National Geographic

Airing this Wednesday at 8pm nationwide.

Early YouTube superstar Chris Crocker (who's looking quite different these days) delivers a rant about the tension between masculine and feminine gay men.

My pal Ned just texted me the above photo of the front door of San Francisco's Eagle Tavern. According to JMG reader Craig, insiders suspect there's much more to the story than a lost lease.

"I am a gay person before I’m anything else. I’m a gay person before I’m a white person, before I’m a Jew, before I’m a writer, before I’m American, anything. That is my most identifying characteristic and I don’t find many people who would say that. The polls say the same thing: People do not identify themselves as gay. And that’s too bad. In fact, it’s tragic. It will prevent us from ever having what we deserve, I believe." - Larry Kramer, in an interview with Salon.

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My pal Leif Wauters is spearheading an effort to post the sets of the late and legendary DJ Neil Lewis, whose epic work is considered by many to represent a pinnacle of San Francisco nightlife.

Welcome to the premier podcast of Neil's recorded sets from his nights at Pleasuredome. Each release represents both sides of an audio cassette tape recording that has recently been digitised. Although I'm not an audio engineer, I have done my best to remove any gaps and to generally beef up with quality of the recordings but some unavoidable warbling and glitches remain. Please allow these imperfections to remind you that this is simply an attempt to share the joy of Neil Lewis' music what was adored by dancers, flaggers and other DJs around the world until he took his life in 2004. Please share these podcasts far and wide as they represent what some would consider the best of a golden age in dance music. There will be a new release roughly every couple of weeks until the collection has been completely shared. If you enjoy what you hear, please consider making a donation to San Francisco Suicide Prevention as a "Friend of Neil Lewis" so they can continue the critical work of keeping our troubled loved-ones amongst us.

I made most of my San Francisco friends on Neil's dance floor and even just a few minutes into this podcast, I'm flashing back to people I haven't thought about in many years. Appropriately, this first posting begins with Chicane, the gloriously serene trance act that came to represent Neil's unique style. Bookmarked.

Nice piece from the author of Born This Way Blog, which posts childhood photos that seem to predict the subject's future gayness.

Organizers of International Bear Rendezvous, the annual party weekend that for 17 years has drawn thousands to San Francisco, are calling it quits after this week's events.

"It was a big decision but we are going to do it," said Chuck Rudd, one of the organizers of the annual event aimed at hairy gay and bisexual men – and their admirers. The main reason behind the decision is economics, said Rudd. "It is becoming cost prohibitive to do. The hotel costs keep going up and transportation costs keep going up," said Rudd. The main draw at IBR is the International Bear Competition that crowns winners in the categories of International Bear Cub, International Daddy Bear, International Grizzly Bear, and the overall title of International Mr. Bear. It too will cease to exist. "The whole weekend is built around the contest. We are not doing the contest or the weekend next year," said Rudd. The Bears of San Francisco host the rendezvous. A related event, Bears Invade the Castro, now in its eighth year, that encouraged IBR participants to shop, eat or drink in the Castro over the course of the weekend, will also come to an end this year.

Local merchants are lamenting IBR's demise, which packs clubs and shops at a time of year when tourism is otherwise quite slow. While IBR cannot be reasonably compared to the traditional idea of a circuit party, its end does track with the overall spiraling down of the circuit phenomenon, which peaked about ten years ago.

A coalition of African-American gay groups marched in yesterday's Martin Luther King Day Parade in Los Angeles. Among those attending: The Barbara Jordan/ Bayard Rustin Coalition, The Here to Stay Coalition, Black Lesbians United, In the Meantime Men’s Group, At the Beach Los Angeles Black Pride. Hit the link for more on the event.

Out Magazine has issued its first-ever sex survey of its readers. The sample size is small, 1000 people, and the results are only indicative of folks who read Out, not the LGBT population as a whole. Still, there's some interesting factoids such as the above.