- Joined
- May 25, 2018
- Messages
- 7,097
- Reaction score
- 4,780
- Location
- Lebanon Oregon
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Liberal
If you ask people about the history of black civil rights in this country you'll get somewhere between 4 and 10 names. If you ask people about the history of Women's civil rights you'll get the same. But if you ask about gay rights or queer rights, you are lucky to get two. This thread is devoted to broadening that number. I hope this thread is worth my time. At least I will read and appreciate it.
Frank Kameny
1. A harvard trained astronomer, he was the first person in 1961 to file an appellate petition contesting his termination by the U.S. Army Map Service /US Civil Service Commission for homosexuality which reached SCOTUS. Of course it was ignored. .The Kameny Papers "
Yale Law Professor William Eskridge, an expert on the history of gay rights, said the Kameny papers show how the government's reasons for excluding gay rights shifted over time while Kameny's position was consistent. They are the work of the initial protester, strategist and leader of a major social movement, he said.
"Frank Kameny was the Rosa Parks and the Martin Luther King and the Thurgood Marshall of the gay rights movement," Eskridge said.
"That's why it's important that his papers are available because they're the innermost workings of this great strategist and leader — and they're, of course, archival records of the movement itself," he said.
2. He and Barbara Gittings were active in persuading the American Psychiatric Association to delist homosexuality as mental disorder in 1973.
3. He formed the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. , the first gay civil rights organization in Washington, D.C
Frank Kameny
1. A harvard trained astronomer, he was the first person in 1961 to file an appellate petition contesting his termination by the U.S. Army Map Service /US Civil Service Commission for homosexuality which reached SCOTUS. Of course it was ignored. .The Kameny Papers "
Yale Law Professor William Eskridge, an expert on the history of gay rights, said the Kameny papers show how the government's reasons for excluding gay rights shifted over time while Kameny's position was consistent. They are the work of the initial protester, strategist and leader of a major social movement, he said.
"Frank Kameny was the Rosa Parks and the Martin Luther King and the Thurgood Marshall of the gay rights movement," Eskridge said.
"That's why it's important that his papers are available because they're the innermost workings of this great strategist and leader — and they're, of course, archival records of the movement itself," he said.
2. He and Barbara Gittings were active in persuading the American Psychiatric Association to delist homosexuality as mental disorder in 1973.
3. He formed the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. , the first gay civil rights organization in Washington, D.C