Billy Lane is a sober gay leatherman with a trans history who is as passionate about preserving and celebrating Leather history as he is about hot BDSM sex. He joined the Board of Directors of the Leather Archives and Museum in 2019 and currently serves as President.

After working in the leather community as a volunteer for many years, in 1998 Billy won Seattle Mr. Leather. He then stepped on stage to compete for International Mr. Leather XXas the first openly trans contestant and placed in the top ten. As a contestant and community leader, Billy advocated for inclusion of gay trans leathermen in gay male BDSM spaces, clubs, and contests.

After competing at IML, Billy served for over 20 years as IML Judges’ Coordinator and for two years in IML Operations. He is also a very active Chairman Emeritus of Delta Brotherhood International and a member of the 15 Association. In 2022, at Creating Change Billy received the Leather Leadership award for his work on inclusion. 

Always looking for ways to help make new people feel welcome and supported in their leather journey, Billy and his boy, linus created a new website for kinksters,  soberleathermen.org , which connects people in recovery to leather events that have recovery resources and kink-friendly meetings.

Since 2004, Billy has lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia with his husband, John. Billy loves travel, BDSM (with too many hanky colors to list), trail running and smoking a good cigar.