It was not unlike his experience when he first entered UC Berkeley as a 19-year-old sophomore in 1969. He is also adjunct curator for the Bancroft Library's Sexual Orientation and Social Conflict Collection, which examines gay and opposing reactions to such issues as same-sex marriages and domestic- partner benefits.īenemann came up with the idea for the Gay Bears collection after searching the archives a decade ago for any record of gay and lesbian history but finding nothing. William Benemann, head of technical services at the Boalt Hall Law Library, has devoted many volunteer hours to putting the collection together. The collection, in the University Archives at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library, is the first documentation of gay life on campus. Kelly, Dickemann and five other gay alumni told their stories for an oral history project called Gay Bears. 'You always thought that you were going to get married,' said Kelly. Many of Kelly's friends did not know Kelly was gay and even though he was having trysts with men, Kelly did not think of himself as homosexual. Kelly remembers that one of his fraternity brothers held his bachelor party at the Beige Room, a drag queen showplace in San Francisco.
