Home State Activists Frank Kameny

Frank Kameny

Frank Kameny : biography

21 May 1925 – 11 October 2011

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. However, by the fall, he was in trouble with the Civil Service Commission following a late night run-in with police in Lafayette Park, a traditional cruising area along Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House. He was arrested. Kameny was questioned by his superiors but he refused to give them 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."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.

Kameny appealed against his firing through the judicial system, losing twice before heading to the United States Supreme Court, which turned down his petition for certiorari. 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.

Kameny eschewed conventional racial designations; throughout his life, he consistently cited his race as "human."http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/653/what-percentage-of-black-parentage-do-you-need-to-be-considered-black

Awards and honors

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.Bianco, p. 167 The Library of Congress acquired Kameny’s papers in 2006, documenting his life and leadership.

Frank Kameny Way as seen on June 12, 2010

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.

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

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. 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.

Kameny was seated at the front row of the gathering 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.

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.

On November 2, 2011, Kameny’s house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (__ pages, with __ figures and __ photos)

On 3 July 2012, Minor Planet (40463) Frankkameny was named in Kameny’s honor by the International Astronomical Union and the Minor Planet Center., Pink News, 10 July 2012, The Washington Post, July 10, 2012Brett Zongker, , Business Week, July 10, 2012Andrew Davis, , Windy City Times, 2012-07-10Freya Petersen, , Alaska Dispatch, July 11, 2012

Notes