The Bay Area leather community will be mourning and celebrating one of its trailblazers when luminaries and readers alike pay tribute at a memorial for Marcus Hernandez this weekend in San Francisco.

Mr. Hernandez, the longtime leather columnist for the Bay Area Reporter, died October 8 of complications from diabetes and arteriosclerosis. He was 77.

Known to legions of readers by his pen name “Mister Marcus,” Mr. Hernandez was dubbed the “dean of leather columnists.” His weekly columns of contest goings-on and gossip were a must-read for leather community leaders, titleholders, and newcomers alike for 38 years.

Mr. Hernandez’s column focused primarily on the calendar of contests in the leather community. He also served as a judge at an estimated 250 contests over the years, he told the B.A.R. in a September interview.

Part of the enjoyment in writing his weekly column was that he viewed it as a platform by which to educate non-leather members of the LGBT community.

“I’m trying to help people see that it’s not what people perceived it to be – queens pissing on each other,” Mr. Hernandez told the B.A.R. “The thing was, you do your thing, I’ll do mine and no one gets hurt.”

The memorial will be on Saturday, November 21 from 1 to 3 p.m. at City Nights, 715 Harrison Street. The event is open to the public.

Audrey Joseph, Colleen Small (a.k.a. Queen Cougar), and Tim Wong are organizing the celebration. A crowd of 300 people or more is expected, including leather luminaries and friends coming in from Canada, Hawaii, Paris, and from throughout the United States.

Small said that there will be a brief ceremony, including a video presentation. Vocalist Kim Kuzma and the City of Refuge Choir will perform.

Additionally, the leather flag will once again be raised at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro. It will fly at half-staff from today (Thursday, November 19) through Saturday in honor of Mr. Hernandez’s extraordinary life, Small said. The leather flag was flown at half-staff for several days following Mr. Hernandez’s death.

The memorial celebration will be simulcast online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/memorial-for-mr-marcus. The webcast will be recorded and made available for upload to other sites for rebroadcast.