1993 and AZ Mr. Leather Sir 2008. He was honored to serve many times as a judge, tally master, Den Daddy and emcee during his service in the southwest region.  

Blade has devoted much of his time to the community in different ways.  He’s held many leadership roles which include the offices of Secretary, Vice President and President of the Universal Brotherhood of the Leatherlords.  He has given educational workshops on various BD/MS, kink and fetish topics as well as being a published author in this field.   He has donated his time and/or money to many charity and health organizations. Some of which include: Volunteers in Direct Aid (VIDA) Logan’s Play Ground, Homeward Bound, Community Youth Center Phoenix and bay area, Meals on Wheels, Body Positive, Magnet, MS150, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and  many more. He is currently serving an active member of the LDG Mentoring program and as Volunteer Coordinator.

ERIK WILL (Tech & video archivist) identifies as a service switchy kinkster. He’s been helping makes things go for SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group since 2011 (Volunteer Coordinator in 2011, Chairman 2012-2017, and Marketing/Technology Chair 2017-2019, Technology chair currently). He is programming director for Gearup Men’s Weekend, and a board member on the San Francisco Leather and LGBTQ District. He’s also helped out with The SF Bay Area Leather Alliance, and is an associate of The 15 Association. Favorite play includes play piercing (and blood!), mummification, tickling, impact/punching/canes, CBT, TT, handball, watersports, and edging. He has two asshole cats, and spends most of his time with two sweet human pups. In his muggle life, he is a product designer, strategist, and facilitator.

DADDY ROBERT (Board Member: Volunteer Coordinator)

Part newbie and part not, Daddy Robert has been active in the San Francisco leather community for only about three years – and he is delighted that the fantasy/ reading/ preparatory stage is over! Robert works in social services professionally and has attended numerous BDSM workshops and play events public and private (e.g., Gear Up Weekend).

Prior Years

CHAD LEE (Super Volunteer 2010-2014) finds being active in LDG personally fulfilling because he is able to welcome others to our leather tribe – and be welcomed in return. While relatively new to the S.F. leather community, he has lived and spoken openly about his leather lifestyle since the 1990s in both Minneapolis and Los Angeles, his first two “hometowns.” Chad is also an active member of the Defenders/SF.

PATRICK MULCAHEY (Program Director 2010-2014) speaks and teaches on leather, SM, and Master/slave topics, and writes regular columns for Leatherati and Growing Pains, the Society of Janus newsletter. He is chapter director for MAsT: San Francisco and has served as a judge for the International Master/slave, International Leather SIR/boy, and International Mr. Leather contests. Patrick was named 2011 Bay Area Leather Alliance Man of the Year and has received the Leatherman's Heart Award, the Robert Davolt “Spirit of Leather" Award, the 2013 Pantheon of Leather Northern California Regional Award, and the 2014 National Leather Association Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Have you been on the organizing/steering committee/board of LDG? Or can you help us trace our own history? Please let us know so we can contact you!