A long-time civil-rights activist will be inducted inducted into the U.S. Department of Labor’s Hall of Honor, the agency announced Wednesday.
The late Frank Kameny will be honored at the June 23 ceremony at the Department of Labor’s Francis Perkins Building.
Kameny passed away in 2011 at age 86, but his legacy of fighting to end discrimination in the federal workplace will be remembered and felt long after his death.
“Frank Kameny was a groundbreaking leader in the LGBT civil-rights movement,” said Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “He fought tirelessly to live out his truth and to end workplace discrimination. At the Department of Labor, we work every day to carry on his legacy and ensure that all workers, no matter who they are or who they love, have equal access to opportunity.”
Kameny was a World War II veteran who worked as a doctor of astronomy with the U.S. Army Map Service. He was discharged and barred from federal employment in 1958 after being questioned about his sexuality.
Kameny took his case to the Supreme Court, but his petition was ultimately denied hearing. However, this was only the beginning of his fight to end discrimination.
He helped form the first demonstration for equal rights at the White House in 1965, coined the slogan “Gay is Good” to combat negative stereotypes, was the first openly gay candidate for Congress, challenged the American Psychiatric Association’s theories on homosexuality as a mental disorder at its national meeting and founded the Gay Activist Alliance (now the Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance).
He was one of the key organizers of the Annual Remidner Day marches, which occurred at Independence Hall in Philadelphia 1965-69.
Kameny lived to see milestone changes in federal employment discrimination against LGBTs when, in 1975, the Civil Service Commission announced it would no longer exclude homosexuals from government employment and later when President Bill Clinton granted security clearance and high government positions to LGBTs.