Revolutionaries And Activists Of The Americas Codexery

Frank Kameny

Astronomer turned activist who challenged U.S. government discrimination.

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Frank Kameny

via Wikipedia: Frank Kameny · see source

Franklin Edward Kameny was an American gay rights activist and astronomer who was fired from his U.S. Army position in 1957 due to his homosexuality.[1][2] His firing led him to begin a struggle that would "spearhead a new period of militancy in the homosexual rights movement of the early 1960s".[2]

Key facts and history

In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the U.S. Army's Army Map Service because of his homosexuality.[2] In late 1961, Kameny co-founded the Washington D.C. branch of the Mattachine Society.[3] In 1965, he organized the first demonstration by a homophile organization, a 10-person protest outside the White House.[4] Kameny coined the slogan "Gay is Good" after listening to Stokely Carmichael chant "black is beautiful" in 1968.[5]

In 1971, he became the first openly gay candidate for the United States Congress.[6] Kameny's 1956 Harvard University doctorate in astronomy was completed under Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin; his dissertation was called "A Photoelectric Study of Some RV Tauri and Yellow Semiregular Variables".[7][8] On October 11, 2011, Kameny's body was discovered at his Washington residence; the medical examiner attributed his death to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.[9]

What the research sources say

The same source notes that Kameny shot off hundreds of thousands of words in letters striving to win first-class citizenship for homosexuals.[10] The CNN interview transcript shows Tom Brokaw defended excluding gay rights from his book by saying "the gay rights movement came slightly later".[11][12] Martin Meeker's 2001 research paper notes that during 1963, the Mattachine Society of Washington considered the possibility of staging a public protest.[13][14] In 1964, as recorded in the 2012 book "Martin Luther King Jr Homosexuality And The Early Gay Rights Movement", Kameny contended that homosexuals encountered harsher discrimination than Black people because the federal government actively discriminated against them rather than offering assistance.[5][15]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dunlap, David W., "Franklin Kameny, Gay Rights Pioneer, Dies at 86", The New York Times, October 12, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chibbaro Jr., "Kameny's work finds new home", Washington Blade, October 4, 2006; Johnson, "Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context", The Haworth Press, 2002, p. 209–18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cervini, "The Deviant's War : The Homosexual vs. the United States of America", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020, p. 101–2; "Kameny, Franklin E.", www.jfklibrary.org – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cervini, "The Deviant's War : The Homosexual vs. the United States of America", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020, p. 201–2 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Long, "Martin Luther King Jr., Homosexuality, and the Early Gay Rights Movement: Keeping the Dream Straight?", Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, p. 124–26 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Boldt, "Homosexual Files Delegate Papers: Number of Contestants Is Now Eight", The Washington Post, February 23, 1971, p. A17; "Kameny, Frank (b. 1925)", glbtq, Inc; Slavin, "U.S. women's interest groups: Institutional Profiles", Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995, p. 645 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: De Leon, David. Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism. Greenwood Press (June 30, 1994). p. 253. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "A Photoelectric Study of Some RV Tauri and Yellow Semiregular Variables", Harvard University, May 1956 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chibbaro, "Longtime gay activist Frank Kameny passes on", Washingtonblade.com, October 11, 2011; Chibbaro, "Medical Examiner says Kameny died of heart disease", Washingtonblade.com, October 26, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Kameny, "Gay Is Good: The Letters of Franklin Kameny", October 15, 2014. facts only, no text reused. advocate.com
  11. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Interview With Tom Brokaw; Clinton, Obama Make Headlines With Reaction to Robert Novak's Column", CNN, November 25, 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  12. "Interview With Tom Brokaw; Clinton, Obama Make Headlines With Reaction to Robert Novak's Column", CNN, November 25, 2007. facts only, no text reused. transcripts.cnn.com
  13. Wikipedia, "Frank Kameny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Meeker, "Behind the Mask of Respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and Male Homophile Practice, 1950s and 1960s", Journal of the History of Sexuality, 2001, p. 78–116; Cervini, "The Deviant's War : The Homosexual vs. the United States of America", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020, p. 172 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Martin Meeker, "Behind the Mask of Respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and Male Homophile Practice, 1950s and 1960s", Journal of the History of Sexuality (2001), doi:10.1353/sex.2001.0015. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org
  15. Open Library record, ISBN 9781137275516 ("Martin Luther King Jr Homosexuality And The Early Gay Rights Movement Keeping The Dream Straight"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Frank Kameny (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Test yourself

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1. In what year did Frank Kameny die?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 2011.

From the source: “Franklin Edward Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) was an American gay rights activist. He has been referred to as "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement. During the Lavender scare, in 1957, Kameny w”

2. In which place was Frank Kameny born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is New York City, U.S..

3. In what year was Frank Kameny born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1925.

From the source: “Kameny was born to Ashkenazi Jewish parents in New York City on May 21, 1925.”

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

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