Frank Kameny

Franklin Edward "Frank" Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011)[1] was an American gay rights activist. He has been referred to as "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement.[2]

Frank Kameny
Kameny attending Pride on 12 June 2010
Born
Franklin Edward Kameny

(1925-05-21)May 21, 1925
New York City, New York, US
DiedOctober 11, 2011(2011-10-11) (aged 86)
Washington, D.C., US
NationalityAmerican
Alma materQueens College, Harvard University
Known forFired by US government in 1957 for being gay
Co-founder of Mattachine Society, Washington D.C.

In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the U.S. Army's Army Map Service in Washington, D.C. because of his homosexuality,[3] leading him to begin "a Herculean struggle with the American establishment" that would "spearhead a new period of militancy in the homosexual rights movement of the early 1960s".[4]

Kameny formally appealed his firing by the U.S. Civil Service Commission due to homosexuality.[5] Although unsuccessful, the proceeding was notable as the first known civil rights claim based on sexual orientation pursued in a U.S. court.[6]

Early life and firing
Page from Petition for Writ of Certiorari - Number 676 - Kameny v. Brucker, National Archives

Kameny was born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents in New York City. He attended Richmond Hill High School and graduated in 1941. In 1941, at age 16, Kameny went to Queens College to learn physics and at age 17 he told his parents that he was an atheist.[7][8] He was drafted into the United States Army before completion. He served in the Army throughout World War II in Europe, and later served 20 years on the Selective Service board.[9] After leaving the Army, he returned to Queens College and graduated with a baccalaureate in physics in 1948. Kameny then enrolled at Harvard University; while a teaching fellow at Harvard, he refused to sign a loyalty oath without attaching qualifiers, and exhibited a skepticism against accepted orthodoxies.[7] He graduated with both a master's degree (1949) and doctorate (1956) in astronomy. His doctoral thesis was entitled A Photoelectric Study of Some RV Tauri and Yellow Semiregular Variables[10] and was written under the supervision of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.

While on a cross-country return trip from Tucson, where he had just completed his research for his PhD thesis, he was arrested by plainclothes police officers at a San Francisco bus terminal after a stranger had approached and groped him. He was promised that his criminal record would be expunged after serving three years' probation, relieving him from worrying about his employment prospects and any attempt at fighting the charges.[11]

Relocating to Washington, D.C., Kameny taught for a year in the Astronomy Department of Georgetown University and was hired in July 1957 by the United States Army Map Service. When they learned of his San Francisco arrest, Kameny's superiors questioned him, but he refused to provide information regarding his sexual orientation. Kameny was fired by the commission soon afterward. In January 1958, he was barred from future employment by the federal government. As author Douglass Shand-Tucci later wrote,

Kameny was the most conventional of men, focused utterly on his work, at Harvard and at Georgetown... He was thus all the more rudely shocked when the same fate befell him as we've seen befall Prescott Townsend, class of 1918, decades before... He was arrested. Later he would be fired. And, like Townsend, Kameny was radicalized.[12]

Kameny appealed his firing through the judicial system, losing twice before seeking review from the United States Supreme Court, which turned down his petition for certiorari.[5] After devoting himself to activism, Kameny never held a paid job again and was supported by friends and family for the rest of his life. Despite his outspoken activism, he rarely discussed his personal life and never had any long-term relationships with other men, stating merely that he had no time for them. He stated, "If I disagree with someone, I give them a chance to convince me they are right. And if they fail, then I am right and they are wrong and I will just have to fight them until they change."[13]

Kameny eschewed conventional racial designations; throughout his life, he consistently cited his race as "human".[14]

Gay rights activism
Letter from Kameny to President Kennedy, JFK Presidential Library

In 1961, Kameny and Jack Nichols, fellow co-founder of the Washington, D.C., branch of the Mattachine Society, launched some of the earliest public protests by gays and lesbians with a picket line at the White House on April 17, 1965.[15][16] In coalition with New York's Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, the picketing expanded to target the United Nations, the Pentagon, the United States Civil Service Commission, and Philadelphia's Independence Hall for what became known as the Annual Reminder for gay rights. Kameny also wrote to President Kennedy asking him to change the rules on homosexuals being purged from the government.[17]

In 1963, Kameny and Mattachine launched a campaign to overturn D.C. sodomy laws; he personally drafted a bill that finally passed in 1993.[15] He also worked to remove the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.[15]

1970–2000

In 1971, Kameny became the first openly gay candidate for the United States Congress[18] when he ran in the District of Columbia's first election for a non-voting Congressional delegate.[15] Following his defeat by Democrat Walter E. Fauntroy, Kameny and his campaign organization created the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Washington, D.C., an organization which continues to lobby government and press the case for equal rights.[19]

In 1972, Kameny and Barbara Gittings convinced the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to hold a debate, "Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to the Homosexual?; A Dialogue" at their annual meeting in Dallas. It was for this debate that Dr. John E. Fryer, a gay psychiatrist in disguise as "Dr. Henry Anonymous", testified as to how homosexuality being listed as a mental disease in the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) affected the lives of gay psychiatrists and other homosexuals. Kameny had approached numerous gay psychiatrists, but Fryer was the only one who agreed to testify, and even he would only do so in disguise for fear of losing his position at Temple University, where he did not have tenure.[20] The following year, the APA removed homosexuality from the DSM. Kameny described that day - December 15, 1973 - as the day "we were cured en masse by the psychiatrists."[21]

Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military author Randy Shilts documented Kameny's work in advising several service members in their attempts to receive honorable discharges after being discovered to be gay. For 18-year-old Marine Jeffrey Dunbar:

Kameny lined up gay ex-Marines to testify at the young man's hearing. The Washington Post ran an editorial supporting an upgraded discharge, noting that Dunbar "was involved in no scandal and had brought no shame on the Marine Corps", and called the undesirable discharge "strange and, we think, pointless way of pursuing military 'justice'."

In 1975, his long search for a gay service member with an impeccable record to initiate a challenge to the military's ban on homosexuals culminated in protege Leonard Matlovich, a Technical Sergeant in the United States Air Force with 11 years of unblemished service and a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, purposely outing himself to his commanding officer on March 6, 1975. Matlovich had first read about Kameny's goal in an interview in the Air Force Times. Talking first by telephone, they eventually met and, along with ACLU attorney David Addlestone, planned the legal challenge. Their relationship was strained after Matlovich's interview with the New York Times Magazine, as Kameny felt that Matlovich had portrayed the gay community negatively by saying that he would have preferred to be straight.[22]

Discharged in October 1975, Matlovich was ordered reinstated by a federal district court in 1980 in a ruling that, technically, would only have applied to him. Convinced the Air Force would create another excuse to discharge him again, Matlovich accepted a financial settlement instead, and continued his gay activism work until his death from AIDS complications in June 1988. Kameny was an honorary pallbearer at his funeral and spoke at graveside services in Washington DC's Congressional Cemetery.

On March 26, 1977, Kameny and a dozen other members of the gay and lesbian community, under the leadership of the then-National Gay Task Force, briefed then-Public Liaison Midge Costanza on much-needed changes in federal laws and policies. This was the first time that gay rights were officially discussed at the White House.[23][24]

Kameny was appointed as the first openly gay member of the District of Columbia's Human Rights Commission in the 1970s.[9]

2000–2011
Kameny in front of signs used during protests. June 2009

In 2007, Kameny's death was mistakenly reported by The Advocate in its May 22 "Pride issue", alongside a mistaken report that he had HIV. The report was retracted with an apology, and Kameny asked The Advocate, "Did you give a date of death?"[25]

In 2007, Kameny wrote a letter to the conservative, anti-gay publication WorldNetDaily in defense of Idaho Republican senator Larry Craig regarding Craig's arrest for solicitation of sex in a Minneapolis airport bathroom; he ended it with the following: "I am no admirer of Larry Craig and hold out no brief for him. He is a self-deluding hypocritical homophobic bigot. But fair is fair. He committed no crime in Minneapolis and should not suffer as if he did." The New York Times' Frank Rich joined Kameny in calling for Craig's pardon.[26]

In November 2007, Kameny wrote an open letter of protest to NBC journalist Tom Brokaw (and his publisher Random House), who wrote Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today, over the total lack of mention of gay and lesbian rights activism during the 1960s and upbraiding Brokaw for having "'de-gayed' an entire generation".[27] The letter was co-signed by former Washington Post editor Howard Kurtz, Harry Rubinstein (curator, National Museum of American History), John Earl Haynes, Dudley Clendinen and Stephen Bottum. Brokaw appeared on Kurtz's CNN show Reliable Sources to defend the exclusion, saying that "the gay rights movement came slightly later. It lifted off during that time and I had to make some choices about what I was going to concentrate on. The big issues were the anti-war movement, the counterculture."[28]

Kameny suffered from heart disease in his last years, but maintained a full schedule of public appearances, his last being a speech to an LGBT group in Washington DC on September 30, 2011.

Frank Kameny was found dead in his Washington home on October 11, 2011 (National Coming Out Day).[29] The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be natural causes due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.[30]

Awards and honors

In 2006, Kameny and Barbara Gittings received the first John E. Fryer, MD Award from the American Psychiatric Association.[31]

In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History included Kameny's picket signs carried in front of the White House in 1965 in the Smithsonian exhibit "Treasures of American History". The Smithsonian now has 12 of the original picket signs carried by gay and lesbian Americans at this, the first ever White House demonstration for gay rights.[32] The Library of Congress acquired Kameny's papers in 2006, documenting his life and leadership.[33]

Frank Kameny Way in Washington, D.C.

In February 2009, Kameny's home in Washington was designated as a D.C. Historic Landmark by the District of Columbia's Historic Preservation Review Board.[34]

On June 29, 2009, John Berry (Director of the Office of Personnel Management) formally apologized to Kameny on behalf of the United States government.[15][35] Berry, who is openly gay, presented Kameny with the Theodore Roosevelt Award, the department's most prestigious award.[36]

On June 10, 2010, following a unanimous vote by the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Washington, D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty unveiled new street signs designating 17th Street between P and R streets, N.W., as "Frank Kameny Way" in Kameny's honor.[37]

At a luncheon on December 10, 2010 in the Caucus room of the Cannon House Office Building, Kameny was honored with the 2010 Cornelius R. "Neil" Alexander Humanitarian Award.[38]

Kameny was invited to attend the December 22, 2010, ceremony where President Barack Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. Kameny was a member of Triangle Foundation's Board of Advisors.[39]

Following Kameny's death, the giant rainbow flag on the tall flagpole at the corner of Market Street and Castro Street in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco was flown at half-staff for 24 hours beginning on the afternoon of October 12, 2011 at the request of the creator of the rainbow flag, Gilbert Baker.[40]

On November 2, 2011, Kameny's house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[41][42]

On 3 July 2012, Minor Planet (40463) Frankkameny was named in Kameny's honor by the International Astronomical Union and the Minor Planet Center.[43][44][45][46][47][48]

In 2013, Kameny was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display in Chicago which celebrates LGBT history and people.[49]

In 2015, Kameny received a U.S. Veterans Administration memorial headstone, at Washington, D.C.'s Congressional Cemetery at his memorial site; the headstone was dedicated during a ceremony on the morning of November 11, 2015; Veteran's Day.[50] In front of that headstone lays a marker inscribed with the slogan "Gay is Good".[50] Kameny coined that slogan, and in a 2009 AP interview said about coining it, "If I am remembered for anything I hope it will be that."[51]

In June 2019, Kameny was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.[52][53] The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history,[54] and the wall’s unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.[55]

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References

Notes

  1. Dunlap, David W. (October 12, 2011). "Franklin Kameny, Gay Rights Pioneer, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  2. Bullough, Vern L. (2002), Bullough, Vern L. (ed.), Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context, New York: The Haworth Press, p. 207, ISBN 1-56023-193-9
  3. Chibbaro Jr., Lou (2006-10-04). "Kameny's work finds new home" (PDF). Washington Blade. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-10-16. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  4. Johnson, David K. (2002), "Franklin E. Kameny (1925-)", in Bullough, Vern L. (ed.), Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context, New York: The Haworth Press, pp. 209–218, ISBN 1-56023-193-9
  5. "Gay rights epicenter named landmark". USA Today. 2009-02-27. Archived from the original on 2011-01-14. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  6. Gaynair, Gillian (2009-06-08). "DC pride festival honors gay rights pioneer Kameny". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
  7. De Leon, David. Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism. Greenwood Press (June 30, 1994). p. 253
  8. Jon Rowe (February 14, 2008). "Frank Kameny on Atheism, Theism, & Gays". Archived from the original on November 5, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  9. "HRC, 'Franklin E. Kameny'". Hrc.org. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  10. "A Photoelectric Study of Some RV Tauri and Yellow Semiregular Variables" (PDF). Harvard University. May 1956. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-24. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  11. Carter, David. Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (June 1, 2004)
  12. Shand-Tucci, Douglas. The Crimson Letter: Harvard, Homosexuality, and the Shaping of American Culture. St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (May 19, 2003). p. 268.
  13. [Hirshman, Linda. "OBIT: Present at the Creation: Frank Kameny, the modest, stubborn man who helped start the gay rights movement." Slate.com October 12, 2011]
  14. Cecil Adams (1991-11-22). "What percentage of black parentage do you need to be considered black?". The Straight Dope. Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  15. "Kameny, Frank (b. 1925)". glbtq, Inc. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  16. "The Gay Civil Rights Movement Turns to Public Picketing". The Rainbow History Project. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  17. "Kameny, Franklin E. - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum". www.jfklibrary.org. Archived from the original on 2016-05-24. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
  18. Boldt, David R. (February 23, 1971). "Homosexual Files Delegate Papers: Number of Contestants Is Now Eight". The Washington Post. p. A17.
  19. Slavin, Sarah (1995). U.S. women's interest groups: Institutional Profiles. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 645. ISBN 0-313-25073-1. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  20. Scasta, David L. (2003) "John E. Fryer, MD, and the Dr. H. Anonymous Episode" in Drescher, Jack and Merlino, Joseph P. (eds.) (2012) American Psychiatry and Homosexuality: An Oral History Routledge. pp.15-28 ISBN 9781136859939; originally published in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy 6(4):73-84
  21. Philip Kennicott (September 8, 2007). "At Smithsonian, Gay Rights Is Out of the Closet, Into the Attic". Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  22. Kameny, Franklin; Long, Michael G. (15 October 2014). "Gay Is Good: The Letters of Franklin Kameny". Archived from the original on 7 February 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  23. "Task Force mourns the death of pioneering gay activist and founding board member Frank Kameny". National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. October 11, 2011. Archived from the original on October 3, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014. he and a dozen other members of our community briefed then-Public Liaison Midge Costanza
  24. "LGBT Advocate White House Aide Costanza Dies". Advocate.com. March 24, 2010. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014. Costanza met with gay activists including Frank Kameny, Troy Perry, Elaine Noble, and Task Force co–executive directors Bruce Voeller and Jean O'Leary.
  25. "Frank Kameny: Alive and laughing". The Advocate. May 16, 2007. Archived from the original on January 31, 2010.
