INTERVIEW WITH DAVE MATT

Lady Justice: Who are you? Please describe yourself in 30 words or less.

 

Dave Watt:  Adventurous, blessed, creative, Dutch, early-riser, forgetful, geeky, health-minded, introspective, joyous, ken-centric, list-making, masculine, non-normal, open-minded, personable, queer, rambunctious, spiritual, tasty, unavailable, versatile, wide-eyed, x-rayed, youthful, zealous.
 
Lady Justice: When did you first realize you were interested in leather/BDSM/fetish? And how?

 

Dave Watt:  I always found bearish/chubby men to be attractive even as a kid. Exploring what it would be like to be fat, I used to pad myself starting in my early teens. I also drew progress pictures of muscular men gradually gaining weight and would fantasize about somehow forcing them to gain. Those thoughts were put on a back burner for decades while I struggled with my faith and the coming out process. Five years ago I met a very hot leatherman at the State Bar in Flint, Mi and asked him what that orange hanky meant in his left pocket; which leads to an incredibly hot play session. After a few hours of submission, many wonderful feelings/sensations were awoken. I haven't cum without nipple play since.
 
Lady Justice: What are your hobbies?

 

Dave Watt:  Gardening is my escape from the world, where I can work and see immediate results. That rarely happens in real life!
 
Lady Justice: What is your favorite quote?

 

Dave Watt:  Well, I have two favorites...
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ" Gandhi

 

"Love yourself without reservation and love others without restraint, unless you are into leather." Margaret Cho
 
Lady Justice: How long have you been involved in the leather community?

 

Dave Watt:  When I hit 40, I said to myself - it's time to explore this thing called "leather." I joined the Grand Rapids Rivermen shortly after and felt right at home ever since.

 

Lady Justice: Do you feel there is anything vital missing from today’s leather community?

 

Dave Watt:  I think we can do more as a leather community to be more inclusive, to reach out to non-leather people and show them that leather play is something everyone can get into! That "leather" is not something to be afraid of or shy aware from. "Leather" can help us explore our creative sexual side.
 
Lady Justice: What is your definition of a "leatherman"? What are his responsibilities?

 

Dave Watt:  I was at a bar doing some HIV outreach - and someone I had never met asked me if I was into leather. Since I was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt, I smiled and asked why he thought that. He replied "Because you have an air of confidence about you, that you are comfortable in your own skin." I think leathermen and women have a responsibility to be true to ourselves and to share our true self with others.
 
Lady Justice: Which roles in the Leather BDSM lifestyle do you fit? How do the following words compare to you: Master, slave, dominant, submissive, sadist, masochist, Daddy, etc…

 

Dave Watt:  I am a bit of each. I tend to dominate newbies and submit to the Experienced. The word "domissive" fits me as well with my food fetish -servant role with the food, yet dominating the scene by encouraging the eating.
 
Lady Justice: What keeps you passionate about the leather community?

 

Dave Watt:  I feel indebted to the leather community for helping me learn to live life to the fullest and come out of the closet with who I am. I find that leather people have a "joy de vie" that I think is infectious. We seize the day, making the most out of life.
 
Lady Justice: What organizations do you belong? Are you an officer of any of these groups?

 

Dave Watt:  I am on the board for CLAW, an affiliate member of the Grand Rapids Rivermen, an associate member of Tride Detroit and an honorary associate of Icon Detroit.
 
Lady Justice: Please tell us about leather competitions, especially your recent experiences. What made you decide to compete for a leather title?

 

Dave Watt:  In many ways, I feel that I owe my life to the leather community. The self-confidence and acceptance that the leather community teaches helped me face my alcohol addiction.  Through AA and my spiritual growth, I've been sober for almost three years.  Competing for a title is one way that I can "give back." I chose to compete for Mr. Fetish Detroit for several reasons. I have a serious food fetish that I'd been more and more public about. Helping people to explore kink shows them that safe sex can be fun. And I wanted to support Icon Detroit's new Mr. MI Leather feeder contest. When I first heard of a "feeder contest" I mistakenly thought food was involved!

 
Lady Justice: What is your platform in your role as a titleholder?

