Franklin Kameny

He is known as the father of the modern gay rights
movement. Friend and fellow activist Kay Lahusen (#6)
once said, “We all did a lot, but all roads led to Frank. He
was behind everything.” In 1957, after his sexuality was
discovered, Kameny was fired from his job as a US Army
Map Service astronomer. He became the first known
gay person to legally fight his dismissal by the federal
government when he appealed to the Supreme Court, which
refused to review his case. Kameny was a cofounder of the
Mattachine Society of Washington, the Gay and Lesbian
Activists Alliance, and the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club.

He led the first gay rights protests at the White House,
Pentagon, State Department, Civil Service Commission, and Independence Hall, was the first
openly gay congressional candidate,
was involved of the declassification of
homosexuality as a mental illness, and
was involved in Leonard Matlovich’s
case against the military ban on gay
service members. He often said he
most wanted to be remembered for
coining the then-unprecedented slogan
“Gay Is Good” in 1968; something
many other gays then either did not
believe themselves or were unwilling to
publicly declare.