SELF Is Community
SELF is more than an event. We are a social and educational home built and sustained across decades—a place where many communities, often radically different from one another, gather under one tent.
Through generations of intentional work, SELF has cultivated spaces of care, belonging, and accountability for populations that have not always found them elsewhere. By cross-pollinating distinct communities, we exchange knowledge, deepen understanding, challenge assumptions, and strengthen the welcome we extend to one another.
Whether you thrive in lively social spaces or prefer quieter, introvert-friendly ways to connect, there is room to participate as yourSELF. We teach, learn, grow, play, connect, and build community together.
Indigenous Voices
“This event is taking place on the traditional lands of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Cherokee Nation. We recognize the land dispossession and involuntary removals of the Muscogee and Cherokee peoples from Georgia and the Southeast. We recognize dual points of view that the people belong to the land and for some the land belonged to the people. We recognize our efforts are better spent supporting Indigenous people and not creating an optical allyship through an onstage Indigenous Land Acknowledgement.”
This statement was crafted by members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Cherokee Nation, Lakota Tribe, Choctaw Nation, Chickasaw Nation, and Seminole Nation. Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Lakota members felt the voices of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Cherokee Nation should be the deciding voices and lent their full support to the choices those tribes made. Native voices have decided.
Moving beyond a land acknowledgement, please visit and support Indigenous nonprofits in Georgia. The United Nations Council of Indigenous Peoples and Cherokee of Georgia Tribal Council were contacted and are aware of this writing.
Standing Together
Statement released June 29, 2020
SouthEast LeatherFest is proud to be a chosen family of many communities. Together we are people of all sexual orientations, physical abilities, nationalities, ethnicities, races, gender identities, sexual identities, community affiliations, classes, personal beliefs, and spiritual expressions. We celebrate and respect our differences and individuality. We celebrate our cultural differences and, at times through community gathering, heal each other. We stand by, with, and in support of each other. Today is no different. We stand with Black Lives Matter.
If SELF could march, we would march. SELF’s June 2016 show opened with more than 20 political posters supporting undervalued and oppressed communities. Those messages were carried by every member of the board and members of our communities. The entire room stood in solidarity and grief for the massacre at Pulse in Orlando.
Today we must stand and march. During this time of uncertainty and much-needed change and awareness, SELF is making Scout TheBootblack’s “Queer Pride” fist* a part of our logo. SELF stands with People of Color in our community and throughout our country. As good citizens of the world, we stand with People of Color in the United States and around the world.
We will continue to learn, check ourselves, and expand to be diverse, equitable, inclusive, and above all respectful and loving toward all our attendees.
People of Color and Black lives are valued, wanted, heard, seen, and integral to our diverse population and SELF history. We love and respect you all and cherish your lives. #BlackLivesMatter #SayTheirNames
*We appreciate the artist Scout TheBootblack. Thank you for allowing SELF to use your work.