Like all of us, Frank Kameny grew up with a dream. With a secondhand telescope and his head in the stars, he let his passion guide him from a childhood fascination to a successful career as an astronomer.

He was an incredibly gifted kid who started university three years before his peers. At 15 years old, he had his whole life ahead of him, one destined for success.

He didn’t earn his undergraduate degree in physics after four years, because he instead decided to fight for a country that would later fail him. Harrowing images of bombs and carnage at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii compelled Kameny to enlist in the United States military, to put his body on the line and suspend his life for the possibility of a brighter future.

After serving on the front lines in Europe, Kameny returned to the US and received his PhD as a World War II veteran. He taught at Georgetown University for a year before being recruited by the Army Map Service to create astronomical maps used to guide missiles. This was in 1957 when the Americans were in a dead heat with Russia for the space race.

He could have taken his talents to the moon. However, when supervisors at the Army Map Service got wind of his sexuality through a previous arrest, Kameny refused to answer their questions.

He was fired and subsequently barred from having a federal job again. It was the last time he worked as an astronomer.

They asked him those same kinds of questions when he enlisted into the military, but this time Kameny refused to lie. He would live openly in a time when homosexuality entailed hardship.

20th December 1957: Astronomer Frank Kameny is fired from the US Army for being gay. This prompts him to become a key LGBTQ+ rights activist. He worked to remove homosexuality as a mental illness from the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM. #OnThisDay #Queerstory pic.twitter.com/Uk7C3eVxSc

— Gay Community News (@GCNmag) December 20, 2021

This is when his activism began. Honouring a different part of himself, Frank Karnemy took to the streets and protested occupational discrimination years before the Stonewall Riots. He didn’t just fight for himself, he fought for all the LGBTQ+ employees whose contracts were terminated because of their sexuality.

In a period of paranoia and anarchy, Senator Joseph McCarthy led a crusade within the government that targeted LGBTQ+ employees. This so-called ‘Lavender Scare‘ aimed to root out queer people through interrogations and trials.

McCarthy used propaganda stating that homosexuals and Soviets had the same “mental twists,” making them susceptible to Russian interference. This paranoia became widespread in the workforce, starting a string of firings that forced almost 10,000 LGBTQ+ personnel out of their positions.

Frank Kameny took his wrongful termination case to the United States Supreme Court, and although it didn’t succeed, it stood as the first civil rights case of its kind to revolve around sexual orientation.

20th March 1961: United States Supreme Court denies Frank Kameny’s 1961 petition for a review of his U.S. Army Map Service dismissal for being homosexual. #OnThisDay #Queerstory pic.twitter.com/kyT56mX6du

— Gay Community News (@GCNmag) March 20, 2018

With the case’s momentum, Kameny started one of the first gay rights organisations in Washington DC, The Mattachine, and organised many LGBTQ+ protests and marches. This earned him the title ‘Father of the Gay Rights Movement’.

With a group of talented legislators and psychiatrists, Kameny worked to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 1971, the mandate banning LGBTQ+ people from working in civil service was lifted. The US could no longer deny queer people government positions and security clearance on the basis of mental health.

He continued to fight for LGBTQ+ rights in America, and In 2009, during the Obama administration, he received a formal apology from the US government. He was also present at the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell‘, allowing queer military members to serve openly.

Frank Kameny peacefully passed away on National Coming Out Day in 2011. He was 86 years old.

His constant legal battles and vocal opposition to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation directly led to the new Civil Rights Act amendment passed in 2020 in the US, extending protections against employment discrimination to LGBTQ+ workers. Although he didn’t live to see it, Frank Kameny was rightfully honoured all the same for his countless other contributions.