Frank Kameny: Gay is Good
OCTOBER 13, 2011 TAGS:
On December 15th, 1973, the American Psychiatry Association stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder. Frank Kammeny, an outspoken, sometimes brash activist for gay rights described that date as when "we were cured en masse by the psychiatrists."
He was joking, of course. No one was "cured," because no one was sick. That reaction and his often acerbic tone in public discourse exhibited a kind of anachronistic disbelief. To modern ears, it seems patently ridiculous to classify being gay as a diagnosable perversion. Kameny thought that too, but as early as 1957 when he began working for change.
If we are indeed in the midst of a turning point for gay rights in this country, and the spate of marriage equality laws in New York and elsewhere might suggest that we are (that yesterday was the thirteenth anniversary of Matthew Shephard's murder and less than a year removed from the last hate crime fatality, might suggest we are not) the assumptions inherent in language offers a core sample of the recent history of the struggle.
The turn towards positive messages can be traced directly to Frank Kameny. A year before Stonewall, he coined the phrase "Gay is Good" and staged a series of protests at the White House, the State department and elsewhere.
It all started because Kameny refused to shut up.
In 1957 Kameny was fired from a job as an astronomer with the Army map service, after an being arrested in Washington DC's Lafayette Park in a "cruising" roundup. Unfairly, labeled a "sexual pervert," he became an early, (or the first, depending on who you talk to) active voice against discrimination based on sexual orientation in the country. Hardly any public personality was willing to be open about being gay, let alone speak out about the abuses suffered upon the community, but here was Kameny, refusing to accept a repressive regime.
He sued for reinstatement and ultimately lost an appeal to the Supreme Court. But that was just the beginning. HIs lone voice multiplied more than a million fold.
On September 19, 2011 when President Obama enacted legislation repealing the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, Kameny stood next the table at which the bill was signed.
Kameny's journey from the gates of the White House to its power center was long, lonely and dangerous. But without his early, forceful and unflappable advocacy the road to equal citizenship and protection under law for gays and lesbians might be even longer than it is today.
That he died on Tuesday night, which is National Coming Out Day, seems an appropriate coincidence. Losing a forefather of a righteous movement is always tragic, but remembering his life inspires anew. Gay is good, and so are guts.
For more turn to Jonathan Capehart at the Washington Post
He was joking, of course. No one was "cured," because no one was sick. That reaction and his often acerbic tone in public discourse exhibited a kind of anachronistic disbelief. To modern ears, it seems patently ridiculous to classify being gay as a diagnosable perversion. Kameny thought that too, but as early as 1957 when he began working for change.If we are indeed in the midst of a turning point for gay rights in this country, and the spate of marriage equality laws in New York and elsewhere might suggest that we are (that yesterday was the thirteenth anniversary of Matthew Shephard's murder and less than a year removed from the last hate crime fatality, might suggest we are not) the assumptions inherent in language offers a core sample of the recent history of the struggle.
The turn towards positive messages can be traced directly to Frank Kameny. A year before Stonewall, he coined the phrase "Gay is Good" and staged a series of protests at the White House, the State department and elsewhere.
It all started because Kameny refused to shut up.
In 1957 Kameny was fired from a job as an astronomer with the Army map service, after an being arrested in Washington DC's Lafayette Park in a "cruising" roundup. Unfairly, labeled a "sexual pervert," he became an early, (or the first, depending on who you talk to) active voice against discrimination based on sexual orientation in the country. Hardly any public personality was willing to be open about being gay, let alone speak out about the abuses suffered upon the community, but here was Kameny, refusing to accept a repressive regime.
He sued for reinstatement and ultimately lost an appeal to the Supreme Court. But that was just the beginning. HIs lone voice multiplied more than a million fold.On September 19, 2011 when President Obama enacted legislation repealing the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, Kameny stood next the table at which the bill was signed.
Kameny's journey from the gates of the White House to its power center was long, lonely and dangerous. But without his early, forceful and unflappable advocacy the road to equal citizenship and protection under law for gays and lesbians might be even longer than it is today.
That he died on Tuesday night, which is National Coming Out Day, seems an appropriate coincidence. Losing a forefather of a righteous movement is always tragic, but remembering his life inspires anew. Gay is good, and so are guts.
For more turn to Jonathan Capehart at the Washington Post
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