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As every year the last Sunday before Christmas is reserved for some last minute gift ideas. While the last year I focused on easily to get items I want to put the focus on organizations that make our community better. They are working hard to improve our live so they deserve our attention, time and money. The selection is highly subjective; there are numerous others out there so take these just as suggestions and donate for whichever cause you find fitting.

Since its foundation in 1991 the Leather Archives and Museum has been one of the if not the premiere institution to collect, preserve and research the history of our community. If it wasn’t for this institution a lot of important artifacts would have been lost forever. By donating to this cause you are not only preserving our history for generations to come but through research gives our history and culture social recognition and legitimation through scientific research. Besides becoming a member they offer a small selection of branded leather related items in their shop.

Mr. Friendly’s goal is it to reduce the stigma HIV still has in our community. The volunteers are there to talk about HIV to lower bounderies and abolish wrong stereotypes, encourage people to get tested and generally try to improve the lives of people who are HIV positive and the people living together with them. You can either support them by donating directly or buying something from their store.

I guess nearly every read of my website has heard of the NoSafeword Show. Produced in Seattle by a happy bunch of perverts in the studio/ playroom it has been on the air for nearly two years now. Each week they are producing a high quality podcast bringing serious information on diverse topics that matter to every kinkster in an entertaining way. Like my website they finance their website mostly through their own money and being a downloadable podcast their traffic is way higher than mine. So donating to their projects keeps a valuable source of knowledge and lightheartedness even in serious times available for everybody in the community for free.

Last but not least: Traditionally nearly every leather club has a charity supporting community members with financial needs like medical bills.

If you want to support not a specifically kinky organization there are several worthy causes out there. First of all there is the It Gets Better project. It was started out by Dan Savage telling young gay people struggling with being gay in a what seems (and sometimes still is) hostile environment telling them that it is actually getting better of being a gay person. While It Gets Better has become an international campaign there are almost certainly local projects you can support if you want to see direct impact in your community: Support for gay homeless, living quarters for youth who have been kicked out of their parent’s house, a switch board for gay people with problems. Especially for these projects, if you can’t give money, give them some of your time next year and volunteer to make our community a better place.

If you need some physical gift for someone else after all, get them an IKEA gift certificate. I am currently working on an article about toy storage which will feature quite some IKEA items.

Tom of Finland is one of the artists forming the image of the leather fetish in the early years of the scene after World War II. Nearly anybody in the scene has at least seen a few of his iconic drawings and can instantly recognize their style. And while they might not meet everyone’s taste they are still an important part of our history.

In order to preserve his work Touko Laaksonen and Durk Dehner established the Tom of Finland Foundation in 1984 (which purpose was later extended to collect and thus safe erotic art from other artists). Since then the foundation has carefully curated the catalogue and last year teamed up with the Finish textile company Finlayson to create a range of products bearing the works of Tom of Finland. Their current range ranges from bed sheets over pillow and duvet covers to towels large enough to take to your favorite bath house (or normal sauna to show your leather pride there).

Tom of Finland XXL by Taschen

If you want a more traditional gift I would recommend the Tom of Finland XXL book from Taschen. It is a BIG book, looks great on (a not too small) coffee table and through its sheer size gives the works enough space to take full effect. It features over 1.000 works, some of them published for the first time. Strolling through the book shows how Tom of Finland’s style and the idealized type in the scene developed over four decades. So this is the right gift for every kinky art aficionado, Tom of Finland fan or person interested in how the gay leather scene changed between its coming into existence to the late 1980s.

Note: I sadly couldn’t obtain the copyright of the product pictures so I kindly ask to click on the provided links to see the products.