 | Remember the Past - Live for the Future
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 "Gay is Good"
Although I did not have the privilege of meeting Frank, I feel a deep comradeship with him, as I am sure many of you join me in that feeling. Some of you may have met Frank and knew of all his good deeds all along, I am just presenting this eNEWS to those that might be interested in a page of LGBT history that has turned. We all have our own stories relating to how we have had to deal with our being "gay" - our coming out - our daily life style. Many are still struggling with their "gay" feelings and of course still need to "protect" their families and many friends from the truth -- "I am gay, but I can't chance loosing my family and friends." We all need to do what we feel comfortable, within ourselves, in revealing to those around us. Many in this world can be and are very cruel - anything they can not understand they can not accept. It is ironic that Frank passed away on National Coming Out Day, October 11th. I for one have always been more attracted to "the boys in my life" rather than the girls, but the '50's and '60's we did have to be extremely careful. Most of us opted to "try the straight" scene, live the expected lifestyle of the times -- good straight family raising citizens. I personally tried it -- served nine years in the US Army (gave up the lie at the end of my term of service - took an Honorable Discharge before I probably would have ended up getting into trouble over my sexuality and ended up with either a General or Dishonorable.) I did the "Straight Marriage" scene for about 6 years - my heart was not in the relationship, so it was not fair to my wife, it damn sure was not fair to me, I came out to her shortly after I was released from my Army obligation - she suspected but was hoping I "would stay straight." Shortly after officially coming out, I found Allen, my partner, I hoped we would be together for life. We were together from April, 1970 until his death in March, 2001. R.I.P. Allen. Things have improved over the decades but we still have a long way ahead to eliminate the horrors of our kids committing suicide over their sexual orientation. Deadly beatings such as Matthew Shephard which continue to occur. We, as members of the Men's Social Network are very fortunate to have the many friends that we enjoy in our group. We all have our own stories but we have a common bond and may that bond never become a final page in history!! Thom Goodrich |
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James Peron: Saving a World: Frank Kameny and the Talmud Kameny's battles were not just for his rights, nor only for the rights of his friends, but for the rights of all who came after him. Give that some thought. Consider what that means. Generations to come may live a better life because of the battles we fight today. Peter D. Rosenstein: Frank Kameny Passes Frank lived to see one of his greatest fights, to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, come to fruition. And he lived to see an entire new generation benefit from his struggle to live and work openly as a gay man.
Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson: Gay Pioneers Speak Truth to Love
When Dr. Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings came to speak at Allegheny College, I was 19 years old. I was still closeted then, even to myself, but their honest, open telling of their stories was the first clue I had that there were others like me.
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Frank Kameny:
America's First Gay Activist
(May 21, 1925 - October 11, 2011) Another Page In History Turned October, 2011
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Greetings!
Frank Kameny, died Tuesday, October 11th, at the age of 86, fought longer and harder for gay and lesbian civil rights than anyone else in U.S. history. Although he came to be revered and honored, his struggle came at great personal cost.
Kameny was one of thousands of federal employees to lose his job in the 1950s for being gay. But he was the first to stand up and fight his dismissal. The few timid gay organizations at the time offered little support. His attorney abandoned his case. Forced to write his own brief to the Supreme Court, he articulated the revolutionary idea that he was being treated as a second-class citizen.
He argued that anti-gay discrimination was "no less illegal and no less odious than discrimination based upon religious or racial grounds." This was not an issue of morality or national security, he argued, but of human rights. It would take the court another 40 years to see things his way.
Kameny fought so tenaciously for so long because the federal government had taken from him not just a job, or even a career, but a life-long passion.
As a boy growing up in Queens, N.Y., Kameny dreamed of becoming an astronomer. After his mother gave him a telescope, he formed an astronomy club in high school. He welcomed America's entrance into World War II because it meant nightly blackouts with enhanced stargazing possibilities. Although his parents wondered whether astronomy was a good career for a Jewish kid, Kameney won a scholarship to Harvard and soon had a Ph.D. in astronomy.
At the dawning of the space race with the Soviet Union, the federal government was anxious to enlist his services -- until it discovered he was gay. Blacklisted from any jobs in the small and government-dependent field of astronomy, Kameny was continually unemployed or underemployed. He neglected his health and his appearance. He devoted nearly all his energy to the cause.
The organization he founded in 1961 was unlike any previous gay rights group. Not secretive about its aims, the Mattachine Society of Washington issued press releases to the president, the cabinet and members of Congress about its desire to "secure for homosexuals the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Using his own name -- at a time when most gays and lesbians used pseudonyms -- he counseled others facing interrogations and prosecutions, testified before Congress, and led pickets in front of the White House.
Best known for his slogan "Gay Is Good" -- coined after watching Stokely Carmichael chant "Black is Beautiful" on television -- Kameny saw the importance of language. When arguing with psychiatrists over theories of mental disorder, Kameney proclaimed, "There is no homosexual problem, there is a heterosexual problem." He called his comrades "homosexual citizens," emphasizing that sexuality and American citizenship were not incompatible.
His tenacity and single-mindedness were not always appreciated. He lost elections even within his own organization. He failed at grassroots mobilization. But he eventually got results. The American Psychiatric Association, the Federal Civil Service, the U.S. Military and the District of Columbia all changed their policies concerning gay men and lesbians because of initiatives he led. Now his personal papers are in the Library of Congress; he was on a first-name basis with President Obama, and a street in Washington, D.C. bares his name.
