A Pariah’s Triumph—and America’s

The memo is dated June 28, 1962. Reading it, one can scarcely believe that it was written as recently as 44 years ago.

From: Director of Personnel, Library of Congress.
To: Nevin R. Feather, a library employee.
Subject: "Interrogatory."

The library, it begins, "has received a report concerning you." It "has been reported" that "you had permitted a man to perform a homosexual act (fellatio) on you. Also, that you related that you find members of the male sex attractive; that you have been in bed with men; and that you have enjoyed embracing them." Enjoyed embracing! "Is this report true?"

At the bottom of the page, appended as a hurried note, is a plea for help. "I must admit I am quite shook-up over this matter," Nevin Feather wrote to Franklin Kameny. "Please advise me."

The disposition of Nevin Feather's case is lost to history, but the memo is not. In one of those cosmic japes that make fools of us all, the Library of Congress's sinister interrogation of its gay employee now reposes as a historical document in, yes, the Library of Congress. There it joins company with the diaries of George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt, the papers of Thurgood Marshall and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and 16,000 other document collections spanning 60 million pages.

Accompanying Feather's interrogatory are about 70,000 other of Kameny's papers, which were formally donated to the library in October. "His papers document the evolution of the gay-rights movement from its marginal beginning to broader acceptance in the political and social arena," says John Haynes, a historian with the library's manuscript division. Meanwhile, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History acquired the picket signs carried in the nation's first gay civil-rights demonstration, which Kameny organized and led in 1965.

The bestower of these documents and mementos is alive and well at 81 and, naturally, pleasantly surprised. "We would never have imagined," he said in a recent interview. "If anyone had told us, when we were scrambling around on our hands and knees on somebody's living room floor with poster board making signs, that those very signs would end up in the Smithsonian with Thomas Jefferson's desk and Abraham Lincoln's inkwell, we would have thought they were nuts."

I am no impartial observer. In fact, I donated some money to help finance the gift of Kameny's papers. Still, I believe my judgment is reliable when I say that once in a blue moon a reporter meets a man who changes the world by sheer force of will, character, and vision, and that Frank Kameny qualifies. Consider the record.

In 1957, the U.S. Army Mapping Service fired Kameny over allegations of homosexual activity. That he held a Harvard Ph.D. in astronomy and was a front-line combat veteran of World War II mattered not at all. As the chairman of the U.S. Civil Service Commission would later put it in correspondence to him, "If an individual... were to publicly proclaim that he engages in homosexual conduct, that he prefers such relationships, that he is not sick or emotionally disturbed, and that he simply has different sexual preferences... the commission would be required to find such an individual unsuitable for federal employment."

Disgraced, Kameny was unable to find another job in his field. For a time, he found himself living on 20 cents of food a day. Instead of slinking away, however, he appealed his firing up through the executive branch and then to the congressional Civil Service committees. Failing, he sued the government. He lost. And then? Here is what he did.

¶ In 1961, he organized the Mattachine Society of Washington, a pioneering gay-rights group. Under its auspices, he bombarded the government with letters, receiving replies like "Please do not contaminate my mail with such filthy trash" (from a member of Congress), and "Your letter of August 28 has been received, and in reply may I state unequivocally that in all my six years of service in the United States Congress I have not received such a revolting communication."

¶ Beginning in the early 1960s, he represented dozens of civil servants attempting to save their jobs or to obtain security clearances. Partly as a result, in 1975 the civil service lifted its ban on employing homosexuals. Bans on security clearances lasted longer but also fell.

¶ In 1971, he ran for the District of Columbia's newly created delegate seat, becoming the first openly gay person to run for Congress (and possibly the second to run for any public office). Announcing his candidacy, he said, "This is OUR country, OUR society, and OUR government - for homosexuals quite as much as for heterosexuals. We are homosexual American citizens." He promised, "You will be hearing much from us in the next 30 days, and long thereafter." Today there are more than 350 openly gay elected officials in America. One of them, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is about to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

¶ In 1965, Kameny's Washington Mattachine Society issued a path-breaking public declaration that "homosexuality is not a sickness, disturbance, or other pathology in any sense." In 1973, after years of protest and persuasion by Kameny and others, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders, perhaps the largest mass cure ever effected.

¶ Beginning in 1963, Kameny campaigned tirelessly for the revocation of D.C.'s sodomy law. The repeal was signed in 1993. It took, he says, "30 years, one month, four days, and 11 hours."

A delectable, if backhanded, tribute to Kameny's accomplishments comes from Peter LaBarbera, an anti-gay activist. Protesting the Library of Congress's acquisition of Kameny's papers, LaBarbera wrote of Kameny, "He is brilliant but wasted his considerable intellect and talents on homosexual activism, which is a shame." Well, yes. Kameny might have had a brilliant scientific career - if the government hadn't fired him for being homosexual. That was a shame.

Kameny, never a tall man, has shrunk 4 or 5 inches over the years. He used to revel in his vigorous stride but now walks, he says, "with little-old-man steps. I hate myself for it." The gay-rights agenda is dominated by marriage, the one major campaign that passed him by. Unchanged, however, is his voice, which has been compared, unfairly, to a foghorn (unfairly, that is, for the foghorn).

Also unchanged is his moral certitude, which is hard to compare to anything, and which almost transcends courage. "Courage," remarks Barney Frank, who has known Kameny for 26 years, "sometimes comes very close to a complete indifference to the opinions of those whom you hold in contempt. In Frank's case, that's a lot of people." It never seemed to have occurred to Kameny not to do what he did. "I was faced with a major issue," he says. "Something needed to be done, and it wasn't being done adequately."

