Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather 2018 – Gerard Turner

D. Gerard Turner was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, May 1977. He avidly places himself into whatever he commits, believing his purpose in life is to close the stereotypical gap of judgement and welcome others to tap into accepting themselves as well as others unconditionally breaking stigma developed from lack of understanding or knowledge.
In January 2012 Gerard was introduced to ONYX, pledging full brother 2015. He began exploring, building relationships in the Leather Community; never wanting anyone around him to feel as he once saw himself; someone wanting to enjoy the comradery, but only stood in the shadows. He now makes it his goal to always address anyone that is out and about at the bars, appearing as he once did in the shadows. He previously served as the Onyx Mid-Atlantic Secretary for 2016.  Over the more recent years Gerard has received awards for ONYX Mid-Atlantic Brother of the Year 2016, ONYX Lion Strength Award 2017, Leather Person of the Year 2017 at Maryland Leather Weekend from C.O.M.M.A.N.D.; He was also pinned as Mama’s Renaissance Man during Code RED in 2017.
Philanthropy, his greatest passion; From helping teens Say NO to drugs as a Fourth-Grade student; to working with peers in Junior High School with Project T.A.L.K. (Teens Against Losing Kids), he also visits Senior citizens to keep them in touch with the world as it changes. Gerard has worked in raising over $70,000.00 to help youth fight cancer/leukemia; Annual toy drives with several organizations throughout the LGBTQ+ community combined donating over $200,000.00 in Toys and educational resources over several years, fundraisers supporting taking the homeless off the streets for a night of pampering, also canned food drives, his Annual Holiday Party and Coat Drive and much more. Gerard’s strongest passion comes by giving back and wanting to support others in the fight against HIV and Aids, with the Code Red Fundraising Event, with ONYX Mid-Atlantic. For the past 3 years now, the event has raised nearly 10K giving to Casa Ruby – 2015, Wanda Alston House – 2016, Joseph’s House DC -2017 and HIPS DC in March 2018, shattering the annual goal; the crowd as well as community sponsors have more than doubled.
The epic start 2018, Gerard competed MAL Weekend and won the honor of serving the community as Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather, continuing his purpose of closing the gap and bridging the community. Gerard feels the true ability to love unconditionally can be seen by taking time out to get to know him and others in your community. His professional career focuses around working and building relationships with people and major events at the National Institute of Health. In the later part of 2018, he is spearheading  planning for a new event called The Arts in Leather, which is sure to be a success in more ways than one. This man is multi-faceted and this is only a small scratch to the surface of his abilities as he continues to embrace all around him, both near and far.

Complex

Complex is a self described petty, black feminist and womanist. A product of their environment, Complex has been able to define what it means to be proud, black, kinky and leather on their own terms. A San Diego native, who enjoys dissecting racial relations all while riding a skateboard and boogie boarding.  Crafting their ideas of blackness from rap videos and television. While not allowing themselves to be limited by what “black” is allowed to be, they love to straddle the gender divides. As International Ms. Leather 2017, their title year has been dedicated to making sure black girl magic can thrive in all forms, allowing both their tomboy and femme adjacent presentations to be shown fluidly. Besides collecting dirty panties, she loves to collect pretty boys and apparently pretty girls as well. You can catch them sunbathing and listening to Yacht Rock, or watching anime in Oakland, CA, or you can lowkey stalk their Instagram (Girl_Complex), Twitter (IMsL2017), and/or on Facebook (Girl Complex).

Dan Marinari

Dan Marinari is Mr Philadelphia Leather 2018. After crunching numbers all week, he can usually be found in a leather bar or gogo dancing in his jockstrap.

He is a full member of the Philadelphians MC. Dan uses his platform to represent bisexuals in leather and to promote the inclusion of queer people in the leather community.

In his spare time he enjoys sports, fitness and nutrition. He is passionate about LGBTQ representation in sports and wearing crop tops while getting sweaty.

More to be announced regularly!