UPDATE: Tributes from those in the LGBT movement are being added as they come in; see after the jump.

Frank Kameny, a landmark figure of the gay rights movement, has died at the age of 86 of natural causes.  From the  Washington Blade:

The death came less than a month before the planned celebration of the 50th anniversary of Kameny’s founding of the Mattachine Society of Washington, the first gay rights organization in the nation’s capital.

LGBT rights advocates Charles Francis and Bob Witeck, who were longtime friends of Kameny’s and established the project to preserve Kameny’s papers over a 50-year period, said they would be announcing soon plans for a memorial service to honor the gay rights leader’s life.

The magnitude of Kameny’s impact on the movement’s history is unquestioned; life as a LGBT person in the era in which he launched his activism was quite different than it is today. And in May his papers were on display for the first time at the Library of Congress, an exhibit that was  part of a larger project on the nation’s constitutional history and civil rights. From an AP article on May 8, 2011 at the Kameny Papers web site:

The library quietly placed the documents on view at the end of April in an exhibit called “Creating the United States,” which traces the evolution of the nation’s founding documents and legal framework. Organizers of the Kameny Papers Project, which donated about 50,000 items to the library in 2006, announced the display Monday.

“I suppose you can say at this point, I have become one of the creators of the United States, which I never would have imagined in 1961,” Kameny said with a chuckle. “All I can say is from the long view, 50 years, we have moved ahead in a way that would have been absolutely unimaginable back then.”

The library also is displaying a 1966 letter from the head of the U.S. Civil Service Commission under President Lyndon B. Johnson, justifying the firing based on the “revulsion of other employees.” It was introduced last year as evidence in the battle over gay rights in California to show a long pattern of treatment by the federal government.

In 2009, Kameny received a formal apology for the “shameful action” of being fired solely based on his sexual orientation from the successor to the Civil Service Commission, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

“So in a sense, it took 50 years, but I won my case,” Kameny said.

Rest in peace, Mr. Kameny. It’s fitting that he passed away on National Coming Out Day, a day that represents both a celebration of kicking closet doors open and a challenge to those thinking about doing so.

Pioneering gay rights activist Frank Kameny standing in front of signs once used during protests.
Source: DCVirago Kameny Posters. 11 June 2009.

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Reactions:

From Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign:

“Frank Kameny led an extraordinary life marked by heroic activism that set a path for the modern LGBT civil rights movement.  From his early days fighting institutionalized discrimination in the federal workforce, Dr. Kameny taught us all that ‘Gay is Good.’  As we say goodbye to this trailblazer on National Coming Out Day, we remember the remarkable power we all have to change the world by living our lives like Frank — openly, honestly and authentically.”

UPDATE: In 2006, HRC gave Mr. Kameny its National Capitol Area Leadership award. Here is the retrospective.

More below the fold.

President of American Foundation for Equal Rights’s board of directors, Chad Griffin:

“America has lost a hero today. Out and proud, Frank Kameny was fighting for equality long before the rest of us knew we could.” He added, “Because there was one Frank Kameny, trailblazing and honest enough to speak out 50 years ago, there are now millions of Americans, coming out, speaking out and fighting for their basic civil rights. His is a legacy of bravery and tremendous impact and will live on in the hearts and minds of every American who values equality and justice.”

Diego Sanchez, legislative aide to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA):

For Frank Kameny to die on National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, 2011, feels to me like my Dad dying on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2000 — when a career-long, victorious warrior went to God on a day that best represents his contribution to our country and American lives everywhere; the day will always represent both the symbol and the man, with honor and hope.

GLAAD:

“Frank Kameny sparked national change and set the example for gay and lesbian Americans to live their lives openly and proudly,” said Mike Thompson, Acting President of GLAAD. “He taught us the power that our visibility and stories have in changing hearts and minds. Today on National Coming Out Day, we honor Frank’s legacy not only by remembering this pioneer, but by continuing his work to speak out and share our own stories.”

Rea Carey, Executive DirectorNational Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

“The death of Frank Kameny is a profound loss and he will be greatly missed. No Washington LGBT event or White House meeting was complete without Frank. I always appreciated that he gave the 50-plus-year perspective, the long view. While so many have been impatient about the pace of progress, there was Frank, insisting we recognize that, in the last two years, he was regularly invited as a guest of honor by the very government that fired him simply for being gay. Yet, he never slowed down in demanding what should be, showing us what was possible and pushing for the very equality and liberation we are still fighting for. As the history books are written on the LGBT movement, no doubt Frank’s life will serve as an inspiration to those who will never have the honor of meeting him, but who embody the very future he knew would come true one day. Indeed, Frank, Gay is Good.”

