Double interview with our home-grown ‘Barack and Michelle’

At the upcoming Members’ Assembly on 13 January, the new board of Leather Club Roma will be elected: we took the opportunity to ask a few questions of the outgoing ‘presidential couple’.

So let’s see… 6 years of presidency, two terms, like the Obamas… do you feel a bit like the Italian answer to Barack and Michelle?
P and F: actually Barack and Michelle are the American answer to us! And not even a very successful one: the Leather Club’s parties are much more fun than the Obamas’!

But the Leather Club’s statute doesn’t require stopping after two terms…
F: True… but the members’ patience does!
P: I’ve seen things you humans couldn’t imagine…. So it’s time to pass the baton!

And yet many would like you to be re-elected
F: Joking aside…. These six years have been rich in human and associative satisfactions, but I think that in an association it’s important now and then to have a sign of change, to try other paths, other ways of engaging with the community.
P: For me, instead, it’s time to take on the biggest project: the release of my autobiographical book “Love in the Time of Darkrooms”.

Fabio, at the end of every self-respecting presidency there is always a review. Without boring us too much… what would you have liked to do but didn’t, and what would you really never have wanted to do…
F: Many things and none at the same time. These years of presidency taught me something very important (also outside associative life), namely that when you are in a group – and even more so if you somehow represent it – what matters is not so much what you would or wouldn’t like to do, but what the group (thoughtfully) decides to do or not to do. I think a representative role teaches exactly this: to be “together with” others and never “ahead of” others.

I said without boring us too much… and anyway your answer wasn’t exactly exhaustive
F: I could answer that the things I wouldn’t have wanted to do are the occasions when I didn’t manage to be a good representative and, conversely, what I would have liked to do is to be one in a better way.
P: It’s not always possible to find a common position within a group of gay men who have to decide whether Mina or Carrà is better…

Behind a president there’s always a first lady, in our case a first gentleman, what has it been like standing next to the “institutional” Fabio?
P: More than next to him, I sometimes hovered over him like a vulture, often asking him to decide instinctively without thinking too much… fortunately sometimes the vulture was shot down in favour of a more considered decision
F: In reality, over these years Paolo has always helped me a lot and many of the things we did are largely thanks to him.

What do you leave to the next board? What are the issues to start from again?
F. Look, in the last year in Italy – organised by the three fetish associations – there have been about 25 leather/fetish parties in 6 different cities, including the elections of three Misters and an event like Fetish Pride Italy, which by now is a fixed appointment for the European community too.
Together with Germany, we are without doubt the most active European nation from the associative point of view, with the largest number of non-commercial events and highly esteemed internationally.
It is from here, in my opinion, that we should start again as a Leather Club and as a community, to value, also through mutual collaborations, this wealth of initiatives and energies.

Paolo, Michelle grew a vegetable garden, took part in Carpool Karaoke and even announced the winner of an Oscar: if you had to choose three images, three things from these six years, which would you choose?

P: The first Fetish Pride Italy with the photo exhibition at the Mondrian Suite in San Lorenzo, the film festival at Kino (and all the effort behind it) and the “fetishised” Coming Out Bar at the Colosseum
Dodo’s (our mascot) 18th birthday at Coming Out!
The smile of everyone I met around Italy and abroad on the various fetish occasions: a “strange”, but great family of friends.
And I’ll add a fourth, the most recent: the crowd of people who came to see the screening of “Tom Of Finland” at Acrobax in Rome, which we organised together with Buzz Intercultura.

Let’s talk about Fetish Pride. It was undoubtedly your most important project and we have now reached the fifth edition. How was the idea born and what are the possible developments of this event.
F: The idea of Fetish Pride was born during a club board meeting, and precisely it was Roberto who had it, and immediately brought a lot of enthusiasm.
P: At the beginning it was also different from now…
F: Yes, in fact over the years the event has changed a bit; for example, for three years we organised both an international fetish photography exhibition (and contest) and an international fetish film festival, events that we then put aside (at least for now) for a question of resources, both financial and organisational.
I think the evolution of Fetish Pride Italy will depend largely on the energies (and ideas) that we as a club will be able to put into it.
In associations and volunteering, the rule in my opinion must always be that everyone gives their contribution within the limits of their own resources and energies, because otherwise from “free time” associationism risks becoming “work and toil”, and then either you do it reluctantly or you abandon it.

As the last act of your presidency, Fabio, you presented Rome’s candidacy for AGM 2019. What does it mean for Leather Club Roma and for the Italian fetish community?
F: In reality the candidacy did come from a proposal of mine, but it was accepted by the whole board and then unanimously by the members’ assembly.
I think for Leather Club Roma and for the Italian fetish scene it will be a great opportunity to bring many foreigners to Rome and make them appreciate our community.

Paolo, what will be your last act as first lady? There was talk of an official tea, or am I wrong?
P: Of course, I confirm it will be a tea with porcelain cups… as in the salon of every self-respecting first lady.

And now what will you do? Have you thought about how you’ll spend your time? Any interesting projects for next year?
F. Personally, even though I’ll no longer be president, I still intend to keep making my practical contribution to Leather Club Roma, so I don’t think there will be many changes from this point of view.
P. there is a project and an important one, but I can’t reveal anything yet.

Anyway in America there’s talk of a candidacy for Michelle in 2020… Paolo, are you giving it some thought?

P: If Michelle offered me the position of her representative of the San Francisco fetish community I’d give it some thought and might even move…

 

The interview was conducted by Chris