Bernard "Buzz" Bense (1949-2016) was a graphic designer, sex educator, sex-club owner and pioneering advocate of safer sex and sex-positive approaches to gay men's health and community. Active in San Francisco during the bleakest years of the AIDS epidemic from the early 1980s to mid-1990s"Buzz Bense was crucial to the development of safe and pleasure-positive sex spaces in San Francisco" the distinctly West Coast response to the AIDS crisis, observed sexologist Carol Queen, co-founder of the Center for Sex and Culture, which featured a Buzz Bense exhibition in 2014. He continued his work as a sex educator and entrepreneur into the 2000s. Bense was active in the Committee to Save Our Sexual and Civil Liberties, a group organized to protest the closure of the gay bathhouses by San Francisco health officials in 1984. Less than two years later, he opened 890 Folsom, a sex club that met the requirements imposed by the city and that was centered on supporting safer sex practices. Several gay safer sex social groups organized parties at the space: J.O. Buddies, Blow Buddies, the San Francisco Jacks, and the San Francisco Golden Showers Association. The club was subjected to ongoing harassment by the San Francisco Police Department and was the target of a violent police raid on July 14, 1989. Throughout this period, Bense was centrally involved in the Coalition for Healthy Sex, a group of sexologists, sex educators and public health advocates who encouraged commercial sex establishments to adopt best practices for safer sex promotion and general patron safety. Shortly after 890 Folsom closed in 1991, Bense opened a new and better funded sex club, Eros, in a highly visible location on Market Street near the Castro District. In addition to sex parties, Eros hosted cultural programs, exhibitions, safer sex education, HIV screening and other services. The club also was an economic success for nearly 15 years under the ownership of Bense and his partner, Bob West. In 2005, they decided to retire and sold the establishment. Eros remains in business and is now the city’s longest-running gay sex club. In addition to his efforts as a sex entrepreneur and activist, Bense worked as a graphic designer. He created newsletters, posters and flyers promoting safer sex for gay men, as well as promotional materials for organizations involved in the movement. He also worked with Mayer Laboratories, a condom manufacturer and distributor based in Oakland, Calif., to develop packaging and advertising for the firm. Bense's advocacy for sexual health showed in his avocation, as well: he was a longtime and passionate collector of HIV/AIDS-related posters from around the world.