Sue Hyde, Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s National Conference on LGBT Equality Creating Change:

“Frank Kameny’s life spanned the baddest old days of the McCarthy-style witch hunts to the elations of winning marriage equality in the District of Columbia and beyond. In 1957, Frank lost his job, but he never lost his fierce fighting spirit, his blunt and witty command of language, or his commitment to eradicating homophobia. Frank was equally confident and strategic on the streets in front of the White House in 1965 as he was attending a White House meeting in 1977 at which he and a dozen other members of our community briefed then-Public Liaison Midge Costanza on much-needed changes in federal laws and policies. As the LGBT movement began to win in legislatures, courtrooms, and in public opinion, Frank’s papers, artifacts and memories gained value. Frank Kameny wasn’t only a keeper of our history, Frank created our history. His life and legacy carry us into our future.”

Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA):

Without his perseverance and selfless sacrifice, LGBT people would not have the rights they share today.  GLIFAA and members of the LGBT foreign affairs community directly benefited from his many years of pushing others to accept gay rights as human rights. ”His legacy is our legacy as we continue to fight for LGBT rights for government employees in foreign affairs agencies,” said GLIFAA President TJ Lunardi, “His leadership over the past 50 years inspires GLIFAA to continue the fight for equality.” Noted former GLIFAA President Bob Gilchrist, “We are all standing on his shoulders; he stood up in an era when no one else did.”

L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L. Jean:

“Today our movement lost one of its most brave, impassioned and heroic leaders: Frank Kameny. In 1957, Frank was fired from his position as an astronomer with the Army Map Service in Washington, D.C., because he was gay. But he didn’t accept this deplorable act of discrimination quietly. With virtually no role models to follow, he fought them every step of the way, filing the first civil rights claim in a U.S. court based on sexual orientation and going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1961, where he argued the case himself.

Thus began Frank’s more than 50 years as an effective advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian civil rights. For example, in 1961, Frank was one of the founders of the Washington, D.C., Mattachine Society. In 1965 he launched the first public protests by gays and lesbians in front of the White House (his picket signs from that demonstration are now in the Smithsonian). In 1971 he was the nation’s first openly gay candidate for the U.S. Congress. He coined the phrase, ‘Gay is good.’

Frank’s accomplishments through the decades are legion. But two of his greatest contributions are among the least recognized. He helped countless federal employees (including members of the armed services) avoid or fight anti-gay discrimination and he helped to identify and develop a significant number of younger gay and lesbian leaders.

Frank did both of these things for me. When I was being considered for higher-than-top-secret security clearances as an attorney for the federal government, Frank helped me develop my strategy for coming out to the investigators. Buoyed by his counsel, I persevered through discriminatory harassment to become the first openly gay or lesbian person to get a top secret security clearance from the CIA. Then, when I was elected president of the Gay Activists Alliance in Washington, D.C., Frank regularly provided advice and counsel to me.

Although his style was often gruff, he was thoroughly enjoyable. I never doubted his dedication to our movement or to my success as a leader. Frank was still going strong and it was a shock to all of us when he was discovered to have died in his sleep earlier today.

Somehow it feels appropriate that Frank would die on National Coming Out Day, given that he was proudly and loudly out of the closet for every day of his life since his 1957 dismissal.

They broke the mold when they made Frank Kameny. I join all of his friends and loved ones in mourning his passage.”

Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum and Executive Producer of Gay Pioneers:

“The LGBT civil rights movement stands on the shoulders of Frank Kameny. Frank Kameny is the father of the LGBT civil rights movement.” “The American Psychiatric Association included homosexuality as a mental disorder. Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings successfully demonstrated at the 1971 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. At the 1972 annual meeting, Kameny and Gittings presented a program with Dr. No, a gay psychiatrist, who was disguised to avoid recognition. With Dr. No, they explained why pervasive homophobia was the cause of emotional problems, not being gay.  A committee was formed to study the issue. On December 15, 1973, homosexuality was removed as a mental illness,” said Lazin. “I traveled across the nation with Frank Kameny at screenings of Gay Pioneers and at other events,” said Lazin. “Frank had a Ph.D. from Harvard, a computer-like mind and even into his 80’s was a feisty, lovable and committed activist for human rights. American history will remember Frank Kameny as an iconic civil rights leader.”