In person, Kameny's tone remains today as stentorian, and sometimes strident, as in 1971, when he told the American Psychiatric Association's annual convention that psychiatry "has waged a relentless war of extermination against us." The voice in his voluminous correspondence strikes many of the same uncompromising notes. For example, in a 1968 letter he tells the House Un-American Activities Committee, "It is about time that our government called off its war upon us."

More striking in his correspondence, however, is an almost magisterial serenity. He exhibits an unshakable and unmistakably American confidence that all the great and mighty, no matter their number or power, must bow to one weak man who has the Founders' promise on his side. "We are honorable people who deal with others honorably and in good faith," he insisted to the Un-American Activities Committee. "We expect to be dealt with in the same fashion - especially by our governmental officials." There you hear the pipsqueak, indomitable voice of equality.

For Kameny's papers to join Thurgood Marshall's and Daniel Patrick Moynihan's, and for his signs to join Jefferson's writing desk and Lincoln's inkwell, seems fitting. All of those men understood that the words of 1776 set in motion a moral engine unlike any the world had ever seen; and all understood that the logic of equality could be delayed but not denied. Kameny, like them, believed that the Declaration of Independence means exactly what it says, and like them he made its promise his purpose.

My partner, Michael, and I are among the millions who owe some large measure of our happiness to Kameny's pursuits. This Thanksgiving found me grateful that one pariah fought back, never imagining he could fail; even more grateful to live in a country with a conscience; most grateful of all to know that there are generations of Franklin Kamenys yet to be born.

9 Comments for “A Pariah’s Triumph—and America’s”

  1. posted by ingrid decicco on

    Franklin Kamenys’ story is most inspiring. It is encouraging to see that gay rights has come a long way since 1962, but yet sobering to realize that there is much work yet to do. As parents of a gay son and daughter, my husband and I support human rights and look to the day when equality under the law in our society is a reality.

  2. posted by Gil Zicklin on

    Every time I read about Frank Kameny I am reminded of what a heroic person he is. To have had the courage to recognize that his desires were the source of value and not to have stood down in the face of enormous contempt places him in the line of great Americans. He should be honored by the government that shamed itself by its treatment of him.

  3. posted by Bob Recio on

    I am glad that Frank is alive to see the flowering of full equality for gays and lesbians in the marriage movement, but our steps today owe much to his steps in the past. Congratulations, Frank. We love you for your courage and for your humanity.

  4. posted by Scott on

    All I got to say is if gays think the Democrats are going to fight for gay rights they are sadly mistaken. The only way gays will get rights is if they fight for them like the blacks did back in the 50’s and 60’s. Having equal rights is good but looking on how some gays act in the world I don’t see us having equal rights anytime soon sorry.

  5. posted by John on

    Our government fired someone for being gay and, hard to believe, it was as RECENTLY as 44 years ago. Recently as 44 years ago. I had to read that three times before I believed my eyes and I still think I must be confused. I had just been born 44 years ago and we still live under a government that fires Arabic translators for being gay, people whose skills might save thousands of lives, unlike those of a librarian, but no matter – they’re gay. A majority of Americans still tell pollsters sexual orientation is a choice and, despite the contradiction, we’re still thought of as Nature’s big mistake. No, as much as I admire the courage and perserverance of Nevin Feather, there’s something very wrong here. Our struggle is not following the trajectory of other minority groups in this country. Something is very wrong.

  6. posted by John O\'Brien on

    As a fellow pariah, let me state my admiration for Frank Kameny, whose efforts did make change. But the article implies that America has changed and that is not entirely so. It is the same America, that still carries out discrimination, in many levels and ways. It funds and supports anti-Gay governments around the world, thus reinforcing the message that the lives of Gays and Lesbians are not important.

    America at best, has some liberal state governments, who do not want to be labeled as bigoted, but continue to have GLBT people, as second class citizens and “in their place”, to entertain and laugh at. There is a great deal more to do, for a more just and humane world. Frank Kameny, like the many who came before him and hopefully those who will follow, stood on the shoulders of others, who also fought for change and refused to be silent, among these are Edward Carpenter, Karl Ulrichs, Oscar Wilde, Susan B. Anthony, James Baldwin, Harry Hay, Jose Sarria, Emma Goldman, Magnus Hirschfield, Kurt Hiller, James Kepner and the list goes proudly on. I am glad to see the changes that have been made, but recognize far more still needs to be done in this country and around the world, to have a just and humane world, free of oppression and exploitation for all. I am proud of my own role and contributions in helping to do this and encourage others to join us in our walk and march and strugles, to achieve a better land and world.

  7. posted by BJ on

    I dont feel equal to straights, i feel superior. We’re a very talented minority whose contributions to the world far exceed our numbers. Lets not forget that.

  8. posted by Northeast Libertarian on

    We perform an invaluable role in society which is usually ignored or not acknowledged. We’re the ones who work the extra hours when straight people take long times off for marriages or kids, the ones who pay all the extra income taxes to subsidize yuppie welfare like richly-funded public schools and paid employee leave, the ones who create much of the popular culture by pushing the boundaries, etc. Our contribution, as a whole, is disproportionate and the amount we “receive” from “society” is quite small.

    That’s one reason why I’ve never understood why so many gay people are fans of socialism. Socialism has been screwing gay people over since its very start, and ensures that we always are net subsidizers of others.

  9. posted by John on

    BJ – I don’t think most gay people do forget that. The problem is gay people of accomplishment are viewed as talented despite their being gay and, very hypocritically, the same-sex orientation of disreputable or despicable gays is trumpeted to the heavens.

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