MIR Contest
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MIR Contest
MIR, formerly Mr. International Rubber, is a multi-day convention and contest celebrating the rubber, fetish, and kink communities. Established in 1997, MIR occurs annually in Chicagoland during the autumn, drawing participants and attendees from all over the world. Events include workshops, socials, dances, market, and the contest. History MIR started in 1997 hosted at the Boystown bar, Cell Block, and has been run every year since. In 2009 MIR contest moved to the Center on Halsted to account for larger crowds. In 2020 MIR 24 was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MIR 27 in 2023 moved to a new location in Skokie, Illinois. At MIR 27 in 2023, organizers announced that the event would allow contestants of all genders to compete; the contest winner may chose whichever honorific best represents them as MIR titleholder: Mr. International Rubber, Ms. International Rubber, Mx. International Rubber, or MIR International Rubber Ambassador. To promote inclusion, organizers ...
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Chicagoland
The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. Encompassing 10,286 square mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hinterland, that span 13 counties across northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana. The MSA had a 2020 census population of 9,618,502 and the combined statistical area, which spans 19 counties and additionally extends into southeast Wisconsin, had a population of nearly 10 million people. The Chicago area is the third-largest metropolitan area in the United States and the fourth-largest metropolitan area in North America (after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles), and the largest in the Great Lakes megalopolis. Its urban area is one of the 40 largest in the world. According to the 2020 census, the metropolitan' ...
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Leather Archives & Museum
The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) is a community archives, library, and museum located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991, its mission is making “leather, kink, BDSM, and fetish accessible through research, preservation, education and community engagement." Renslow and DeBlase founded the museum in response to the AIDS crisis, during which the leather and fetish communities' history and belongings were frequently lost or intentionally suppressed and discarded. The LA&M is a leading conservator of queer erotic art. Its permanent collection features some of the most iconic LGBTQ artists of the twentieth century, including most artwork by Bill Schmeling and many works by Dom Orejudos. The museum is open to patrons 18 years of age and over. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a member of the Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums (ROAM). Research assistance is available upon request. Hi ...
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Fetish Subculture
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can also constitute cultural minorities were Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld, and Leontine Sagan in Germany. These pioneers were later followed by the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in the United States. Not all persons of various gender and sexual orientations self-identify or are affiliated with a particular subculture. Reasons include geographic distance, unawareness of the subculture's existence, fear of social stigma, or personal preference to remain unidentified with sexuality- or gender-based subcultures or communities. Some have suggested that the identities defined by the Western heterosexualized cultures are based on sexuality. They also have serious flaws and often leave no space for the public to discus ...
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LGBTQ Events In Illinois
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group is generally conceived as broadly encompassing all individuals who are part of a sexual or gender minority, including all sexual orientations, romantic orientations, gender identities, and sex characteristics that are not heterosexual, heteroromantic, cisgender, or endosex, respectively. Scope and terminology A broad array of sexual and gender minority identities are usually included in who is considered LGBTQ. The term ''gender, sexual, and romantic minorities'' is sometimes used as an alternative umbrella term for this group. Groups that make up the larger group of LGBTQ people include: * People with a sexual orientation that is non-heterosexual, including lesbians, gay men, bisexual people, and asexual people * People who are transge ...
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Leather Subculture
Leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around Human sexual activity, sexual activities that involve leather garments, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, Bondage harness, harnesses, or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many participants associate leather culture with BDSM practices and its many Fetish subculture, subcultures. For some, black leather clothing is an eroticism, erotic fashion that expresses heightened masculinity or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycles, motorcycle clubs and independence; and/or engagement in kink (sexual), sexual kink or leather sexual fetish, fetishism."Elegy for the Valley of Kings," by Gayle Rubin, in ''In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS,'' ed. Levine et al., University of Chicago Press History The emergence of gay leather as a coherent subculture c ...
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International Ms
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The Three Degrees album), 1975 *''International'', 2018 album by L'Algérino Songs * The Internationale, the left-wing anthem * "International" (Chase & Status song), 2014 * "International", by Adventures in Stereo from ''Monomania'', 2000 * "International", by Brass Construction from ''Renegades'', 1984 * "International", by Thomas Leer from ''The Scale of Ten'', 1985 * "International", by Kevin Michael from ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * "International", by McGuinness Flint from ''McGuinness Flint'', 1970 * "International", by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark from '' Dazzle Ships'', 1983 * "International (Serious)", by Estelle from '' All of Me'', 2012 Politics * Internationalism (politics) * Political international, any ...
