(Introducing Bear at a talk or performance? Click to download approved bio.)
S. Bear Bergman is a storyteller, a theater artist, an instigator, a gender-jammer, and a good example
of what happens when you overeducate a contrarian. Ze is the author of Butch Is a Noun
(reissued with a new foreword by Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010) and Lambda Literary Award-finalist
The Nearest Exit May be Behind You (
Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009) as well as the editor (with the inimitable Kate Bornstein) of the multiple-award-winning
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Seal Press, 2010). Bear is also the creator and performer of
three award-winning solo performances and a frequent contributor to anthologies on all manner of topics
(see hir CV for an extensive list of publications of presentations). Bear can be found
many days in an airport lounge, writing stories on hir laptop and letters on any piece of paper that can pretend to be stationery.
A frequent lecturer at colleges and universities regarding issues relating to gender, sexuality, and culture, Bear enjoys digging in to complicated ideas
and getting dirty doing it. Ze also works extensively helping to create queer and trans cultural competency at universities, corporations, health care
providers, and governmental organizations. This work has included training, policy development, policy reviews, and process/barrier audits, as well
as cultural awareness consulting for external marketing.
As a Jew, Bear also speaks extensively about how hir religious and cultural lives have shaped one another and the intersection of identities, especially
as it relates to being both Jewish and queer. Ze remains exceptionally pleased to have been asked to write the chapter on trans inclusion for
Hillel International's LGBTQ Resource Guide
Less recently, Bear was one of the five original founders of the first Gay/Straight Alliance, a frequent lecturer at high schools and colleges on the
subject of making schools safe for GLBT students, and a founding commission member of what is now called the Massachusetts Safe Schools Project. Bear
was an insufferable know-it-all in high school, but is reformed these days. Somewhat.
Bear was educated at Concord Academy, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts. Ze currently resides in Toronto, Ontario where ze has set
up housekeeping with hir husband j wallace, son Stanley.
Click to download Bear's CV (updated semi-annually)
Click to download a print-ready version of Bear's headshot (34.5MB TIF, 2832 x 4256
pixels)
Click to download one of Bear's alternative headshots (696KB JPG, 1416 x 2128 pixels)
