Collection

Shands, Bond Papers

Span Dates: 1970-1976
Bulk Dates:
Volume: .45 linear ft.

Description

The Bond Shands papers are related to his political activities and his work with the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) and the Council of Emperors. Materials related to the Metropolitan Community Church include a biographical sketch of, and a letter from, Reverend James E. Sandmire, and a scrapbook Shands kept on the financial campaign to rebuild the church in 1973 after it was burned down. Shands was a principal fund-raiser and record-keeper for this campaign. There are also flyers and ephemera from Father Gene Boyle's 1974 campaign for California State Assembly and a letter from Supervisor Harry Britt. Materials related to the Council of Emperors include financial records kept by Shands when he served as their treasurer, meeting minute, notes, drafts, and a copy of the final constitution developed while Bonds was chairman of the Council of Emperors Constitution Committee, records from Emperor Robert Cramer's campaign fund, court photographs and ephemera, and Shands' certificates and awards.

Hist/Bio Note

Bond Shands was born in Bakersfield California in 1938. He was a member of the armed forces serving in Korea during 1958. He was a professional accountant serving as a Federal bank examiner in Los Angeles in the 1960s. He worked for the City and County of San Francisco as a systems engineer from 1970-1998. His personal interests included hiking, music and computers. Shands was actively involved in many areas of the Gay community in San Francisco between 1970 and 1976, returning in 1979 and remained active in the Castro Lions club (the first Gay Lions club in the world.) Mr. Shands played an important role in two of San Francisco's Gay institutions: the Metropolitan Community Church, and the Council of Emperors. In 1973 he served as secretary for the Society For Individual Rights (S.I.R.) In addition, Shands was a member of the Council of Emperors from 1974-1979 and was asked to chair a constitution committee for the Council of Emperors which was charged with drafting a formal constitution for that organization. Shands served as official treasurer for the Emperor Bob. He was also actively involved in the political campaigns of Harvey Milk and Reverend Gene Boyle in 1974.

Finding Aid

A finding aid is available at the archives. A brief description of the collection can be found by following the search function at the following web address.
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8w66mdr/

Location

The collection is held at the GLBT Historical Society of Northern California (San Francisco, CA).
https://www.glbthistory.org/archives/

Tags

MCC | Gay Liberation Movement | California | San Francisco