That was something I realized in one of the most uncomfortable ways imaginable: from an illustrated book my parents owned that depicted the Gospel of Luke. Being a 'sexually deviant' homosexual was bad enough-worse, I thought, was that I was attracted to big, hairy men. I had come to terms with my homosexuality two years earlier coming out was potentially catastrophic for me, since I was raised Mormon by a devout family, and my father was a church bishop. And the magazine itself heralded a new era for a broad demographic of gay men that until then existed mostly in bars and local clubs. Seeing that cover made me realize that there were other men out there who were attracted to heavyset, hirsute guys like I was.
It was my first exposure to a subculture that would come to dominate the next decade of my social life.
For homos like myself, BEAR Magazine was much more than a porn rag.
