Maggs Bros.

The Society for Individual Rights (“SIR”) was formed in San Francisco in September 1964, and represented a new generation of LGBT community groups. SIR, which described itself as a homophile organisation, built on the momentum of its predecessors like the Mattachine Society, however pursued a less assimilationist and discreet approach to gay rights activism, seeking rather to normalise and make space for queer culture within mainstream society. In their own words: “SIR is an organisation formed within the Community working for the Community. By trying to give the individual a sense of dignity before himself and within his Society, it answers the question of how we can maintain our self-respect. SIR is dedicated to belief in the worth of the homosexual and adheres to the principle that the individual has the right to his own sexual orientation so long as the practice of the belief does not interfere with the rights of others.”

These are the first two issues of the SIR official publication Vector, which would run for over a decade and go on to bear the tagline “a voice for the homosexual community”. Later issued of Vector are well known for their physique pictorial style photoshoots, but these inaugural numbers are all text with a few hand drawn advertisements for local San Francisco businesses. The associated risk that came with this out and proud approach to homosexuality is made all too clear between these two issues. The first bears a letter applauding the society for its “progam of dialog between our Community and religious leaders”, only for the front page story of the second issue to recount the Vice Squad invasion of a ball held by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, on January 1st 1965. The same issue includes a speech given by Rev. Cecil Williams of the Glide Memorial Church. Williams speaks of the importance of building coalition between the Black and homosexual communities in their parallel struggles for civil rights.