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Title: Bill Beardemphl papers
Dates: 1960s-2010s
Collection Number: 2022-04
Creator/Collector:
Beardemphl, Bill
Extent: 1.2 linear feet (one carton, one small oversize box, one oversize folder)
Online items available
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: 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.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
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.
[Identification of item]. Bill Beardemphl papers. Collection Number: 2022-04. GLBT Historical Society
The collection was donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Randy Alfred in December 2021.
Biography/Administrative History
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.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains Beardemphl’s journalistic notes, subject files, and photographs, as well as early issues of Vector
and cassette tapes which appear to be recorded interviews. The notes and subject files are voluminous, and chart Beardemphl’s
reading and research into topics ranging from the Coors boycott to Evangelical homophobia to AIDS; some of his commentary
is quite acidic, providing insight into Beardemphl and his journalistic persona. The photographs are fairly extensive, ranging
from the 1960s to the 1980s; they include early images of Beardemphl’s life with DeLeon as well as photographs taken at what
appear to be Imperial Court events, with men in tights and elaborate Renaissance costumes. Finally, there are two books, Randy
Shilts’ And the Band Played On and Martin Duberman’s Hidden From History, with annotations and notes by Beardemphl.
The organization of the collection largely reflects Beardemphl’s original folders.
Gay men
Homophile movement
Journalism