 

Dave Watt:  I'm all about HIV education. In my opinion, "poz-phobia" and the stigma of HIV is the cause of many unsafe behaviors such as avoiding disclosure of status and choosing to not get an HIV test. My goal is to reach out to people through HIV workshops and event outreach, encouraging a more open discussion of HIV and promoting HIV testing.  Early detection and adherence to medicine is the key for a healthy life if you are HIV positive.
 
Lady Justice: What do you look forward to as a new titleholder?

 

Dave Watt:  The title is providing new opportunities for outreach even outside of leather events: guest speaker at a bear event, escort drag queens competing for a title, presenter at a local gay men's youth group. I'm meeting many amazing/inspiring people along the way too.
 
Lady Justice: What is your fondest memory while you were wearing leather over the years?

 

Dave Watt:  This might sound cheesy, but I think it was while giving my speech at Mr. Michigan Leather contest. I felt like I could really reach people through the power of "the speech." In my speech, I mentioned that you can meet the man of your dreams on-line - and the crowd gave a collective "awwwwwwwww" knowing that ken and I met on-line. 
 
Lady Justice: Have you ever conducted a leather workshop? What was the topic? If you were to teach more leather workshops, what topics would you teach?

 

Dave Watt:  "Food Fetish - Integrating Food Into a Scene” for LIFE Detroit and CLAW events. I'm also looking forward to presenting "HIV: Beyond the Basics" at DARK Weekend, the next LIFE Detroit event. I also hope to lead a fundraising brainstorm session someday with other titleholders.
 
Lady Justice: Who do you admire in the community? And, is there anyone in it you like to be for 24 hours and why?

 

Dave Watt:  Bob Miller is a "get shit done" kind of man whom I admire immensely. I have no desire to be him for a day, although that would mean that his hotter-than-hot partner Jim might have his way with me...
 
Lady Justice: What is your stance on "Old Guard" versus "New Guard" leather protocols and rules?

 

Dave Watt:  There are aspects of both that I find appealing. For me it's all about embracing who you are and showing respect for others. The old guard is our role model for discipline, honor and respect. The new guard opens our minds to the future and endless possibilities.
 
Lady Justice: Do others outside the leather community know you’re into leather? If so has that created any difficulty?

 

Dave Watt:  My supervisor is a member of the Chicago Hellfire Club. It's soooooooo nice to have a job when I request time off for Inferno guard duty with a reply of "see you there - I'm going to session B." My parents have never set foot in my dungeon space. My mom asked me about my sex life once. I said "do you really want to go there? I'll tell you anything." She paused, thought about it for a minute while I grinned from ear to ear.  She decided not to.

 

My dad, a retired emergency room physician, has "seen it all" with some amusing stories about what he's pulled out of some men's asses. He too doesn't want to talk about "it." Once at dinner alone with my parents I declined the asparagus. My dad quipped out of nowhere "going to pee in someone's mouth later tonight?" After catching my breath and realizing mom didn't hear I said "I'd like to have the option..."
 
Lady Justice: What qualities about yourself do you like the most? The least?

 

Sometimes when I am feeling stressed, I tend to be less patient. Usually it means I've been too busy to take the time to urinate - and the stress I feel is really just on my bladder...

 

Dave Watt:  I seem to have the ability to relate to just about everyone. I like to make people laugh, especially when unexpected.
 
Lady Justice: If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? And if you could change anything about others, what would it be?

 

Dave Watt:  I feel like I'm a "late bloomer," that I wasted many years living a life based on fear. Not intentionally quoting Cher, but "if I could turn back time..." I'd like for us all to be much less afraid of the unknown.
 
Lady Justice: What is the last book you read that deals with leather and the last book you read that is a non-leather topic? Why did you choose those books?

 

Dave Watt:  In preparing for the MML competition, I read on-line that on of my judges Michael Edges recommended a book entitled "Painfully Obvious." I'm enjoying reading it off and on. It’s fun informative and erotic.

 

Non-leather book would have to be from the bible - although one could easily argue that it's the original leather book?
 
Lady Justice: Tell us more about your favorite fetish. After all, you are Mr. Fetish Detroit 2008!

 

Dave Watt:  I have a serious food fetish - virtually all aspects.  Sharing food with your partner can be very erotic, especially if you use your fingers as a utensil - or your penis - or your inner thigh as a serving platter. Food, sex, fun - all seem to be in the same part of my brain... and if you ever met my family, you'd know exactly where my food fetish comes from. My mom is a classic "feeder."
 
