 Ms. Kendra, a question. I see our first... Oh my God, this man knows me. He's known me since the 80s. Oh no. When you talked about your experience with men, have you had much experience with women? No. No, I... You know, I'm really a gay major in the arts. I really, really am. And I've always been my wife. I can't change that. I've always said that if it ever interested me, I would, and it never has. I love men like yourself. I loved you the first time I ever met you. Uh oh. You know, I love you out of the door. I've known you for years. Just a question. You actually have a cover, a master's cover. You sell them wearing them. Is that crazy? It's hot. I've noticed the older I've gotten, the less I wear it. And the less I wear a lot of leather. And I don't really know what that's about. I know that it's in here and I don't always have to have it out here. I wore my boots tonight that I've had forever. I mean, the guys that really worked on them, they're just worn out. They're my original pair of boots that I've ever got on. And now they're 25, 30 years old. I mean, I've had a lot of work done tonight. I've had a lot of heels put on them and a lot of things like that. And I brought my cover this weekend. I'll have it Sunday. I wear it on Sunday at the brunch when we do the earning ceremony. But you don't wear yours anymore. You know, we love you very much. But on behalf of all the title holders that are here, this is the one question that you were scared you was going to ask. Let's see. What was I afraid he was going to ask me about? Well, just as a general thing with my parents here, I was afraid he was going to ask me something that I was going to have to say, and I was going to answer that because my mom and daddy were here. I would never disrespect them in any way. And there's a lot of things about our life that they might consider disrespectful. So that was probably the one thing that I was most afraid about. How has GLLA affected the local community around here that's outside of the BDSM world, the gay world? You mean like the political? Political or social? Just social. I know we had a few groups in this area before GLLA started and because of GLLA, I think a lot of these groups came together and other groups formed. There's something at least every week in this city, here in Indianapolis, I used to, it wasn't like that at all. And I'm not sure GLLA's to blame for that, but maybe that helped it by bringing all these people together. Does the BDSM community allow it? Outside of the BDSM community, when we come to a hotel like this, the staff at this hotel, we give them a great impression of people like us. And when I got to the hotel yesterday, the head of housekeeping, the sales director, the heads of all the departments here were coming up and hugging me, and they're not into any of those. But I do know that we've affected them because we're nice to them. And I do believe that because we're nice to them, they look at people like us, hopefully in a much better light than they would by watching some movie and thinking of those crazy people. Yes, another question. What would you say is the most important thing that you would say to a new member coming into the community? The most important thing is to learn and to learn from the right people, to learn and to be educated like I was talking about, and don't try to do things that you don't know how to do because you don't want to hurt somebody or hurt you. I remember the first time I tried to use a single tail. I put my eye out. But I had somebody teaching me. I hate to think what I would have done had I not had somebody teaching me. I think that, and I also think that, come in with a service-oriented heart because I know I did. I just wanted to help and do and be part of. And I mentioned in the 80s, I came in and I kept my mouth shut. I didn't come in and say, oh, well, I think you ought to do it this way and that way because especially to the people that were already there working, I have a lot of respect and I still do for the people that work on things because they're giving everything they've got every day of the year. And a lot of people just show up here for three days and have a great time and go home, and that's fine. But a lot of us, this is something we work on every day of the year. So for somebody new, maybe try to think to have appreciation for that. Especially when things go wrong, don't do this all too much because we're really trying. We are. Miss Cameron. Yes. I feel privileged to know you. And my question is, within your talking with other community, what has been the one biggest disappointment for you and how have you grown from that? I think the biggest disappointment for me is when I get blamed for things that I had nothing to do with. I remember being blamed for something that happened with someone and I wasn't even in the country. I was actually, this was like 15 years ago, I was on a cruise, I wasn't even here. And I think that really hurt for people to blame me for something that I didn't have anything to do with. How has it helped me? Well, you know the saying, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That has helped me learn that I'm not going to please everybody and I'm good with that. And I'm not going to not go with my gut and my heart and my principles. I'm not going to give those up just because you think I showed something. And I know it's made me stronger. I have to mention this because at International Master's Slave maybe 10 years ago there was some problems, some big problems with some of the producers, not myself, I promise. There was some of the producers and some other people and they had this big disagreement and I'll never forget Master Conrad walking up to me and he said, Miss Kendra, we're getting all the elders together in the community to try to resolve this. And I thought, well, great. He goes, well, we're asking you to come in. I know the first time I was ever called an elder it made me feel really old. I thought, oh, great. Now I get to deal with all these people's problems. But that does help you. You can't let something that one or two or three or four people do to you get you down. Uh-oh. Yeah, you got it, girl. One of these days you're not going to be here or you're going to die. I know. What do you want that me to? What do you want the world to know about you? Kendra, what's your legacy? Well, I hope that GLLA will be part of that. I hope that I've made a pretty bold statement that all kinds of people can come together for just a few days and learn a lot from each other. And we don't have to be those people over there or these people over here. I hope that's part of my legacy and I hope that people know that even if it didn't seem that way at the time I have always tried to be nice to everybody. Sometimes it's really hard but I have always tried to do that. So I'd like that to be part of my legacy. I know that over the past year that you and I mostly you are dealing with inclusivity and exclusivity. I wonder if you want to be given the opportunity to talk more about those two things that are happening within our lifestyle and our community. Well, I believe in both of them. I believe in exclusivity. I did a speech on this in March and that was, I believe that it's okay for we as gay men to have our own space. It is okay and don't hate us for that. But on the same side of that it's okay that we come here this weekend and be inclusive