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Windy City Times
''Windy City Times'' is an LGBT newspaper in Chicago that published its first issue on September 26, 1985. History ''Windy City Times'' was founded in 1985 by Jeff McCourt, Bob Bearden, Drew Badanish and Tracy Baim, who started Sentury Publications to publish the paper. In 1987, Baim left Sentury Publications to found a new newspaper called ''Outlines''. ''WCT'' and ''Outlines'' were the two primary LGBT newspapers in the region for more than 12 years. In 2000, Baim purchased ''Windy City Times'' from McCourt, and merged the two publications. In 2018, Baim became publisher of the ''Chicago Reader'' and remains as owner of Windy City Media Group. Terri Klinsky is now publisher, Andrew Davis is executive editor, Matt Simonette is managing editor, Kirk Williamson is art director and Ripley Caine is business manager. Long-time writers include Rex Wockner, Yvonne Zipter, Bob Roehr, Richard Knight Jr., Jonathan Abarbanel. Jean Albright is Director of New Media and Circulation. M ...
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Mx (title)
''Mx'' () is an English-language neologistic honorific that does not indicate gender. Created as an alternative to gendered honorifics (such as '' Mr.'' and ''Ms.'') in the late 1970s, it is the most common gender-neutral title among non-binary people and people who do not wish to imply a gender in their titles. Etymology The word was first proposed in the late 1970s. The ''x'' is intended to stand as a wildcard character, and does not necessarily imply a "mixed" gender. Usage In 2013, Brighton and Hove City Council in Sussex, England, voted to allow the use of ''Mx'' on council forms, and in 2014 the Royal Bank of Scotland included the title as an option for customers. In 2015, recognition spread more broadly across UK institutions, including the Royal Mail, government agencies responsible for documents such as driving licences, most major banks, several other companies, and UK charity Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. The title is now accepted by the Department for Work and P ...
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Rubber And PVC Fetishism
Rubber fetishism, or latex fetishism, is the fetishistic attraction to people wearing latex clothing or, in certain cases, to the garments themselves. PVC fetishism is closely related to rubber fetishism, with the former referring to shiny clothes made of the synthetic plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the latter referring to clothes made of rubber, which is generally thicker, less shiny, and more matte than latex. PVC is sometimes confused with the similarly shiny patent leather, which is also a fetish material. Latex or rubber fetishists sometimes refer to themselves as "rubberists". Male rubberists tend to call themselves "rubbermen". The terms "PVC", "vinyl" and "PU" tend to be used interchangeably by retailers for clothing ( PVC clothing as a form of plastic clothing) made from shiny plastic-coated fabrics. These fabrics usually consist of a backing woven from polyester fibers with a surface coating of shiny plastic. The plastic layer itself is typically a blend of P ...
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Skokie, Illinois
Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a Village (United States), village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's downtown Loop. The name Skokie comes from a Potawatomi language, Potawatomi word for 'marsh'. For many years, Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Skokie's streets, like that of many suburbs, are largely a continuation of the Roads and expressways in Chicago, Chicago street grid, and the village is served by the Chicago Transit Authority, further cementing its connection to the city. Skokie was originally a Germans, German-Luxembourger farming community, but was later settled by a sizeable Jews, Jewish population, especially after World War II. At its peak in the mid-1960s, 58% of the population was Jews, Jewish, the largest proportion of any Chicago suburb. Skokie still has many Jewish residents (now about 30% of the pop ...
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COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Soon after, it spread to other areas of Asia, and COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory, then worldwide in early 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020, and assessed the outbreak as having become a pandemic on 11 March. COVID-19 symptoms range from asymptomatic to deadly, but most commonly include fever, sore throat, nocturnal cough, and fatigue. Transmission of COVID-19, Transmission of the virus is often airborne transmission, through airborne particles. Mutations have variants of SARS-CoV-2, produced many strains (variants) with varying degrees of infectivity and virulence. COVID-19 vaccines were developed rapidly and deplo ...
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