NEWS from MEMBER CLUBS & COUNCIL

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN NAME CHANGE

April 2019

In November 2018, C.O.M.M.A.N.D. MC celebrated its 30th anniversary. Founded in 1988 by members of the Maryland and Pennsylvania leather community, the club began as a social group called The Voyagers. With the discovery that another leather group of the same name existed, the Baltimore-based leather club changed its name and, at the
same time, honed its purpose. C.O.M.M.A.N.D. is an acronym that stands for Corps of Men Making A Noticeable Difference, and its purpose (as the acronym suggests) has been to serve the needs it finds in the local community. Throughout its history C.O.M.M.A.N.D. MC has done this through fundraising, community and political organizing, education on LGBT+ and kink-related subjects, and through bringing awareness to our region through the Mr. Maryland Leather title. C.O.M.M.A.N.D., however, functions as more than a collection of shorthand letters. As a noun, a
command is an imperative, a command compels the subject it addresses to action, and never before has our club’s imperative been clearer.

To make a noticeable difference we must continue to affirm, accept, support, and stand in
solidarity with all marginalized peoples. In a climate where so many members of our community are oppressed by the Trump administration’s bigotry and ignorance (amongst other things), we are heeding the command to make our club a safe, inclusive, and affirming place for the most vulnerable amongst us. In part, this calls on us to educate ourselves on how better to fight for their (and by extension our own further) freedom and in light of that to reexamine ourselves to ensure our rules, practices, customs, procedures are working toward this imperative.

The membership and associate membership of C.O.M.M.A.N.D. MC runs the gamut of age, race, class, ability, gender identity and expression. The club has always been open to women, trans, intersex, non-binary, and gender non-conforming members and strives to continue in its inclusivity on this front. As a small part of that commitment, the active membership of the club has voted to remove a gender marker from our club’s name by changing our acronym from “Corps of Men” to “Corps of Marylanders Making A Noticeable Difference.” While our club has long benefited from the involvement of members who do not identity as men, our previous acronym did not recognize their contribution. The decision to modify the name was reached after thoughtful deliberation and discussion, with overwhelming support for this gesture.

With a history spanning 30 years, the extensive network of active and inactive membership and friends of C.O.M.M.A.N.D. MC covers a much larger region than simply the “Free State” of Maryland. But it is here to Maryland that these friends and loved ones travel in order to see and share in what we are doing to make a noticeable difference. It is here in Maryland that they have those experiences and make those memories that they take back to spread our impact to their own communities. They are “Marylanders” in spirit, in siblinghood with us.

We see the decision to change our name not as a deviation from but rather an affirmation of our founding principles. It marks the continuing evolution of the club as a group of people driven to learn how to better listen and amplify the voices of those that have been excluded and oppressed. In making a noticeable difference, we must also make the effort to notice those who are different and give them our support.

— written by C.O.M.M.A.N.D. MC brothers Peter Dayton & Perry Moskowitz

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