Gay is Good: Frank Kameny and the Fight for LGBTQ Rights

On April 22, 2021 historian Eric Cervini, author of "The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America," joined Washington History managing editor Jane F. Levey in conversation about the legacy of Frank Kameny, a young astronomer who decided to stand his ground in 1957 when the federal government dismissed him from his job for being gay.

Levey and Cervini discuss how Kameny’s battle to decriminalize homosexuality fundamentally changed Washington and the world. Kameny spent five decades here as a civil rights activist and politician, including serving on Mayor Walter Washington’s inaugural Commission on Human Rights soon after DC gained Home Rule. As Cervini’s research in the extensive Frank Kameny Papers at the Library of Congress revealed, Kameny (1925-2011) developed what would become known as Gay Pride inspired by the legacy and tactics of the Black Freedom movement.

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