Lady Justice: How did you discover you had a fetish for food and feeding?

 

Dave Watt:  As a kid I used to draw a series of progress pictures of muscular men - and slowing gaining weight until they were chubby. I think it was from being teased by the jocks in school - chubbiness would take away their egos. Having never been invited to the "cool kids" table in high school, I hope to never make anyone feel that they are "less than cool."
 
Lady Justice: When you flag, which colors do you wear? Do you wear them on the left or the right?

 

Dave Watt:  I flag neon green (food fetish) and blue on the left. Definitely versatile here, but tend to be more of a top - due to a serious shortage of tops out there! And I also seem to enjoy topping tops...
 
Lady Justice: Do you have a dungeon or play space? If you do, tell us about it. If you don’t, tell us how you would design your dungeon.

 

Dave Watt:  We definitely have a play space. Instead of telling you about it, I'd rather show it to you...

 

(Well then, Dave...it’s ON.  I’ll bring the toys, you bring the strawberries.)
 .
Lady Justice: Do you remember your first time in a leather bar and what was memorable about it?

 

Dave Watt:  My friend Mike wanted to take me to the Detroit Eagle. Not letting me show up in my white tennis shoes, we stopped at Noir Leather, a new/used leather store in Royal Oak - and I found a pair of used Harley Davidson boots that perfectly fit my size 10W foot. Upon walking in the Eagle's door, I felt right at home. The men were all h-h-hot, friendly and kinky!
 
Lady Justice: Let’s pretend that you’re placing a 35 word personal ad in the column. How would it read?

 

Dave Watt:  Ken and I wrote this together and put it on our profiles. "My partner & I work in HIV - and have met many poz men that have been treated poorly. We hope to spread the message how to play safely - you can't ever be sure of someone's status, eh?! "
 
Lady Justice: What do you think our community needs to successfully move into the future?

 

Dave Watt:  I think the strength of our community is in our local organizations and clubs. We can achieve so much more with the collective efforts of those around us. The internet seems to be blamed for a lack of interest in the leather community as well. If we use the internet for more outreach/advertising, this might help "recruit" new interest.
 
Lady Justice: Would you like to tell us more about any of your new endeavors?

 

Dave Watt:  I launched a "Mr. Friendly" campaign to open up discussions about HIV and a status-friendly approach to safer sex negotiation. Mr. Friendly is a symbol that shows support for those who are HIV+ and encourage each of us to remind our friends to get an HIV test.
 
Lady Justice: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

 

Dave Watt:  Come to the Mr. Michigan Leather weekend! Demos/classes by Chicago Hell Fire members, a weekend of fun all right at the Dunes, after hours parties etc... A great time! www.mmlweekend.com

 

 
Lady Justice: Where can we find you online? Do you have e-mail, business information, or a web site you’d like to share with us?

 

Dave Watt:  Recon, Bear411, DaddyHunt, Manhunt, BiggerCity - all "daveinkzoo"
mrmichiganleather09@yahoo.com
www.caresswm.org
Community AIDS Resource and Education Services - my employer
(You can easily download a picture of Mr. Friendly at my recon site.)

---

"A freakish sadomasochistic perversion-fest!?!?"...

Several weekends ago I attended Winter Wickedness, a pansexual BDSM event held every February by the Columbus based group Adventures in Sexuality (A.I.S.)

This was my first time at this particular event and let me just say, the price to attend is very reasonable, the workshop presenters were stellar: Tristan Tamorino, Jay Wiseman, Mistress Joanne, etc, the hotel was a three star delight, and the 4200+ sq. foot play space (complete with hot pink wresting mats) was the best I’ve ever seen at an event. Jeff and Andrea from The Leather Archives had set up a diverse display of leather and kink history and over one thousand dollars was raised for such charities as the NCSF, Stonewall Columbus, and Bravo.

I had expected a pleasure filled weekend and reconnecting with friends I had not seen for some time. But what no one expected is another go ‘round with asshole supreme, Peter LaBarbera.