As Kameny repeatedly said, "If society and I differ on something, I'm willing to give the matter a second look. If we still differ, then I am right and society is wrong; and society can go its way so long as it does not get in my way. But if it does, there's going to be a fight. And I'm not going to be the one who backs down. That has been an underlying premise of the conduct of my life."
We have all benefited from that struggle, from that determination, from that courage.
David K. JohnsonAssociate professor of history, University of South Florida in Tampa; author 'The Lavender Scare' |
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Goodbye, Frank
Zack Rosen Co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief, The New Gay
I could say a lot about Frank Kameny -- how he never lost the mischief in his eye that allowed him to take on the U.S. government, how he never was ashamed to flaunt the "sex" in "homosexuality." But it's all evident in this video. (click here) video.
He was living proof that you spend your life fighting and still live to talk about it. It's easy to think that the people who create change are older, younger or hotter than you, have better media skills than you, only live in New York or L.A., or spend their nights as talking heads on the evening news. The mere existence of Frank Kameny in our nation's capitol was a testament to what happens when everyday people decide to show their teeth.
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Stonewall Riots (to read the full Article click here)
40 Years Later: A Look Back at the Turning Point for Gay Rights
by: Dave Singleton
"People will point out there were acts of resistance before Stonewall. But those acts of resistance were on a smaller scale," says David Carter, author of Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. "This was an act of resistance that was a mass movement. It was mass crowds. These other events were smaller, they weren't sustained, and they didn't get in the media. Plus, the Stonewall riots sparked the gay liberation movement, by the founding of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance." Frank Kameny, a leader in the gay rights movement, estimates that there were 1,000 organizations formed within a year after Stonewall. After two years, 2,500. After three years, he stopped counting.
"Progress has been enormous," Kameny says. "Sodomy laws were repealed, so we're no longer criminals. Mental health classification changed, so we're no longer loonies. The government is finally recognizing and respecting us. Just this year, an openly gay man [John Berry] was appointed head of the Office of Personnel Management, the group [then called the Civil Service Commission] that fired me over 50 years ago in 1957, and I was acknowledged at his swearing-in ceremony. That is deeply satisfying. It's a storybook ending. At age 84, I am not sure that I will see full equality in my lifetime, but I have no doubt that we're heading toward it." |
Now for the full story - - By JESSICA GRESKO
Frank Kameny, gay rights pioneer, dead at 86
WASHINGTON - Frank Kameny, who was fired from his job as a government astronomer in 1957 for being gay and became a pioneer in the gay rights movement, died Tuesday at his home in Washington. He was 86.
Bob Witeck, a friend of Kameny's for three decades, confirmed his death. Kameny had been in failing health, and a medical examiner said he suffered a heart attack or heart failure, Witeck said.
Witeck said plans for a memorial in November were being discussed.
Kameny told The Associated Press in 2009 that his contributions to the gay rights struggle had only recently begun to sink in. He said at the time he wanted to be remembered most for coming up with the slogan "Gay is Good" in 1968 to counter an onslaught of negativism aimed at gays and lesbians.
Gay rights groups mourned his passing Tuesday, noting that it was National Coming Out Day, when many gay people celebrate coming out and encourage others to have the courage to do the same.
"While so many have been impatient about the pace of progress, there was Frank, insisting we recognize that, in the last two years, he was regularly invited as a guest of honor by the very government that fired him simply for being gay," said a statement by Rea Carey, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Joe Solmonese, the president of the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that Kameny "set a path for the modern LGBT civil rights movement."
Kameny had been an astronomer for just five months when he was asked to meet with federal investigators. They told him they had information he was gay, and he was dismissed.
Kameny didn't leave quietly, however. He contested his firing by the U.S. Civil Service Commission by writing letters to the agency, both houses of Congress and eventually the White House.
He sued and lost in lower courts, but pressed on with a lengthy brief in 1961 that is now regarded as the first civil rights claim based on sexual orientation to be brought to the U.S. Supreme Court. Soon after, he co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington, which advocated for equal rights for gays and lesbians.
In 1965, Kameny and 10 others became the first to stage a gay rights protest in front of the White House and later at the Pentagon and elsewhere. Many of Kameny's signs as well as buttons and leaflets from that time are now housed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
In the last years of his life, Kameny was increasingly recognized for his work as a gay rights pioneer. He was honored in 2009 during Washington's annual Capital Pride celebration and that same year received a formal apology for being fired solely based on his sexual orientation. The apology came from the successor to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The office is headed by John Berry, who is openly gay, and Kameny attended his swearing-in.
When gay marriage became legal in the nation's capital in 2010, Kameny was at the first weddings.
"Being gay has become infinitely better than it was," he said earlier this year when documents from his collection of gay rights history went on display for the first time at the Library of Congress. "The fundamental theme underneath all of that is simply equality."
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Associated Press writer Brett Zongker contributed to this report.
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Closing
I recently received this letter and information in the mail from the Tucson LGBT Museum, Box 64114,Tucson, AZ 85728:Greetings, The Tucson LGBT Museum cordially invites you to visit. Please feel free to post, or pass on to someone who will, the enclosed flyer-mini poster at your establishment, office, or other appropriate LGBT or Allied location. If possible a link to the museum from your or your group's website would be much appreciated and will be reciprocated by the museum. Sincerely, Beverly Tucson LGBT Museum
Take some time and check it out, very interesting site to visit. TG |
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