Flashback Friday Remembers 1960’s Pioneer Keith St. Clare

Flashback Friday Remembers 1960's Pioneer Keith St. Clare

The pre-Stonewall queer trailblazer and advocate Keith St. Clare has died. He was 79. He was a writer, activist, and prolific foster father for LGBTQ+ youth, eventually serving the needs of upwards of 600 foster kids in his group home, a first of its kind.

St. Clare is known for being a powerful friend to many communities of outsiders in the San Francisco area, beginning in 1966 when he moved to that city after he received an honorable discharge from the military. It was in that year that he took over and continued the work of Vanguard magazine, a publication of the Vanguard organization. The publication would live on for twelve years under St. Clare's leadership after the dissolution of the organization. The magazine catered to all outsiders, from queer youth to drug addicts, the homeless, political outsiders and trans people.

As reported in The Advocate, St. Clare's reach and inclusivity were groundbreaking, the early groundswells of gay liberation.

Keith St Clare was a pioneer and force on the cutting edge of the gay liberation rebellion,” August Bernadicou, executive director of the LGBTQ History Project, told The Advocate via email. “By giving a platform to the downtrodden and persecuted, Keith helped kick-start a blooming movement. No one was talking about hair faeries, transgender [people], drug dealers, bisexuals, and the like when Keith was publishing Vanguard. He gave a face to the faceless and a voice to the mute.

You can read Bernadicou's interview with St. Clare at his LGBTQ History Project here.

 

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Born in San Antonio, TX, St. Clare entered the Air Force when he was 17. He was stationed in Japan for four years, and moved to San Francisco upon his discharge. After his time with Vanguard magazine ended, he made community service his career. He would be involved in local theater. He created and produced 186 episodes of Young Ideas, a nationally distributed show for young people. And then in the 1980's, there were all those foster kids.

As reported in The Bay Area Reporter, “'He took kids who were throwaways, runaways, and made that into his career,'” (his sister Laurelee Roark) said. Mr. St Clare also took in LGBTQ youth who were having other issues. One of those, Phyllis Fisher, recalled that she was having problems at home when she went to live at Mr. St Clare’s house. 'I was the only female,' Fisher, a lesbian, said in a phone interview. 'He took me in when nobody else would.' Fisher recalled Mr. St Clare as a serious man who wanted the foster youth in his care to be accountable. 'I didn’t have a drug problem. I never missed school. I had a job,' Fisher said.

He took kids who were throwaways, runaways, and made that into his career, Ms. Roarke said.

St. Clare, who had Alzheimer's at the time of his death, died while in an assisted living facility in Richmond, TX, on March 25th. He is survived by his siblings and a biological son, Michael Miller, as well as Miller's family. Of his father, Miller simply stated: “Keith kind of believed in his own reality and was against convention."

Take a deep dive with this audio of St. Clare discussing his early San Francisco work with Mr. Bernadicou.

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