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Author: Les K. Wright
Les K. Wright is a queer historian, writer, photographer, literary scholar and book publisher. He has been a scholar-activist since the 1970s. He received his MA from the University of Tübingen and his PhD from UC Berkeley. He is a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society San Francisco, founder of the Bear History Project, and founder and president of the Bear History Project International. He is editor of The Bear Book and The Bear Book II, author of Resilience: A Polemical Memoir of AIDS, Bears, and F•cking, and a collection of his photographs have been published in Salt City and Its Environs. His writing has appeared in The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Good Men Project, VoiceMale, Drummer, RFD, Bay Area Reporter, Culture Vulture, White Crane Review, and elsewhere. His bimonthly column"Bear Tracks" has been appearing in Bear World Magazine since 2023. He lives in Syracuse, NY and has found his gay spiritual home in the Billys and Easton Mountain.
Bear Tracks: The Life and Work of Leathersex Pioneer Jack Fritscher
Read further here Bear Tracks: The Life and Work of Leathersex Pioneer Jack Fritscher 10th October 2023Les K. Wright Jack Fritscher (b. 1939; PhD, 1967) is best known for his pioneering role in the leathersex community. His presence and work on page and screen—in fiction, nonfiction, erotica, photography, and video — has been ubiquitous in … Continue reading Bear Tracks: The Life and Work of Leathersex Pioneer Jack Fritscher
HARRY HAY – QUEER ICON
Dragonfly (Les K. Wright) At the recent (2023) tenth anniversary Bear Your Soul gathering at Easton Mountain, I participated in a workshop led by Wildflower (Tyler Wansley) called “Queer Icons.” Wildflower asked us to think about who had been influential in our experience of being gay. The icon could be living or dead, of any … Continue reading HARRY HAY – QUEER ICON
Bear Tracks: Crawford Barton and the Golden Age of Gay Awakening
I Wanted to Live Like a White Person: Notes on Being Old, Poor, and Gay
Les K. Wright When I was a member of the disaffected youth of the 1960s Bob Dylan spoke directly to me through his music. Fifty years later “Like a Rolling Stone” still speaks to me personally. When I was young the tone of righteous anger resonated for our generation. Wasn’t it misplaced trust in American values, … Continue reading I Wanted to Live Like a White Person: Notes on Being Old, Poor, and Gay
Bear Tracks: “The Genius of Place”
Love and Regret in Gay Bars
Click here to read more. Love and Regret in Gay Bars By Les Wright on July 19, 2023Here's My Story The Coleherne, circa 1979 in Earls Court, London. photographer unknown. Even after the first years following Stonewall, Albany’s gay subculture was still distinctly closeted. Chapters of Gay Liberation Front (GLF), Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), and Gay Maoists had … Continue reading Love and Regret in Gay Bars
Gay Men’s Friendships
Bear Your Soul Celebrates Ten Years
“Because of the way that myth takes it for granted that miracles are always happening, the waking life of a mythically inspired people—the ancient Greeks, for instance—more closely resembles a dream than it does the waking world of a scientifically disenchanted thinker.” --Friedrich Nietzsche Bear Your Soul is an annual event at Easton Mountain [https://www.eastonmountain.org], … Continue reading Bear Your Soul Celebrates Ten Years
BEAR TRACKS 01 The Murky Origins of Bear Culture, Part 1
Click here to read more ... FEATURES BEAR HISTORYBEAR TRACKS Bear Tracks: The Murky Origins of Bear Culture Part 1 29th August 2023Les K. Wright **Editor’s Note** Bear World Magazine is honored and thrilled to be working with Bear historian Les K Wright who has spearheaded the Bear History Project Reboot in order to chronicle and archive current events … Continue reading BEAR TRACKS 01 The Murky Origins of Bear Culture, Part 1
“The Things You See When You Haven’t Got a Gun.”
Les K. Wright and Jack Fritscher at A Different Light Bookstore on Castro Street.My reading from The Bear Book II, circa 2001.[photo by Mark Hemry.]
Tangled Memories of a Wounded Storyteller: Notes on Bear History and Cultural Memory
Tangled Memories of a Wounded Storyteller: Notes on Bear History and Cultural Memory LES WRIGHT Les Wright is a long-time gay activist I scholar, committed to Iunderstanding and promoting progressive social change. He is a publisher ofthe on-line journal Verisimilitude, and is at present Associate Professor ofHumanities and English at a small New England college. Teaching Trauma very spring term for the past … Continue reading Tangled Memories of a Wounded Storyteller: Notes on Bear History and Cultural Memory
“Queer Relationships Are Not Like Straight Relationships’ on The Good Men Project
The Politics of Loneliness
Read more here The Politics of Loneliness Loneliness is epidemic among older Americans. August 11, 2023 by Les Wright Leave a Comment A funny thing happened to me halfway through the world pandemic shutdown. I suddenly felt no longer lonely. Several years before unforeseen circumstances forced me to leave my beloved California and move back to rural Central … Continue reading The Politics of Loneliness
Les K Wright Announces Official Launch of the Bear History Project Reboot
Read more here Shutterstock BEARSCOMMUNITYFRONT COVERHISTORY Les K Wright Announces Official Launch of the Bear History Project Reboot 4th August 2023BWM Staff During a recent reading of his book Resilience: A Polemical Memoir of AIDS, Bears and F*cking at Ptown Bear Week, Les K Wright went public with the official announcement of the Bear History Project Reboot; … Continue reading Les K Wright Announces Official Launch of the Bear History Project Reboot
An Epidemic of Loneliness?