Most leather folk are familiar with latently homosexually-curious, hate filled rhetoric. He’s been a crusade to expose leather events and the "homosexual agenda" for years now. In 2004, he paid to enter the adult’s only vendor’s mart at IML and gleefully reported on it in this article:

http://www.illinoisfamily.org/informed/contentview.asp?c=16235

Recently he got his tighty whities in a bunch over the scheduled Maneuvers party, a sex party sponsored by Fort Troff, to be held during the Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend in Washington D.C. In his own words he seeks to testify "to man’s capacity for extreme wickedness and debasement in the pursuit of sin. The "gay" movement to "normalize" homosexuality is evil, and so we should expect that astounding evils would emanate from it – which they do."

Here’s a link to Metro Weekly, DC’s GLBT news magazine on the event and its cancellation:

http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=4010

Now he’s got events in Ohio in his very fetish curious sights. Petey called the Winter Wickedness event "a freakish sadomasochistic perversion-fest" and urged people to
call the hotel's corporate headquarters to pressure them into canceling this event "for the sake of decency and public health."

And Bob Burney, a religious extremist Talk Radio DJ, devoted an entire segment of his show slamming Winter Wickedness and attempting to link the event with non-consensual and criminal activities. He urged his listeners to call and mount a campaign against the hotel. (go to Tuesday, Part 3: http://www.home.wrfd.com/WRFDInsiderPage.htm  - starting at 10 min 42sec)

Many other stories about the event and its controversy have been published in the past weeks. Here are three from the Ann Coulter loving World Net Daily website:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88191

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87994

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88103

The Columbus Dispatch even ran an article on the Saturday of the event, and with all this coverage wouldn’t you think good, moral, folks would make it out to stand up for their cause? A grand total of five or six did. The rest were too lazy to un-ass their own couch; in sharp contrast, over three hundred where in town to support the event, the hotel, local businesses, and to sate their own pervy desires.

A Columbus based alternative journal, The Other Paper and writer Kitty McConnell, gave their take on the strategy of the protesters at:

http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2009/02/14/front/doc49934f39c0e43579972676.txt

In it "me-thinks-he-doth-protest-too-much Petey" is directly quoted as saying, "people wouldn’t have known" what was going on behind closed doors.

And to that I say; why is what a consenting adult does behind closed doors your business? Do you have such little quality of life, Peter; that what I and others do in our lives consumes so much of yours? Come out, come out wherever you are, girlfriend.

The really telling quote about Peter LaBarbera is at the end of the above lined article. "The counterargument to that is that thousands of people all over the country know Holiday Inn welcomes something (which) to me would be like hosting a Nazi convention. Actually, you could make the case that a Nazi convention would be more innocuous than what they hosted here," said LaBarbera.

If people like you and I weren’t having so much fun on the weekend, I’d suggest we protest his ham-handed neo-Nazi support.

The outcome of the Winter Wickedness story is that while some mild concessions were made banning piercing and other types of play that involved blood sport, the event went off without a hitch. The hotel remained committed to its contact with the producers of the event and the staff was courteous and kind.

Keep strong, keep true to yourself, and keep being kinky.

 

 

 

 

Now, some words from the NCSF:

Stand up for your legal and creative sexual expression! It will only
take a minute for you to help this event and your compatriots in the
kink community. Please call the Intercontinental Hotels Group Corporate
Customer service lines at 800-621-0555, then press option 1, then option
5, and thank them for not discriminating against groups, and for being
willing to face minor adversity for the sake of our freedom. You can
also call the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington today at 614-436-0700
– they'll be very glad to hear a friendly voice to counter the
hatred of the religious extremists.

Suggested points to make:

1. Thank you for upholding the Fair Accommodations Act and choosing not
to discriminate against legal events.

2. Please don't let a small number of religious extremists manipulate
you by drumming up fear with their misinformation campaigns

3. There are over 200 weekend long BDSM events that take place every
year in America – we bring lots of revenue in these hard times. We
like to stay at hotel chains where we have been welcomed when we're
traveling on personal or business travel.

4. Organizers of BDSM events such as Winter Wickedness at The Holiday
Inn, comply with state and local laws prohibiting public sexual
intercourse and other forms of sexual intimacy. Demonstrations, lectures
and discussion groups as well as dinners and evening parties compose the
variety of offerings to guests, nothing different from any of the other
hundreds of conventions hosted by your franchisees on a weekly basis.

5. Thank you for standing strong against hate and ignorance.