Getting out their holiday leather

For this community of Latinos, it's a time of year about thriving in a chosen family.

- BY FRANK ROJAS

YAIR LOPEZ For De Los ATTENDEES browse the artwork at the CLAW L.A. convention, a national leather and kink event that began in Cleveland before expanding into Los Angeles.

On the Friday night after Thanksgiving, a hotel room on the 17th floor of the Hotel Indigo in Downtown Los Angeles was transformed into a leather dressing room.

About a dozen friends crowded around a king-size bed, cracking open Tecates, vibing to techno house music from a portable speaker, and adjusting each other's harnesses.

The flash of a digital camera went off like a strobe as Yair Lopez documented his friends before their night at an afterparty. They were all there as part of the L.A. iteration of CLAW: a national leather and kink convention that offers workshops, parties and community spaces for people interested in BDSM culture.

Founded in 2002, the convention started out in Cleveland, but has also held events in L.A. since 2021.

As others spent their Thanksgiving holiday with blood relatives at the dinner table, this particular gathering was dubbed “Leather Thanksgiving” — a celebration of chosen family, cobbled together from various corners of L.A.'s queer nightlife. For Lopez and his friends, that sense of belonging is only growing.

Photographs by YAIR LOPEZ For De Los THE CONVENTION, dubbed "Leather Thanksgiving," featured a documentary about Latino leather fans.

"This chain was gifted to me from a friend," Lopez said as he adjusted the silver around his neck. "Chains with a lock represent that you have a dom and the other person has the key. I'm still waiting for the lock," he added jokingly, glancing at his boyfriend.