Leather History Preservation Foundation was created in April, 2016, as the brainchild of Dave Hudson, Ms. Tori Jones and Geoff Wingard, to have a legal non-profit entity to produce Leather History Conference 2016. They wanted that incorporation to create separation between their personal finances, and those of the event, for transparency and accountability to the attendees.
Over the course of the year, a full board of directors was recruited. The Board felt that our mission should be more inclusive and diverse. After LHC’s owner and founder withdrew her support, the Board moved forward with creating our own event – Leather History Preservation Weekend.
For Leather History Preservation Weekends, we have been very deliberate in recruiting more diverse representation for people of color, and transgender individuals, and hope to continue to expand our platform and programming to include other under-represented people as well as those within the larger Leather community.
OUR MISSION
To preserve the practice and tradition of passing on the collective experiences and wisdom of the Leather community through the sharing of oral histories.
To encourage the education and inclusion of the next generations of Leatherfolk to continue the practice and tradition of this sharing of oral history.
Preserve our traditions.
Share our experiences.
Encourage inclusion.
Educate ourselves.
Empower one another.
Promote acceptance.
To educate and empower those who identify as belonging to the Leather community, those who are new or curious about the Leather community, and to encourage tolerance and acceptance across a broad range of alternative adult lifestyle choices.
OUR VISION
Educating and empowering our Leather siblings and family, and others across a broad spectrum of adult alternative lifestyle choices, by understanding how our past has shaped our present, and how our present can shape the future.
HOW WE WILL GET THERE
By presenting an annual conference that will bring experienced Leathermen, Leatherwomen, and Leatherfolk of all identities, together to share their experiences – their trials, triumphs, and tragedies, their feelings and opinions, to tell their personal stories – with those who are new to or curious about, the Leather lifestyle we have chosen to live, with Leatherfolk and other practitioners of alternative lifestyles that wish to learn more about living a Leather lifestyle.
By recording these oral histories for posterity.
By making items of significant personal historical value, books, photographs, and recordings available for conference participants to experience with all their senses, to make these personal histories more immediate and real.
Meet Our Board of Directors
The LHPF Board of Directors has worked hard to represent the diversity of the Leather community. Board members hail from across the US, with current board members from Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and North & South Carolina. They represent people of multiple ethnicities, gender identifications, sexual orientations and Leather lifestyle roles.