GetEQUAL:

“Dr. Frank Kameny was a hero to the LGBT movement, and to generations of LGBT Americans. It was shocking to hear of his passing, though we know how happy he was to see “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal implemented last month. Just a few months ago we were deeply honored and humbled that Dr. Kameny agreed to share stories about his life, his work, and his commitment to full equality for LGBT people at GetEQUAL’s one-year anniversary celebration. His assertion that “Gay is Good” was, and is, an iconic cornerstone of a shift in thinking that marked the first time LGBT people cut through historical hatred, and instead embraced their full dignity, worth, and equality.”

“In the past few days, we’ve lost many civil rights pioneers, giving us all some perspective about the pace and importance of our work. It is ironic that Frank left us on National Coming Out Day, after coming out decades ago, back in 1957, in his own act of civil disobedience. He lived a long life as an out and proud gay man, and we will honor Dr. Kameny by increasing our urgency for, deepening our commitment to, and renewing our passion for the fight for full equality for LGBT Americans.”

Statement by Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry:

Dr. Frank Kameny was an American hero who transformed our nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT). His courage, his brilliance, his force of will led to victory in a decades-long fight for equality.  He helped make it possible for countless of patriotic Americans to hold security clearances and high government positions, including me.  And in so doing, he showed everyone what was possible for every employer in our country.

He was known for being feisty and combative, but he was also big-hearted.  He honored me personally by attending my swearing-in, and showed his ability to forgive by accepting my official apology on behalf of the government for the sad and discredited termination of his federal employment by the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the predecessor of the agency I now head.  We presented and he accepted OPM’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, given to those who are courageous in defense of our nation’s Merit Principles.
I am grateful for his life, his service to his nation in WWII, and his passion and persistence in helping build a more perfect union.  He was a great man, and I will sorely miss him.

Kevin Cathcart, Lambda Legal’s Executive Director:

“We mourn the loss of one of the pioneers of our movement and a man who never stopped fighting for LGBT equality. When Frank Kameny first stood up for his rights in the late 1950s, he stood up for all of us, and the fight that he helped to ignite more than fifty years ago is still our fight today.

“There has been so much progress toward LGBT equality since then, it is sometimes hard to imagine the courage and vision it took to do what he did: he spoke up, organized, took to the streets and also took his challenge to the Supreme Court.

“At Lambda Legal, we know what it takes to fight discrimination in the courts, and we honor his legacy. Those of us in the LGBT rights movement owe him a great deal of gratitude and respect – and the country owes him that, as well, for insisting that we live up to our ideals as a nation.”

Congressman Barney Frank:

“The death of Frank Kameny is a very sad day for those who believe that all people in this country should be treated fairly.  No one in our history had a longer record of commitment to and leadership of the fight for civil rights for all.  When he was himself the victim of discrimination decades ago, unlike almost every other victim of the homophobia that then pervaded the country, Frank Kameny fought back.  His courageous, creative assault on bigotry is one of the rocks on which the movement for LGBT rights is founded, and the successes we have had in recent times owe a great deal to him.”

 

“All of us who are continuing the fight will remain indebted to him, inspired by him, and regretful that we will no longer have the benefit of his advice, his encouragement, and perhaps most importantly, his impatience.”

National Minority AIDS Council Deputy Executive Director Daniel C. Montoya:

“The National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) is deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Frank Kameny.  A pioneer in the truest sense of the word, Mr. Kameny began his struggle for dignity and respect almost a decade before the Stonewall riots that marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.  In 1961, he filed suit in the U.S. Supreme Court claiming that his expulsion from the U.S. Civil Service on the grounds that he was gay was a violation of his civil rights, the first such claim in our nation’s history.  HIs action marked the beginning of a lifelong fight for equality that would last over four decades.

“Mr. Kameny’s commitment to equality and justice serves as an inspiration to millions and his legacy will continue to inspire for years to come.  All people, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or HIV status, deserve to live with dignity.  On behalf of NMAC, its staff and its constituents, we thank Mr. Kameny for his decades of leadership and dedication and express our deepest sympathies to his loved ones.”