(The photo to the right is me with my three sisters in 1997, at my nephew Jimmy's wedding. From left to right, Agnes (mother of the groom,) Melissa, me, and Cathy. The photo to the left is me taken on October 20, 2012)
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Basically, DeanBear is me, Dean Basler. I was born in 1958 in
Syracuse, New
York. I grew up in Mattydale, New
York, with my parents and my siblings (one brother and three sisters.) I
graduated high school in 1977, and I have had some college (majoring in Information
Technology.)
(The photo to the right is me with my three sisters in 1997, at my nephew Jimmy's wedding. From left to right, Agnes (mother of the groom,) Melissa, me, and Cathy. The photo to the left is me taken on October 20, 2012) |
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Why are you called DeanBear?
It goes back to the late 80's. One of my friends basically called me a bear (although I didn't
really know much about it at the time.) Later on I found out that there was a subset of the gay
community that was like me. If you want more information about the Bear Community, this
article on Wikipedia
should give you the gist of it. I started using the handle "DeanBear" when I
started going online, first on Gay.com, and then using it with other services (most notably
"DeanBearSyr" on
YouTube.) I also registered the URL
"deanbear.com" around 2001.
How long have you been gay?
Okay, I have always been gay. I did come out of the closet in December of 1999 though.
Lying about myself wasn't a good thing.
What do you do, aside from making YouTube videos and blogging?
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I'm pretty much a middle-class working guy.
Since August of 2005 I have been by employed by a corrugated container manufacturing
company here in Syracuse, NY. I work
the overnight shift in the
shipping department, operating a machine called a unitizer (which basically bands up pallets of
finished boxes.) I also function as an inventory clerk, scanning the finished pallets into the
inventory system. I also work out on the production floor as needed, such
as running a flatbed die cutter, and helping out on the presses and other
machines that we use to produce corrugated containers.
(The photo is of me at work in front of the unitizer
that I run, taken July 29, 2012.) |
What about your home life?
Well, I currently live on the South Side of Syracuse (near the Strathmore
district) in the house that I purchased in October of 2010 (I became a first
time homeowner at 52!) with my husband, Dan Bishop. (We were married July 7th, 2012.)
We have one dog, Spike (a purebred Shih Tzu.) and two cats, Bear and
Sparky. We pretty much are like many
middle-class couples in the 21st century.
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| Dean and Dan, (Common Ground, Ithaca, NY December 2000) | Dean and Dan, getting married July 7th, 2012 in Camillus, New York. | Me and my sisters (Aggie, Missy, and Cathy,) at my wedding July 7th, 2012 in Camillus, New York. |
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| Dan's niece Sarah, Dan, myself, and my nephew Thomas at my wedding July 7th, 2012 in Camillus, New York. | Dean and Dan with Margaret Cho (Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, NY April 20, 2006) |
Dan with Rosie (d. 2010) and Spike (Onondaga Lake Park, July 8, 2006) |
What about hobbies, interests, and the such?
Well I don't have a lot of interests. One of them is reading (mainly science fiction
novels, thanks to my parents, who were big sci-fi fans.) My musical tastes tend towards classic and progressive rock music, with a little new wave thrown in
for good measure. The other hobbies that I have are photography (been doing it since I was a
kid, again thanks to my parents, who encouraged it) and computers. I bought my first computer in
1984, a Commodore 64. I started using PC's around 1987, and I bought my first PC in 1991.