but we don't have to be inclusive every single time for every single thing. It's okay to have both. And I think when people if you really look at that it's okay to be exclusive with different groups. There's dominant groups and submissive groups and a lot of different things like that and that's okay. But it's okay for men and women and other groups to have their own event and it'd be for those people. That's okay. It really is. But it's great for us to come together too because we learn a lot. Earlier this week was National Coming Out Day and with your parents here I would like to know how it was to come out to your parents as a gangster. As a leather woman it was very terrifying to come out to my parents. It was many, many years ago and I remember my mom and dad were probably horrified because I know for a fact that they thought I was joining a motorcycle gang I remember that conversation at one point but over that my mom I don't know if it was my mom or my dad they said, oh it's a phase it'll pass I always laughed about that because I thought to myself, maybe it will maybe it will pass but it didn't pass it just actually got stronger for me. When I was 4 or 5 there was a video of me and that's what I used to talk to my parents about back then I think it was 8mm when we had my dad chicken so back when we had 8mm there was a video of me and I'm out in the backyard and I'm holding my teddy bear I love this teddy bear in my grandma's game I've had that until I was 16 so I'm dancing with a teddy bear and I'm telling my love name and then I start spanking 4 or 5 nobody's ever shown me that you don't know that and I remember thinking oh I love teddy bang bang bang I used to part of that to talk to my parents that I've always been this way I just I never had anybody tell me that I just have always been that way and coming out to them was really hard at first it was very difficult they thought I was insane, crazy and then maybe I should go to a mental institution and I thought maybe too I didn't know but we got passed all that and the last many years are wonderful because I don't have to hide anything from them it's so wonderful when I got Slate Garrett almost 13 years ago I talked to them about Slate Garrett and how all of that was going to work and my mom said to me she asked me, she said so do I get to tell them what to do they really are and if I get on to Slate Garrett my mom gets on to me my parents have been married for 50 56 56 years a long time a year and I do they just call it a little something different so I'm about 7th generation like me and I have video for sale a little bit more of a younger generation there's a lot of connectivity with being online and things like that a lot of the themes that I see these days is a lot of me fighting with some groups sometimes you get people who have disagreements what kind of advice would you give to somebody that feels the need to raise their voice all the time over some petty things or even some of the bigger issues well I'll tell you how we handled it at the beginnings of Great Lakes you really try to bring everybody together but if you have a certain person that is always going to keep things stirred up you have to get rid of them because if you don't they will keep you trying to build and if you're doing things for the right reason they shouldn't be acting that way and I know that sounds harsh but that's the way I feel about it because if somebody is going to continue to keep things upsetting and not harmony you have to get rid of them and I've done that with Great Lakes too and it's not easy it's very very hard to do that especially when you're a friend Good evening my question is you've been around for some time now and helped establish a great strong presence in this community and known throughout this country now there's plenty of other countries in the world that don't have the same rights that we do here what would be your advice to someone in a different country who wants to go ahead and establish a leather group or some sort of leather contest and may not be the most one to make well you know in this country we started out that way we weren't the most welcome a long time ago when I mentioned about how we would all meet together and go as a group that was for safety and I know in other countries I've been to all the continents and I know in the Middle East that's a big deal and I think sometimes maybe in a group and you live in a country where it's maybe illegal for you to be like we are then it's okay to have an underground group and at least that way you can come together and be together with black minded people and you know in America we've been able to legalize gay marriage and that was a fight I never thought I would ever live to see that I really did when all of that spinel started as I remember in the 80s we used to pick a cracker barrel so I think coming together even if it's underground I know in Africa they started an African London contest and I don't know how well they see that but it has to start somewhere when we started Great Lakes there was a lot of people that told us this will never work it'll never work you got all these different people coming together they'll all kill each other I've had that said to me a lot no one has died than I know of Hello and this is my first DLLA ever welcome so my question is related to and you coming all of this and while I do hold a small city title one of the things I've encountered is that like BDSM and Kink have kind of taken over and like any of the cool fun sex stuff that we do is now suddenly like open and accessible as you've mentioned but I've noticed in some spaces that leather history has not touched upon and like the founding members of this community have been ignored and pushed aside and I was wondering how you would respond to that sort of situation well I was told by a younger group here about 10 years ago that they didn't care of being a thing I've done that I'd never done anything for them personally anyway I'm good with that but that's what they were fully I think that in our leather world which is very different from just BDSM and when I say just but I mean different BDSM and Kink and that's okay everything's important but in the leather world that many of us hold very dear to our hearts there is a hierarchy system and it's like the military and I've always loved that I never thought 30 some years ago I sat down here answering questions like you just asked me that it was not anything that I ever thought oh one day I want to I just didn't think about that I just did whatever I thought was the right thing to do and I think coming in as a new person it's really good to sit down and talk to the elders in the community and learn from them and have respect for them I have elders that I call upon and ask advice and I have a lot of respect for what they say I think we've time for one more well I did have a two part question but the first part I already answered on the lowest part you've been in in JLLA what's your highest moment in JLLA all the 15 years the highest well I know the high for every year the high is Saturday night when we announce the winners and I get to see the faces of the people that have won and they're so excited and that's a big high and maybe I don't know if I can choose one thing for all the 15 years but that moment knowing that those people's lives are going to change forever if they want it if they want to change