 They initially formed under the Glide Memorial Church, a radical offshoot of the United Methodist Church.Vanguard's politics highlighted “the issues facing gay and transgender youth in the 1960s produced radical insights into the connections between economic class, police violence, incarceration, and homophobia.”

In early Autumn of 1966, Vanguard hosted a historic “street sweep” in response to the events at Compton's.About fifty Vanguard members took to the streets of the Tenderloin with push brooms borrowed from the city.