James Foster; Bay Area Political Figure
James M. Foster, a member of the San Francisco Health Commission and the first openly gay person to speak at a national political convention when he addressed the 1972 Democratic Presidential Convention in Miami, died Wednesday at his San Francisco home.
San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos said he was 55 and died of the complications of AIDS.
Foster, who was Northern California campaign director for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s brief 1980 presidential campaign, was appointed to the Health Commission by then Mayor Dianne Feinstein 1985 and reappointed by Agnos when he took office in 1988.
In 1972, Foster, always called “Jim,” founded the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club in San Francisco, credited with registering thousands of gays in the Bay Area.
Morris Kight, a longtime local gay rights activist, credited Foster with inspiring him to form the similar Stonewall Democratic Club in Los Angeles in 1975.
Foster’s longtime companion, Larry Ludwig, preceded him in death. A brother, Robert, of Los Angeles, survives.
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