Interview with the new board of Leather Club Roma

David and Fabio… you are the past and the present of the LCR board. What do you take with you from the previous term and what do you expect from the next?
Fabio: I certainly take with me the awareness that inside Leather Club Roma problems and issues have always been faced with harmony, great serenity and reasonableness. From the next board I expect it to continue along this road, but with a new and more dynamic approach.

And you, Mister President?
David: I joined Leather Club Roma 4 years ago and after a few months I joined the board. It was a useful opportunity to get to know the association and its relationships with Italian and foreign clubs. But the most important thing is human relationships, the friendships that have been established and that are our strength. We are a united group that knows how to talk things through and take decisions together. For the future I expect the same harmony and the desire to keep carrying out new projects with fun.

Neri, Marco and Chris… what is it like to go from being a mister to being part of a club’s board?
Marco: It would be like asking the late Marilyn the difference between shooting “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “The Misfits”…
Neri: It’s a bit like going from being the President of the Republic or the King to being part of the Government. Fewer ceremonies and more operations. You can express your opinion more freely without having to weigh and re-weigh it to respect different sensibilities (diplomatically speaking).
Chris: I don’t know why, but the first thing that came to my mind is the film Io speriamo che me la cavo (“Me, I Hope I Get By”) with Paolo Villaggio. It will be quite a challenge.

Fabio, as the former president, what do you feel like advising David, and David, what would you like to ask your predecessor?
Fabio: The only real advice I feel like giving David is this: be president in your own way, with your own ideas and your own personality. I am (and we all are) convinced you will be an excellent president.
David: I would like to ask him for the same energy and stimulus he has always put into the association and lots, lots of advice.

What is the main goal of your term as a board?
Fabio: Every board should prepare the ground for the next one, that is, try to involve more people in the club’s activity. Maybe it’s not the main goal, but in my opinion it’s still very important.
Neri: To continue the path of growth the club has had in these years, making it more and more a reference point for the Italian fetish community and a driving force of our culture and our values in society.

Well, I’d say those are important goals…
Marco: I would say getting to the end of AGM 2019 alive!
Chris: What optimists! I would start with managing to eat the panettone! Joking aside, we will have to work hard. The start, though explosive, was certainly not without some surprises…

Are you referring to what happened during the Mister Rubber Italia 2018 election night?
Chris: Exactly! Let’s say that the entrance of thirty finance guards, police officers, firefighters, employees of the health authority and of SIAE, with an anti-drug dog in tow, is not quite what I had imagined as the highlight of the evening.
Neri: Right… it wasn’t a nice show. Especially for all those who had come from far away, but also for the candidates.

In Europe there has been a lot of talk about what happened…
David: Yes, it’s true. It wasn’t an episode of homophobia, just an administrative inspection that ended in the worst possible way, for our evening, for the club and for everyone who was at the party. As Leather Club Roma, we want to thank those who in these days have supported us with their messages and the endless displays of affection and closeness, the result of what has been sown over the years.

What about relations with the other Roman gay associations?
David: My personal history has been marked by active militancy in one of the most important Roman associations, the Mario Mieli Homosexual Culture Circle, and I remember a continuous collaboration with LCR since the early 2000s. Beyond the peculiarities of each association, we are all united by the same desire to affirm our freedoms, and only through discussion and sharing of battles can concrete results come.

Marco, if I’m not mistaken, you have a project under way.
Marco: Yes, for a few months now I have been actively collaborating with the Gay Center on a project that has to do with HIV prevention and breaking down the stigma towards HIV-positive people. I hope to manage to combine the two things, making rapid tests for early diagnosis possible also during “our” nights.

… And relations with Italian and foreign fetish clubs.
David: Although over the years LCR has cultivated good relations with the other clubs, we are well aware of the difficulties between the Italian fetish groups. The hope is to manage to collaborate and find moments of meeting with all the associations, because we are convinced this can only bring benefits to our community.
Fabio: In my opinion the approach we should take is twofold: on one hand, as David stresses, always seek collaboration with other groups with great availability and openness. On the other, however, take note that there are also groups that don’t want to collaborate with us (even if only for a certain period); in that case, I think the goal we can set ourselves is coexistence, possibly peaceful, always trying to build the ground for future collaborations.

Basically world peace…
Neri: Well, LCR has a long tradition of friendly relations and cooperation with European clubs, also supporting younger clubs, and it has voiced the needs for innovation and change in the European system. In the Italian scene we have always promoted the need for greater cooperation, integration and genuinely shared projects and events for the growth and consolidation of a young community that is still not very aware. I’d say let’s carry on like this.
Marco: Thank heavens, I get along a bit with everybody… the same goes for LCR. If someone has a problem with me, they have never told me to my face and those who know me well know that I hate hypocrisy. As for the club, in recent years we have tried to always stay on good terms with the other groups, Italian and otherwise.

Let’s talk about serious things… Excluding Fabio, whose answer I think I know, are you single?
David: No sorry, what does that have to do with anything?
Marco: The question is not relevant.

You are public figures by now and the public wants to know who among you to try it on with… wants to know something more about your private life.
Chris: I really don’t think so! Anyway I’m an old bachelor… oh no sorry… single
David: Anyway I’m not single, but engaged to everyone.

A couple of words on the upcoming appointments and the AGM
David: The first events on the calendar are the rescheduled Mister Rubber Italia and Mister Leather Italia elections, which will take place from 27 to 29 April. After what happened, we are working to organise the two contests in the best possible way. In a few days we will publish the programme of what will be the most fetish weekend of the year.

And looking a bit further ahead?
Marco: HELP ME! Does that work as a couple of words?!? Joking aside, we are a “young” board, but one that can count on the experience of the former president, as well as on an efficient and close-knit working group. I’m sure we will be able to turn these strengths into successful events. The experience of AGM 2009 (which many in Europe still remember) will help us do things in a big way this time too. The AGM comes back to Italy after the Padua experience of 2013, which was exceptional to say the least, so we must strive to do just as well.
Neri: After the success of the Fetish Pride, constantly growing in recent years, we will have to take on the great organisational effort required by the AGM and Mister Leather Europe 2019. Besides, it will be the occasion to celebrate Leather Club Roma’s twenty years. We will need the involvement of as many people as possible, including the younger generations, lots of passion and also a bit of madness. Let’s get to it!

A really very rich programme…
Chris: And let’s not forget the night at Club Depot in Naples on 10 March. Then who knows, maybe next year besides carbonara and sfogliatelle, we could also go and eat lampredotto in Florence…