Jim Foster

Who was Jim Foster?

James M. "Jim" Foster was an American LGBT rights and Democratic activist. Foster became active in the early gay rights movement when he moved to San Francisco following his undesirable discharge from the United States Army in 1959 for being homosexual. Foster co-founded the Society for Individual Rights, an early homophile organization, in 1964. Dianne Feinstein credits SIR and the gay vote with generating her margin of victory in her election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969.

In 1971, Foster, along with Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, transformed SIR into the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club. The Toklas club was the first gay Democratic club in San Francisco. Also in 1971, Foster was instrumental in convincing Richard Hongisto to run for sheriff and in delivering gay votes to his winning campaign. It became a truism of San Francisco politics that, as long-time activist José Sarria had put it, "nobody ran for anything in San Francisco without knocking on the door of the gay community."

In 1972, after the Toklas club delivered one-third of the signatures needed to secure George McGovern the first position on the California Democratic primary ballot, Foster was given a prime time television spot speaking at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. He and fellow delegate Madeline Davis were the first openly LGBT people ever to address a national party convention. He called upon the Democratic Party to add a gay rights plank to the party platform, saying: