Unfinished Lives

Waymaking Gay Rights Pioneer, Frank Kameny, is Dead at 86.

Washington, D.C. – Frank Kameny, pioneering gay rights advocate, is dead of natural causes at 86 years of age.  The Dallas Voice and the Washington Blade reported the details of Kameny’s passing, and began the assessment of his leadership to the LGBTQ rights movement in the United States.  A full decade before the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, Kameny was strategically planning and leading the nascent gay rights movement, along with a handful of other brave women and men.  He co-founded the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights organization in the nation’s capitol.

Kameny was a combat soldier in World War II, and used the G.I. Bill to earn a doctorate in astronomy from Harvard University after the war.  He worked for the U.S. Army Map Service in the 1950s until his superiors learned he was gay, and fired him for it. Kameny contested the firing, taking his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court–making him the first person to bring a gay-related issue to the high court.  The Supremes held in favor of the lower court, setting aside Kameny’s suit, but his experience before the court confirmed him as a lifelong gay rights activist.  He launched the first gay rights demonstrations at the White House in 1965, and was the first gay person named to the D.C. Human Rights Commission.

Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign, said of him, “From his early days fighting institutionalized discrimination in the federal workforce, Dr. Kameny taught us all that ‘Gay is Good.’ As we say goodbye to this trailblazer on National Coming Out Day, we remember the remarkable power we all have to change the world by living our lives like Frank ­— openly, honestly and authentically.” 

In later years, Kameny fell on hard times, running short of money for food and housing.  Friends and activists spearheaded an effort to raise funds to make his later years more secure and worry-free.  As the movement for LGBTQ rights evolved, Kameny became something of an artifact–honored for his role in the past, but paid less attention than he deserved, in the opinion of many.  Recognition, however, came to him beyond any of the neglectfulness he suffered.  A younger generation of activists discovered him, and celebrated him.  Official notoriety came to him, as well.  As the Washington Blade reported in another article detailing the response of the LGBTQ community to his passing: “In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History included his picket signs from the White House demonstration. Papers documenting his life were added to the Library of Congress in 2006. In 2009, Kameny received the Theodore Roosevelt Award.”

I met Kameny at a 2009 wreath laying for Sgt. Leonard Matlovich at the Old Congressional Cemetery in Washington City.  He spoke to the hundred or so in attendance on a beautiful October day, just prior to the National Equality March.  He beamed with pride, recounting his days as a soldier in the U.S. Army, as an astronomer, and then as a fighter for our rights. Sitting with Rev. Troy Perry, the Founder of the MCC Church, Kameny was no museum piece.  He was strong and determined to win 21st century freedoms for his people.  In death, his influence and inspiration have every prospect of increasing with the passage of time.

So, Frank Kameny, student of the stars, passed quietly from this life at his home. Before him, there was no way.  Thanks to him and his colleagues in the equality movement, a way was made out of no way.  Rest in peace, Frank.  We will not forget you.  ~ Stephen V. Sprinkle, Founder and Director of the Unfinished Lives Project

October 12, 2011 Posted by unfinishedlives | Anglo Americans, Frank Kameny, gay men, GLBTQ, Heterosexism and homophobia, Lesbian women, LGBTQ, Mattachine Society, military, Protests and Demonstrations, Remembrances, Social Justice Advocacy, Stonewall, U.S. Army, U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C. | Anglo Americans, Frank Kameny, gay men, GLBTQ, Heterosexism and homophobia, Lesbians, LGBTQ, Mattachine Society, Social Justice Advocacy, Stonewall Uprising, U.S. Army, U.S. Supreme Court, Washington D.C. | Comments Off on Waymaking Gay Rights Pioneer, Frank Kameny, is Dead at 86.