On the 3rd of October Pieter Claeys will take part in the Mr Leather Europe 2009 contest in Rome on behalf of Motor Sportclub Amsterdam (MSA).
 
The Event
The Mr Leather Europe election is an annual event organized by the European Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs which has its Annual General Meeting the same weekend. This year, the event is hosted by the ECMC member club Leather Club Roma.
The candidates will be presented to the public on Friday the 2nd of October and the contest will take place on Saturday the 3rd. Candidates will be interviewed and might be asked to give a short performance on stage. The winner is chosen by the audience (55%) as well as a jury of motorclub presidents (45%). Jury members can not vote for the candidate of their own country.
 
The Candidate
Pieter Claeys is 27 years old and has been living in Amsterdam for 9 years. He began researching the history of Amsterdam's leather community in June 2008 and publishes his findings on his website www.lthr.nl. Pieter gave presentations on his findings at the University of Amsterdam by invitation of the George Mosse Foundation for Gay Studies and at the 13th Leather Leadership Conference held in Atlanta in April 2009. Pieter also spent a few days doing research at the Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago in May. As a result of his research the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Humanities granted Pieter's request to graduate on his project with an extended BA-thesis which the author successfully completed in August 2009.
Asides from doing research and working on his website, Pieter is also a member of the organizing teams behind Amsterdam's non-profit parties XXXLeather and Furball.
 
Pieter on his own candidacy:"I feel very grateful towards the MSA and all others who support my candidacy and make this possible. It is a huge honour to be able to represent our club in this year's contest as The Netherlands have been absent from the contest for a few years now. I think the big challenge for me in Rome is to tell people who I am, what I've learned during the past year and how I would fill in the title-holdership. I will write an article about the whole experience afterwards, regardless of the outcome, but anyone who has questions or suggestions beforehand is of course welcome to get in touch with me."
 
The Sponsor
Motor Sportclub Amsterdam is a club of friends into leather and motorsports, founded in November 1970. The MSA elected Pieter as Mr MSA 2009 earlier this year and sponsors his candidacy. Several members of the club will accompany Pieter in Rome.
 
[source: www.lthr.nl]