Right after the bucket-load of events leading up to the iconic Up Your Alley street fair, I knew what I wanted to write about this week. The second a certain pivotal inspiring moment occurred at the fair.

Even after the Up Your Alley festivities, there's always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

Buckle up kids. As this column hits the streets and online, the busy weekend of leather and kink happenings punctuated by the Up Your Alley Street Fair is underway. This year's schedule is packed to the rafters with stuff to do.

There's always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters. This week, official and unofficial Up Your Alley leather and kink events take place all over town.

In 1997, to help these gear-centric men connect, a man who goes only by Leon founded an international organization called BLUF, a community for men who have an interest in leather, uniforms and breeches. It now has thousands of members around the world.

There's always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

There's always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

As the American political landscape collapses around us into a heap of hateful dung, I wonder if all my efforts should be focused on saving what's left of our country rather than telling you how to have awesome sex or meet fellow kinksters.

This year's recent International Mr. Leather (IML) weekend was its 40th anniversary. 40 years since Chuck Renslow decided to have a leather contest, a contest and weekend that in large part helped form the foundation of the modern leather experience.

There's always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters, including Pride events.

Show us your pride and advertise in our annual San Francisco Pride edition. Space reservations will be due at 12noon on Friday, June 15 with ad materials due June 18, Monday, at 5pm.

There's always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

But as I prepare to attend what is the biggest men's leather and kink event of its kind in the world, I'm reflecting on some of the events I've been attending this past week here locally in San Francisco.

Throughout the years one of the most common questions I've been asked has come from people who don't consider themselves kinky but have discovered they're interested in or dating someone who has such interests.