I get a lot of email at "Savage Love" from gay leather/SM guys complaining about how lame gay leather bars are these days. No one wears leather to leather bars anymore, most of the guys at leather bars aren't into leather, everyone is hooking up online now, famous leather bars are closing, etc. BLUF has issued a challenge to these leather guys: stop complaining about how there aren't any guys in gear at the leather bars and gear the fuck up and go the fuck out:

Lots of people say [they] don’t want to be the only ones in a bar in full leather; and, to an extent, that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more of us who stay home because we don’t think there’ll be many other people in gear, the worse the bar scene will become. Everyone ends up saving themselves for ‘special events,’ whether it’s a BLUF party, one of Recon’s Full Fetish events, or something else.... Great though big parties can be, there aren’t many bars that can survive on just a few party nights a year, especially when commercial promoters take their cut. They need our support to stay open—otherwise we’ll come out of the recession, to a chorus of people asking “Where are all the leather bars?”

...

[Take] the 12x12 pledge. It’s simple: We don’t want you to prop up the bar every night. Or to make a point of going out every weekend. But we would like to you step away from the PC, and get out in your gear. We want as many leather and fetish guys as possible to try to make sure that in 2012, they visit their local leather bars, at least twelve times. If enough of us do, perhaps we can make a difference, and make sure that the leather bars we do have aren’t just places for special events from time to time, but somewhere we can meet like minded people, whenever we do feel like going out.

In other words: the time you're spending in front of your computer composing letters to Dan Savage about how no one is out in the leather bars in leather gear, leather guys? You could be spending that time in leather bars in leather gear. Just sayin'.

BLUF12x12's Facebook page is here.