There’s A Bear In There: The Harbour City Bears Celebrate 30 Years
Image: Photos: Supplied
Bears might not be native to Australia, but there’s plenty of them to be found in Sydney — if you know where to look. This year, the Harbour City Bears (HCB) are celebrating 30 years – their Pearl anniversary – alongside other bear communities around Australia.
Bear culture emerged in the mid-to-late 80s. Queer historian Professor Les K. Wright attributed its rise to the AIDS epidemic, and the eroticisation of heavier bodies that came with it.
They were, HCB President Scott Ridley describes, the opposite end of the spectrum to the “pretty, pretty boy” ideal that had dominated queer spaces until then. Bear communities are some of the most stalwart and reliable of the queer social scene (in an emergency, a capable butch lesbian or a bear are always your best options), but their ideals and values haven’t remained static.
“As society has become more progressive, the bear movement has become progressive and expanded in love,” said Ridley. “If you look at one of our events now, it’s a very mixed crowd. We have, obviously, the standard bears, but we also have younger guys, older guys. We have female members, we have non-binary members. Everybody’s welcome with the bears.”
HCB member material can be summed up in “hairy men, their friends, and admirers”. Ridley says the bear community can often provide a safe harbour for those who’ve always felt a bit outside of the mainstream.
“We get… people who are coming out later in their life, where they’ve only seen media presenting the pretty, thin, sparkly gays, and they think ‘that’s not me’ for their entire life,” he says. “So they’ve got that sort of inner turmoil of being same-sex attracted, but not fitting [the] stereotype — and then they find out that the bears exist.”
Bear country: A regional Pride tour
The Harbour City Bears sprung to life in the 90s, after the collapse of Australia’s national bear club, Ozbears. At almost 1400 members today, HCB aren’t only the biggest bear group in the country, but in the entire Southern Hemisphere.
They put those numbers to good use, too. This year, the Harbour City Bears have been visiting Pride festivals outside of Sydney; a busload of burly, hairy men descending on regional towns and cities for the weekend.
“A lot of attendees were families with a gay child, trying to learn about the queer community,” Ridley said of their recent Newcastle Pride trip. “Dad’s like, clearly a miner, and mum’s a homemaker — they’ve never experienced anything in gay culture before.”
Ridley explains their presence helped dispel lots of myths and stereotypes that those who don’t spend time around queer people tend to believe. “They realised then their child doesn’t HAVE to be, you know, an interior designer, they could be a truck driver — or whatever they want!” says Ridley. He explains it helped put their minds, misled by societally ingrained homophobia, at ease that their child didn’t have to force themselves into any stereotypes, and live lives of joy and authenticity. “It got rid of that fear of their child having a bad life, or having to fit into a mold. They can be whatever they want to be.”
How to join the Harbour City Bears
If you’re nervous about getting your start with the Bears, Ridley suggests starting slow with their regular Sunday meetups at the Townie: think relaxed, afternoon pub vibes. “We don’t want to scare this person away who’s new,” Ridley laughs. “That’s why we have a committee of volunteers at the door. We’ll take you around, introduce you to some of the groups of friends.”
The Harbour City Bears’ 30th birthday celebrations are scattered throughout September, with everything from an all-you-can-eat dinner to a sauna night on Oxford Street, and a night in the Imperial basement.
Despite their size, the Harbour City Bears say they aren’t looking to change the world, but there’s something radical in their quiet challenge of masculine ideals.
“We’re just a community group, not a political group,” Ridley said. “But we can be the force for good… These sorts of things, they’re not going to change the world, but they make it slightly nicer for the queer community.” Much nicer, we’d say. Beary nice indeed.
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