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THE OREGON BEARS – A HISTORY OF OUR BEAR FAMILY
The Oregon Bears – What We’re About

The Oregon Bears is a social and service club for like-minded Bears, primarily in and near the mountains and valleys, rivers and streams of Oregon. Our members hail from all over the Pacific Northwest and many from exotic locales beyond. We’re first and foremost a friendly bunch, and we welcome additions to our Bear Family.

We may have different temperaments and hold distinct viewpoints, but we share the Bear traits of strength and stamina. Grrrrr….

Our club has a big membership for a medium sized US City now sporting over 200 Bears. Portland, which is known by locals alternately as both a Big Small Town and a Small Friendly City, has over one million metro area residents. If you’ve ever visited us (and if not why not?), you’ve found out one of our secrets when you laid eyes on the local population. Men of all types, trades and orientation all seem to enjoy showing off their masculinity and very often sport great facial hair as they go about their business in what we’ve come to call Bear Town.

So, come join us. We have a bunch of Bear fun in the shadow of beautiful Mt. Hood with rivers and the ocean at our doorstep. Our club, I updated the one of the largest Bear Clubs in the US, has a warm family feel to it. We have a couple of secrets – We keep it fun. We keep it affordable. And, we don’t let anyone who comes to our events leave a stranger.

One of our friends from San Francisco said it best saying, “You guys don’t have a Bear Club, you have a Bear Family.”

The Oregon Bears Events

The Oregon Bears put on social and fundraising events throughout the year. Currently we have over one hundred events, most of which are free or with a nominal charge for beverages or food. We have an active volunteer Board and are always looking for new ways to bring Bears together.

Our mission is to make it fun, accessible and to give as much as we can to local GLBT charities.

We have some great big events, like our annual BearTown Weekend (which started out life with the name Beards & Roses because it takes place during Rose Festival every June). During this outstanding Bear Run, we host Bears from all over, showing off Portland and sharing our Bear Family. We elect our titleholders during BearTown, Mr. Oregon Bear & Mr. Oregon Cub, who go on to represent our club all year, helping with fundraising and traveling to other clubs to share what we’re all about – Friendship!

Another big Oregon Bears event is our great camping in the woods experience, Camp Oregon Bears. Bears come together around the campfires on the scenic Oregon Coast every September building new relationships and renewing old ones. This is a blow out event full of relaxing fun and includes great camp food and adventures in the woods.

Our Teddy Bear Fundraiser happens during the holiday season and not only raises a lot of money for local charities, but also brings us together with some of the finest performers in the Portland area. It's an award-winning fundraiser.

A primary event each month is our Membership Meeting, the Bear Bust, every third Saturday night. Other events include our XX Dance, our Bear Paw Bust, the Bears brunch and our weekly Friday Happy Hour.

We also have special events through out the year such as UnderBear Bowling and UnderBear Parties, Bears at the Beach, Holiday Parties and Community Wide events like our Paw B Q – Community Thank You Party. Our Website also has links to other events, put on by Mem-Bears and Community Groups, as part of our Community Outreach.

So What Is A Bear?

CLICK HERE to read the article "Daring to be Bears" as it appeared in Advocate Magazine. (Adobe Acrobate Reader needed to view this file)

The Bear Movement started in the mid ‘80s to meet the needs of guys who did not fit or feel comfortable with the roles seemingly defined for gay men in the subculture at the time. Since then, it has grown world wide, and has many definitions with publications, websites, films, books and clubs in every major US city and all over the world.

Defining just what a Bear is can be a challenge. A Bear on the net, Jeff Glover, on his web site put it well when he said: “The ‘Bear Movement’ …started … when masculine, husky, hairy gay men felt compelled to carve their own niche into society…Many of these gay men (including blue-collar workers, rural folks, & average Joes) didn't socialize or identify with other gay men, because they didn't fit the stereotype. They often knew they preferred men, but didn't think they were gay because of predominant gay stereotypes of what gay men are "supposed" to be like …”

Our Oregon Bears group defines itself as a Club for Bears and their Admirers.
There are many definitions of what a Bear looks like, Bear, Cub, Wolf, Otter, Daddy, Polar Bear and Grizzly. Some of us are hairy and some smooth. We have always been a very inclusive club and have Bears of all types and temperaments. Though the Bear Movement is primarily a movement based on an easy going and natural definition of gay masculinity, our group includes Bears of all kinds and from all areas of our GLBT community.

The bottom line, it is what beats in your heart that makes you a Bear.

The Oregon Bears – Our Club History

Founded in November of 1995 with membership of 13, our group started as a gathering of great guys who thought why not have a group for Oregon Bear types to hang out with. We still have of those original members hanging out and having fun with us today. Our founder started off by giving out membership cards and telling the guys it would be a social group with no membership fees or structure. Well we eventually had to have more structure. What happened over time is the Oregon Bears quickly grew into one of the largest gay organizations in Oregon, and one that gives substantially and from the heart to local GLBT Community Charities.

We now have a Board of nine voting Officers and two Titleholders, Mr. Oregon Bear and Mr. Oregon Cub.