Leather Leadership Conference, Inc.

During this time he became one of the original members of the South Bay Leather and Uniform Group (SLUG) and produced their first title contest. His involvement with (SLUG) continued and he went on to produce more contests, events and eventually the first South Bay Leatherfest. While a resident of San Jose he and his then partner opened the bar Greg's Ball Room to cater to the areas growing gay/lesbian community. In 1991, Graylin Thornton produced the first Ebony Leather Contest in San Francisco, which was developed to bring the leather lifestyle to more people of color. In 1993 Graylin Thornton won the title of Northern California Mr. Drummer and later went on to win the title of International Mr. Drummer as is still, unfortunately the only person of color to hold that title. Graylin has judged and emceed various local and national contests and presented at various workshops in topics ranging from flogging to people of color issues. In 1999, Graylin Thornton was a member of the Leather Leadership Committee of San Francisco. Recently he was featured in Frontiers Newsmagazine's Black History edition and has written articles on black history and sexual stereotypes for that and other publications. Currently, Thornton is actively involved with Project Open Hand and is a board member of New Leaf Services for the Community in San Francisco. He was also recently voted an associate member of the Chicago Hellfire Club and is the proud slave of John Bertsch (Alpha) of San Diego, CA.