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Franklin Edward "Frank" Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) was "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement. In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the U.S. Army Map Service in Washington, D.C. because of his homosexuality, leading him to begin "a Herculean struggle with the American establishment" that would "spearhead a new period of militancy in the homosexual rights movement of the early 1960s".Kameny protested his firing by the U.S. Civil Service Commission due to his homosexuality, and argued this case to the United States Supreme Court in 1961. Although the court denied his petition, it is notable as the first civil rights claim based on sexual orientation.
Kameny was born to Ashkenazi Jewish parentage in New York City on May 21, 1925. He attended Richmond Hill High School and graduated in 1941. In 1941, at age 16, Kameny went to Queens College to learn physics and at age 17 he told his parents that he was an atheist. He was drafted into the United States Army before completion. He served in the Army throughout World War II in Europe and served 20 years on the Selective Service board. After leaving the Army, he returned to Queens College and graduated with a baccalaureate in physics in 1948. Kameny then enrolled at Harvard University; while a teaching fellow at Harvard, he refused to sign a loyalty oath without attaching qualifiers, and exhibited a skepticism against accepted orthodoxies. He graduated with both a masters' degree (1949) and doctorate (1956) in astronomy. His doctoral thesis was entitled A Photoelectric Study of Some RV Tauri and Yellow Semiregular Variables and was written under the supervision of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.
[Frank Kameny talking with spectators] / Kay Tobin Lahusen (1965 or 1966)
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Kameny
( Frank Kameny, 1991, by Robert Giard )
( Further Readings )
More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices
Elana Dykewomon (b. Elana Nachman, October 11, 1949) is a Jewish lesbian activist, award-winning author, editor and teacher.
Cleve Jones (born October 11, 1954) is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2009. In 1983, at the onset of the AIDS pandemic Jones co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation which has grown into one of the largest and most influential People with AIDS advocacy organizations in the United States.
John Glines (born October 11, 1933 in Santa Maria, California) is an American playwright and producer.
His plays written for, and originally produced by The Glines, the non-profit organization for gay arts which he co-founded in 1976 with Barry Laine and Jerry Tobin, include On Tina Tuna Walk, In Her Own Words (A Biography of Jane Chambers), Men Of Manhattan, Chicken Delight, Body And Soul, Murder In Disguise, Key West, and Heavenly Days. His last play, Butterflies And Tigers, based on stories of the Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution, had an extended run in New York City in 1998.
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
First Prize, 100 ebooks:
Second Prize: eCupid (2012)
Third Prize: Is It Just Me? (2010)