Does anyone have any experience with gender-openness in ‘Bear’ bars?
Someone wrote…
To expound, I’m a FAAB (female-assigned-at-birth) ambigender genderqueer (meaning I identify as in-between/a blend of male and female), who also identifies as part of the “bear” community – I’m chubby, (very) furry, kind of boyish, and love men (I mean, I love all genders, including men, lol).
I’ve also historically gotten along with men who identify as bears.But sadly GQ/transphobia is not limited to heteronormativity – there are some lesbian, gay, and bisexual cis-folk who see gender-variance as a PITA, or worse, setting back the gay rights movement with its sheer absurdity (sad, but I’ve heard it).
So riddle me this: I’m new to Seattle, and the Capitol Hill region is pretty rife with bear culture, and, thusly, bear bars. I’d love to stop in, make some bear-friends (and, ideally, more, but not holding my breath…), and bear-it-up, but would my outward female-ish(?)-ness cast me as a ‘goldilocks’ (a colloquialism for female-friends-of-bears), or would I just come off as an impostor/intruder/wannabe?
Does this question make any sense?
What’s your experience?
Category: questions, your voice 3 comments »
March 22nd, 2014 at 3:53 pm |
Oh wow…This is a really good question. I don’t have the experience to answer this, but thank you for asking.
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March 22nd, 2014 at 6:22 pm |
I’d love to hear how the Seattle scene is as well.
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March 27th, 2014 at 6:43 pm |
As a 4 year resident of seattle and trans boy myself I have to say the seattle bear scene is kind of difficult to break into in that respect. But there are some rad places to go, The Cuff is a great and generally open place. They also have square dancing on friday afternoons if your looking for a different way to interact.
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