Larry Mass, MD, is a cofounder of Gay Men's Health Crisis and the first journalist to write about AIDS in any press. He is the author of a memoir, Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite: Being Gay and Jewish in America, and is author/editor of three collections: Homosexuality and Sexuality: Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution, Volume I; Homosexuality as Behavior and Identity: Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution, Volume II; and We Must Love One Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer. His bimonthly column, "Bears and Health," has been a feature in American Bear magazine for nearly two years running. Dr. Mass is a unit director of addiction treatment programs at Beth Israel Medical Center and Greenwich House, Inc., in New York City, where he lives with his life partner, Arnie Kantrowitz (interviewed in chapter 18).
Photo: Rick Guidotti

Craig Byrnes was born in 1957 in Brunswick, Georgia. His hobbies include photography, singing and playing guitar, bowling, and skating. Craig started his involvement with Bears as a founding member of the Chesapeake Bay Bears in 1993. Craig was featured in American Bear #3 and #28, and American Grizzly #3. In 1996, Craig co-created the International Bear Brotherhood Flag, and has since started Bear Manufacturing, which creates, markets, and licenses products with the Bear flag design elements. He's held several titles, including: Mr. Baltimore Bear Cub 1993, Mr. Teddy Bear Leather of Virginia 1994, and Mr. DC Bear 1998. Finally, Craig hit the big time when he captured the title of International Mr. Bear 1999. Somewhat unlike his predecessors, Craig decided to use his title to travel around to Bearclubs around the country in the interest of spreading brotherhood among his fellow Bears.
Photo: Collis Kimbrough/GarmanFoto

Gene Landry is a native of Houston, Texas, where he lived for thirty-one years before moving to NYC early in 2000. He is an accomplished musician, actor, and director who works as an executive assistant at a prominent accounting firm. Gene joined the Houston Area Bears in 1996 and has since been an active member of the Bear community on both local and national levels. Gene has been awarded several titles, including Mr. Texas Bear Round-up 1999 and Mr. D.C. Bear 2000. He also was a finalist in the contest at the 1999 International Bear Rendezvous (IBR).
Photo: Lynn S. Ludwig <www.ludwigphotos.com>

Michael Patterson comes from Texas and has lived most of his life in the Southwest. He married his high school sweetheart at seventeen, and divorced at nineteen. He then moved to the central coast of California, where he received a degree in dance and performed with several dance companies. In San Luis Obispo, he met his husbear of twenty years. While living in the SF Bay area, Michael joined the Sacramento Valley Bears, then ran for the local title, which he won. He then represented Sacramento at International Bear Rendezvous in 1999, where he was bestowed the title of Mr. International Grizzly Bear 1999. Currently he and his partner live in Phoenix, Arizona.
Photo: Kevin Sonnichsen <simonbear1@aol.com>

Richard Labonté is a fifty-one-year-old former bookseller who helped found A Different Light (ADL) in LA in 1979; he "retired" in July 2000 as general manager of its stores in SF/NYC/LA. Before bookselling, he worked for a decade for a daily newspaper in Ottawa, Canada. After bookselling, he is spending a year or two of low-key life in rural Ontario on a two-hundred-acre farm he has owned communally since 1976. He continues to dabble in writing, mostly book news and reviews for PlanetOut.com, and columns and bookselling commentary for Contentville.com. For ten years he contributed a volunteer column on gay male books for the trade magazine Feminist Bookstore News, has written reviews for Q San Francisco, and continues to edit the Best Gay Erotica series for Cleis Press. Reach out to him at <tattyhill@hotmail.com>.
Photo: NIQ Sheehan

Tim Martin was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1952. He received his Master's in Theology from St. Mary's University School of Theology, Baltimore, in 1978. After a serious "burnout" in ministry in 1994, Tim wanted to do something in and for the gay community. Tim had become familiar with the bear movement a few years before his leaving the ministry and felt a kinship with it. Having had some experience in computers and graphic design, Tim collected his life's savings and plunged headfirst into publishing. In June 1994, the first issue of American Bear was published, followed in January 1998 by the first issue of American Grizzly. Since then, Tim has become a respected businessman and well-recognized leader in the Bear community.
Photo: courtesy of T. Martin

Lou Datillo first became aware of Bears via American Online, where he networks with Bear buddies from all over the world. He is fifty-two years old, and a fourth-generation native Texan. His interests include the natural environment, gardening, writing, art, cultural anthropology, world music, and comparative religion. His second and third languages are Italian and Spanish. Currently and proudly a member of Austin's Heart of Texas Bears, Lou enjoys outdoor activities with his good buddies. Lou is a leatherbear by nature so he attends Bear and Leather events with equal enthusiasm. He works as an insurance examiner and lives in Austin, Texas, with his life partner of twenty years.
Photo: Mike Hall, Heart of Texas Bears

Frank Perricone was born and raised in NY. Living in Florida after college, he discovered the Bear scene at a bar in Orlando. He got "heavily" into the whole Bear movement, and began attending numerous Bear events. In 1994, he started a Bearclub in Southwest Florida. They hosted an event each year in Key West called "Bears in the KeysŪ." It is still an extremely popular event that he and his partner (whom he met in 1997 at the event) host every year. They now share their lives together with homes in Alabama, California, and Florida. The couple still attends Bear events, although not as many as in the past. "The scent of freshly ironed flannel in the morning can be a bit overpowering at times," says Frank. "We travel a lot, and if we happen to run into a few bears, even better!"
Photo: Tonnie O.

Kajunbear still can't seem to leave New Orleans, no matter how hard he tries. His job for more than twenty years, working with media professionals and teachers, takes him away from home two weeks out of every month to many places around the country where he's joined Bearclubs (as many as ten clubs in one year). He has participated in all sorts of runs and functions and has actually planned his work schedule to coincide with them ("Excuse me, but do we always have to have the meeting the third week in October in Orlando?"). When he returns home, there are often some great out-of-town Bears to entertain. As he made the transition over the years from "cute preppie boy in tight cutoffs" to "cigar-smoking Daddy in uniform and boots," he's found the Bear community very welcoming to his evolutionary development.
Photo: courtesy Kajunbear

Danny Williams has been performing as a comic since 1982, starting at the legendary Valencia Rose in San Francisco, and has won many awards and great reviews over the years. More importantly, he has met countless amazing members of the GLBT community. He has been the host of RSVP, a gay and lesbian cruise line, since 1989. He has performed and served as the emcee (Master of Ceremonies) at many Bear events throughout the U.S. and is four-time honorary Mr. Lone Star. He loves being a Bear!
Photo: Savage Photography