Les K. Wright A funny thing happened to me halfway through the world pandemic shutdown. I suddenly felt no longer lonely. Several years before unforeseen circumstances forced me to leave my beloved California and move back to rural Central New York to live with my sister. My only other option at the time was to … Continue reading An Epidemic of Loneliness?
Doors to the Magic Theater
G.J.’ Gallery and the Central Arms I read Hermann Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf as an undergrad in the early 1970s. I had not heard of the recent riots at the Stonewall Inn. And I wasn’t aware of the existence of gay bars. The most striking and lasting impressions I had of Hesse’s novel were the depiction of free … Continue reading Doors to the Magic Theater
“Queer Relationships Are Not Like Straight Relationships”
For me, the saving grace of Bros was this statement made by Bobby Leiber (Billy Eichner’s character). We are different, even if Bros (riffing on When Harry Met Sally) undermines its own message by resolving the story (of two gay men professing their rejection of romance) with the romcom cliché happy ending. Fire Island, another recent queer romcom, also undermines its … Continue reading “Queer Relationships Are Not Like Straight Relationships”
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
It is time for an ACT-UP style resistance to this Cult of Gun Worshippers.
The Life and Times of the Legendary Larry Townsend
by Jack FritscherBook Review by Les K. Wright What becomes a legend most? Having his story told by another legend. And who better to tell Larry Townsend’s story than Jack Fritscher? Author of The Leatherman’s Handbook, Townsend has long been recognized as a primary shaper and influencer of the gay leather-and-kink world, his book a founding … Continue reading The Life and Times of the Legendary Larry Townsend
Open Letter to Jack Fritscher
Hi Jack, I was excited to read the news of your latest book, on Larry Townsend. I will let you know when my copy arrives. (I contacted the Leather Journal, and they said they had already reviewed it.) Over the past two years of the pandemic shutdown I have been coming out of retirement, a … Continue reading Open Letter to Jack Fritscher
LGBT vs. Queer
"The absence of a Poor Queer Studies paradigm that might counterbalance current state-of-the-field work is particularly curious in light of the fact that concerns about academic elitism within Queer Studies are an undeniable part of the field's history. Perhaps we used to hear those charges rather more often than we do now. Notably, Jeffrey Escoffier … Continue reading LGBT vs. Queer
I Was a Working-Class Academic
Melissa Korn (Wall Street Journal) Sixteen major U.S. universities, including Yale University, Georgetown University and Northwestern University, are being sued for alleged antitrust violations because of the way they work together to determine financial-aid awards for students. According to a lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court late Sunday by law firms representing five former students … Continue reading I Was a Working-Class Academic
Update on LTS AIDS Film
Here is the film made of long-term AIDS survivors. Instead of being a documentary, it is a compilation of talking head snippets arranged into a message created by the film-maker. I feel misled. I do appear saying "forty years." At the time I thought it odd that I did not fill out any paperwork or … Continue reading Update on LTS AIDS Film
41 YEARS as a Long-Term AIDS Survivor
WORLD AIDS DAY Today I recognize I have been living with HIV/AIDS for 41 years. I am among the small and dwindling generation of long-term (pre-HAART) AIDS survivors. I am one of the interviewees in Steed Taylor's documentary premiering today as part of the VISUAL AIDS "Day without Art 2021." I will post a link … Continue reading 41 YEARS as a Long-Term AIDS Survivor
Lou Sullivan Has His Own Coffee Mug
Look who's got his own coffee mug? (This came in a fundraiser from the LGBT Historical Society San Francisco): My old friend Lou Sullivan, pioneering trans activist and fellow founding member of the LGBT Historical Society San Francisco. I originally met Lou in the 1970s, where he was an editor on the GPU News in … Continue reading Lou Sullivan Has His Own Coffee Mug
A Tale of the Coleherne
Thinking about my slight connection with Stephen Sondheim opened a floodgate of memories. Our friend in common was a tall, dark, handsome (aren't they all?) pre-bear era leather bear named John Scobie. I met John at the Coleherne originally. He stayed with Sondheim when in NYC and I stayed with a friend (who I had … Continue reading A Tale of the Coleherne
Gay Men’s Friendships
Friendship in Old AgeGay and Lesbian Review The term "friendship," for Americans, is a very broad and nebulous concept. Where I currently live, many people (whom I consider casual acquaintances) call me a friend just because we exchange “Hellos.” I lived in West Germany for most of the 1970s, where I learned that Germans’ definition … Continue reading Gay Men’s Friendships
Communicating Across the Queer Generations
I am occasionally asked to speak to classes at the local college as a gay activist and long-term AIDS survivor. Last week I was asked to hold a 90-minute Q&A with Tyler Bradway's AIDS Literature class. Today I received the email below from one of the students in that class. Hi, I just wanted to … Continue reading Communicating Across the Queer Generations
Closing Another Chapter of My Life
My leathers are being moved to my permanent archive at Cornell's Human Sexuality Collections this December.
Les K. Wright 