Bill Beardemphl (1926-2002) was a journalist, activist, and chef who is best known for founding the Society for Individual Rights (SIR), a homophile organization, and publishing its magazine Vector. In the 1980s, he was also the owner of the San Francisco Sentinel. The collection contains Beardemphl’s journalistic notes, subject files, and photographs, as well as early issues of Vector.

Bill Beardemphl (1926-2002) was a journalist, activist, and chef who is best known for founding the Society for Individual Rights (SIR), a homophile organization, and publishing its magazine Vector. In the 1980s, he was also the owner of the San Francisco Sentinel. Beardemphl and his lifelong partner, the dancer Johnny DeLeon, moved to San Francisco in 1962. The couple had been used to the culture of relative openness in New York’s Mafia-controlled gay bars, and were shocked to find that in San Francisco, the bars were heavily policed, which made dancing and contact unsafe. This recognition was the beginning of Beardemphl’s activist career. In 1964, he founded SIR, which published the magazine Vector and maintained the SIR Center, a community center which hosted meetings during the day and dances at night. SIR was one of a second wave of homophile organizations, whose perspective was more liberatory and less assimilationist; its mission focused on creating a sense of queer solidarity, changing laws, educating the community about venereal disease, and providing social services and legal aid to queer people. In his later years, in addition to his day job as a chef, Beardemphl devoted much of his time to writing and journalism – publishing the Sentinel, with Randy Alfred as editor, and maintaining extensive notes and subject files on contemporary gay news.

1.2 linear feet (one carton, one small oversize box, one oversize folder)

Copyright to material has been transferred to the GLBT Historical Society. All requests for reproductions and/or permission to publish or quote from material must be submitted in writing to the GLBT Historical Society Archivist. Processing of this collection was generously supported by a gift from Susanne Garcia in honor of Bill Beardemphl and Johnny DeLeon.

Collection is open for research.