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Frank Kameny

1925–2011 · 86 years

The astronomer the government fired, who never stopped answering back

Portrait of Frank Kameny — Davd from Washington, DC — 2010 — CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

By six he had settled on astronomy, and nothing afterward moved him off it. Frank Kameny grew up in Richmond Hill, Queens, the son of a Polish-born electrical engineer, started high school at 12 and finished at 16, and told his parents at 17 that he was an atheist. He enlisted in the Army in May 1943 to stay in a classroom, and got the front lines of Europe instead, as an infantry private. Then Queens College for a physics degree in 1948, Harvard for a master's and a doctorate in astronomy under Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a year teaching at Georgetown, and in July 1957 a job with the Army Map Service. He was 32 and entirely conventional.

His superiors learned of a 1956 arrest in San Francisco and asked about his sexual orientation. He refused to answer, was fired, and in January 1958 was barred from federal employment. He lost twice in the lower courts, then in January 1961 petitioned the Supreme Court himself, without a lawyer, in the first known civil rights claim based on sexual orientation pursued in a U.S. court. The Court declined. He co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington that year, put 10 picketers outside the White House in April 1965 in jackets and ties, and in 1968 coined Gay is Good.

The largest thing he won was fought inside a professional association. Kameny and Barbara Gittings pressed the American Psychiatric Association into staging a debate at its 1972 meeting in Dallas, where a gay psychiatrist named John Fryer testified in a mask and a wig as "Dr. H. Anonymous", having no tenure and expecting to lose his job. The APA struck homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual the following year. Kameny called December 15, 1973, the day "we were cured en masse by the psychiatrists". The method that got him there was not gentle. He never held a paid job after 1957, lived on money from friends and family, and quarreled with allies, among them Leonard Matlovich, the Air Force sergeant he recruited to challenge the military ban and then fell out with over a magazine interview.

The restitution arrived while he was still alive to receive it. In 2006 the Library of Congress took his papers and the Smithsonian took 12 of the picket signs from 1965. On June 29, 2009, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, John Berry, apologized to him on behalf of the United States government for the firing of 1957 and handed him the agency's highest award. In 2010 a stretch of 17th Street NW became Frank Kameny Way, and he was invited to watch Barack Obama sign the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He was found dead at home on October 11, 2011, National Coming Out Day. A minor planet carries his name.

Lifespan

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Frank Kameny's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

Kameny v. Brucker case
His own petition for certiorari, written without a lawyer. The Supreme Court denied it. 1961
Mattachine Society of Washington other
Co-founded in late 1961. He led it as president and wrote to every member of Congress. 1961
The first White House picket for gay rights other
Ten demonstrators. Kameny wrote the rules — jackets and ties, dresses, signs 22 by 28 inches. 1965
Gay is Good other
Coined after hearing Stokely Carmichael chant "black is beautiful". 1968
Removal of homosexuality from the DSM other
Campaigned with Barbara Gittings. The APA struck it on December 15, 1973. 1973
Repeal of the D.C. sodomy law other
He drafted the bill himself. The campaign began in 1963 and took 30 years. 1993

Life in brief

with age at each point

May 21, 1925 aged 0 Born in New York City Raised in Richmond Hill, Queens.
May 18, 1943 aged 17 Enlists in the Army to stay out of combat, and ends up in it The training program that was meant to keep him in a classroom was gutted before D-Day. He served in Europe as an infantry private.
1957 aged ~32 Fired by the Army Map Service for being gay In January 1958 the government barred him from any federal job.
January 27, 1961 aged 35 Petitions the Supreme Court, without a lawyer The Court denied certiorari that March. It was the first known civil rights claim based on sexual orientation in a U.S. court.
April 17, 1965 aged 39 Leads 10 picketers outside the White House The first organized demonstration for gay rights there. Twelve of the signs are now in the Smithsonian.
1971 aged ~46 Runs for Congress as the first openly gay candidate He lost the race for the new District of Columbia delegate seat to Walter Fauntroy, and turned the campaign into a lobbying organization.
December 15, 1973 aged 48 The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from the DSM Kameny called it the day "we were cured en masse by the psychiatrists".
June 29, 2009 aged 84 The federal government apologizes for firing him John Berry of the Office of Personnel Management delivered it in person, 52 years late.
October 11, 2011 aged 86 Found dead at home in Washington on National Coming Out Day Heart disease. He was 86 and had given a speech 11 days earlier.