Life, Leather and the Pursuit of Happiness: Life, history and culture in the leather/BDSM/fetish community
Author and columnist Steve Lenius came out as a gay man in 1974 and became involved in the Twin Cities leather community in 1993. For fifteen years his Leather Life column has appeared in "Lavender," Minnesota's GLBT magazine. His writings also have appeared in "The Leather Journal," "Skin Two" (a fetish magazine published in London, UK), the 2008 "Yearbook" of the BDSM Creative Collective (Minneapolis/St. Paul), "Leather Tribe Leather Nation" (a yearbook published by "The Leather Journal"), "The Petal and the Thorn" (newsletter of Black Rose Society, Washington, D.C.), "International Leatherman" and "Roundup" (magazines for the GLBT leather and country/western/rodeo communities published by Brush Creek Media), "The Journal of Bisexuality" (published by Haworth Press), "The Gayly Oklahoman" (a GLBT newspaper based in Oklahoma City), "XL (Lavender Magazine's Adult Xtra)" and "Gaze" Magazine (Minneapolis/St. Paul's forerunner to "Lavender"). His Leather Life columns also have appeared on Leatherpage.com. He wrote the Introduction to "Painfully Obvious: An Irreverent & Unauthorized Manual for Leather/SM" by Robert Davolt (published by Daedalus Publishing, Los Angeles). His writing was recognized with a President's Award from Pantheon of Leather in 2003, and he was a co-winner in the category of "Best Leather Commentary on Current Events" in the True Tales Leather Journalism Awards in 2005. Lenius is an honorary member of the Knights of Leather, Minnesota Storm Patrol and the Atons of Minneapolis. As Great Lakes Mr. Drummer, he competed in the International Mr. Drummer contest in San Francisco in 1994. Over the years he has judged many leather title contests, including International Mr. Leather in Chicago in 2002. For many years Lenius has helped organize Minnesota's annual Leather Pride celebration, and he was Chief Instigator for the award-winning Leather Leadership Conference XI in Minneapolis in 2007. A graphic designer and typographer working in the fields of advertising, marketing communications and commercial publishing for over thirty-five years, he has designed logos, buttons, t-shirts and collectible dog tags for many GLBT Pride and Leather Pride celebrations.