  26. Frank Rich (September 23, 2007). "Pardon Poor Larry Craig". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  27. "Frank Kameny Writes Tom Brokaw". Kamenypapers.org. 2007-11-26. Archived from the original on 2013-09-23. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  28. "Interview With Tom Brokaw; Clinton, Obama Make Headlines With Reaction to Robert Novak's Column". CNN. November 25, 2007. Archived from the original on January 12, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  29. Chibbaro, Lou (2011-10-11). "Longtime gay activist Frank Kameny passes on". Washingtonblade.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  30. Chibbaro, Lou (2011-10-26). "Medical Examiner says Kameny died of heart disease". Washingtonblade.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  31. "AGLPNewsletterAug06" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  32. Bianco, p. 167
  33. "Gay Civil Rights Pioneer Frank Kameny Presents Lifetime Papers and Historic Artifacts to the Nation" (Press release). Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 2006-10-06. Archived from the original on 2008-06-04. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  34. Petula Dvorak (February 27, 2009). "NW Home of Activist Made Historic Site". Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
  35. Noel Brinkerhoff (30 June 2009). "U.S. Government Formally Apologizes for 1957 Firing of Gay Astronomer". AllGov.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  36. Kevin Naff (June 29, 2009). "Gov't apologizes to Kameny". Washington Blade. Archived from the original on July 5, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  37. Chibarro, Jr., Lou (2010-06-08). "'Kameny Way' ceremony highlights Capital Pride events". The Washington Blade. Archived from the original on 2011-09-23. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
  38. Peter Rosenstein (10 December 2010). "Kameny honored on Capitol Hill". Archived from the original on 27 December 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  39. "Triangle Foundation". Tri.org. Archived from the original on 2007-07-05.
  40. Roehr, Bob. "–"Gay Pioneer Frank Kameny Dies" by Bob Roehr—Obituary in the Bay Area Reporter October 13, 2011". Ebar.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  41. "National Register to Accept Kameny House". Metroweekly.com. 2011-10-31. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  42. Mark Meinke (July 22, 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Dr. Franklin E. Kameny Residence" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved November 22, 2011. (__ pages, with __ figures and __ photos)
  43. "Minor Planets Circular 79711" (PDF). Minor Planets Center. July 3, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  44. US: Gay rights campaigner Frank Kameny has asteroid named for him Archived 2012-07-13 at the Wayback Machine, Pink News, 10 July 2012
  45. Asteroid between Mars, Jupiter named for US gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny Archived 2012-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, July 10, 2012
  46. Brett Zongker, Asteroid named for gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, Business Week, July 10, 2012
  47. Andrew Davis, Canadian names asteroid for Kameny; Anderson Cooper inspires Chinese Archived 2012-08-16 at the Wayback Machine, Windy City Times, 2012-07-10
  48. Freya Petersen, Canadian astronomer names asteroid after gay rights activist Archived 2012-07-15 at the Wayback Machine, Alaska Dispatch, July 11, 2012
  49. "Dane Tidwell". Chicagophoenix.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  50. FOX (2015-10-30). "DC cemetery honors LGBT World War II veteran, gay rights leader - Story | WTTG". Fox5dc.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  51. "Pioneer Who Coined Phrase 'Gay Is Good' Dead at 86". Newser.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  52. Glasses-Baker, Becca (June 27, 2019). "National LGBTQ Wall of Honor unveiled at Stonewall Inn". www.metro.us. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
  53. SDGLN, Timothy Rawles-Community Editor for (2019-06-19). "National LGBTQ Wall of Honor to be unveiled at historic Stonewall Inn". San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  54. "Groups seek names for Stonewall 50 honor wall". The Bay Area Reporter / B.A.R. Inc. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
  55. "Stonewall 50". San Francisco Bay Times. 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2019-05-25.

Bibliography

  • Bianco, David. Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Queer Brain. Los Angeles, Alyson Books, 1999. ISBN 1-55583-508-2.
  • Cervini. The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020. ISBN 978-0374139797
  • Gambone, Philip. Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans. University of Wisconsin Press, 2010.
  • Kisseloff, Jeff. Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s. University Press of Kentucky, 2007.
  • Murdoch, Joyce and Deb Price. Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court. New York, Basic Books, 2001.

Biographical

Congressional testimony

Interviews

News

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