As published in Bears & Hunters, the club newsletter:
NorthEast Ursamen – Connecticut's enduring bear brotherhood
by Ron SureshaI first heard of the NorthEast Ursamen shortly after its inception, while I was out on the West Coast, in 1992, from East Coast folks I met at the Lone Star Saloon in San Francisco — aka Bear Bar USA, before the bar and Bear magazine became cottage industries. There were only a handful of bearclubs around the nation then, clustered on either of the coasts, usually organized in major cities. It was amazing to me that this “bear” thing would have gathered enough momentum to warrant having a club dedicated to serving men from the whole state of Connecticut, let alone the thought of a bearclub in every state and major city in the nation, as it is now.
After SF, I lived in DC for a few months and joined my first bearclub there, the Chesapeake Bay Bears. I discovered that the east coast bears were getting into bear subculture just as much as their Western bear brethren. When I moved to Boston, where I lived for the next ten years, naturally I got involved with the New England Bears. In 2002, I did some touring to bearclubs around the country for two books I edited, Bears on Bears, and Bearotica. The Ursamen hosted one of my first book readings ever, and although the venue in Hartford changed the week before (the bookstore closed and didn't bother to tell us!), everything came off well, and I remember the helpful and friendliness of the Ursaguys and the cordiality of that event at Tisane coffeehouse.
When I moved to Providence in 2002 and the Rhode Island Grizzlies were defunct, I started a new online group, Bears Ocean State, which has always consider NEU a brother bearclub. Then, three years ago, when I found myself married to a bear living in New London, after having to move to the Nutmeg State, naturally I felt it was time to check in with Connecticut's bearclub, the NorthEast Ursamen.
It's kind of shocking to realize now that the club is turning 15, and to think that we have all been creating this very weird yet amazing bear community for 20 years. The Ursamen have much to be proud of, but it's not time to relax. As they say, “Evolve or perish,” and we must constantly monitor the community to see how the bearclub can serve its members' needs, and how we can extend bear brotherhood to each other.
Congratulations to the NorthEast Ursamen — may you thrive for your next fifteen years!
