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Anti-gay activist attacks Mid-Atlantic Leather and Metro Weekly, gets dragged by Twitter
LaBarbera called MAL a "homosexual perversion-fest," but Twitter was having none of it
By Rhuaridh Marr and John Riley
January 12, 2018
Peter LaBarbera
Peter LaBarbera had it all planned out: He’d post a witty tweet making fun of Mid-Atlantic Leather by sharing Metro Weekly’s MAL Event Guide, and watch the likes roll in. Instead, he’s found himself getting slammed on Twitter.
LaBarbera, who founded anti-gay organization Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and has a history of offensive statements, called MAL a “homosexual perversion-fest,” on Twitter, adding, “Washington. ‘Gay’ mag. @metroweekly promotes it.”
LaBarbera, who some LGBTQ activists derisively refer to as “Porno Pete,” is known to have frequented LGBTQ events and taken salacious pictures of scantily-clad LGBTQ people while reporting on the “homosexual activist agenda.”
JoeMyGod wasn’t the only one to slam LaBarbera. He’s currently being read to filth on Twitter, with a number of users pointing out his obsession with homosexuality, asking if he was disappointed he couldn’t get tickets, and otherwise calling him out for trying to make an issue of people freely expressing themselves.
Classic. According to this Trump-hating, pro-#LGBTQ tweep, I’m the one with “serious issues,” not the grown homosexual men dressing up at Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend as “dogs”–complete with puppy-head mask and tail: #ProgressiveLogic#MAL#perversion-fest @CentaurMChttps://t.co/Gu7aN7TEia
However, when directly challenged by one Twitter user as to why he was “advertising” the event, LaBarbera responded by diverting to taxation and abortion.
So based on your reasoning, am I, who oppose LGBTQ perversions & porn, guilty because I expose these evil events (at major hotels like the @hyattregency)? Do I also secretly want higher taxes b/c I oppose the Democrats’ high-tax policies? And want more abortions b/c I’m pro-life?
You didn’t answer the one question I asked, so go have a great time. Conversing in good faith (which is a concept I am sure is foreign to you) would demand at least a simple answer that you can’t seem to muster. #byenow
Fire Daddy Ken has a confession to make. "I am a shy guy," says the silver fox from Norfolk, Virginia, who earned the title of Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather 2024 at last year's Leather Weekend.
"Before I started doing all the contests and everything, I was the kind of guy that's in the back corner," he continues. "I was happy and content. And people would always ask me, 'What's wrong? Why are you so quiet?' Being in the contest and having the Virginia title, and having the Mid-Atlantic title has definitely brought me out of my shell quite a bit."
For Kenneth Nelms -- also a dedicated LGBTQ advocate on the board of Norfolk's LGBT Life Center, and, until recently, a decorated firefighter of over 30 years -- coming out of his shell has been a long, steady, often challenging process. It's meant learning to accept and live his truth both on the job and among his friends and loved ones.
Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend was at full capacity when I arrived midday Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, the hotel that hosts the festivities. Travelers had braved storms of fire and ice battering each coast to join locals here in the DMV for the 40th-anniversary of the three-day celebration of LGBTQ leather, fetish, and kink, presented by the Centaur Motorcycle Club.
The hotel lobby, as usual, an open-air bar and town square, teemed with leathermen of every fashion meeting up and catching up. Take away the fetish gear and buns-out self-expression, in boots and heels, and it might resemble a class or family reunion.
Frank Nowicki is happy to recount a few ribald moments he considers to be highlights of his long-running tenure as the host of the Mr. Mid-Atlantic Contest.
"One year at Alma's Temple," Nowicki says, "this one guy, he was actually a porn star, I didn't even know -- they used different names. I was reading his bio during the jockstrap competition, and he thought he was gonna be cute. He started crawling up and tried to hump my leg. Of course, I quickly took my flogger and whacked him."
Another year, Nowicki was the one doing the humping -- thrusting himself onto headline entertainer Lolita Holloway. "I was up on stage with her, because, you know, the podium was there, and she grabbed me and I just jumped. I was humping her on stage while she was singing away," he says. "Oh my God, she tore the house down. She was so much fun. The place went crazy."
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