Is The Bear Movement Dead?

Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine in Boston over the state of the global bear community. My friend is of the opinion that all bear clubs should just dissolve altogether – “nowadays, there’s just no need”, he says. To support his opinion, he went on to describe what he is convinced is waning attendance at bear events around the country, the slow-yet-consistent decline in membership in his and other local bear organization, and the global increase in visibility and recognition of the bear community. it’s hard to disagree with his statements.

In an attempt to evaluate our progress, I logged onto Google and typed in “bear”, just to see what would pop up, and in what order. The first hit, from Wikipedia, describes the carnivorous woodland mammals one would most likely expect to find from such a search engine. However, the second hit, also a citation from Wikipedia, offers the following:

“’Bear’ is gay slang term for those in the bear communities, a subculture in the gay community and an emerging subset of LGBT communities with events, codes and culture specific identity. It also describes a physical type.”

Even with all the progress we have made, I am not 100% certain of my agreement or disagreement with my friend. True, ‘We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby’ (Gen X’ers will have no clue of the source of that quote). Quietly and stealthily we have hovered in the background, watching, waiting for our turn; waiting for the recognition we now have. Now that we have it, what do we do?