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The Kameny Papers Project received this certificate from the Smithsonian Institution:
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Washington Post on Kameny Smithsonian Exhibit September 8, 2007 The obvious question gets the obvious answer: Of course Frank Kameny, a pioneer of the gay rights movement, had no inkling that the protest signs he carried more than 40 years ago would end up in the Smithsonian . But there they are, hand-lettered, with little stains from their staples discoloring the faded white cardboard. Two of them, plus three campaign buttons, are now in the same case as Joe Louis's boxing gloves, near the glass closet that holds Jackie Kennedy 's inaugural gown and in the same shrinelike exhibit known as "Treasures of American History" that also has Thomas Jefferson 's writing desk and the ruby-red slippers that Dorothy wore on her way to meet the Wizard. Kameny, now 82, was on hand Thursday evening to see the very functional tools of his early activism officially made totems of American history. Although the objects are part of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History's collection, the reception was held at the National Air and Space Museum , which is offering space for the must-see icons while the history museum itself is closed for renovation. Go here to read the whole article Kameny Papers Smithsonian Video on YouTube
Kameny Pickets and Buttons on Display at the Smithsonian While the National Museum of American History is closed for renovations until Summer 2008, some of Frank Kameny's donated picket signs and buttons are already on display as part of an exhibit entitled "Treasures of American History" at the National Air and Space Museum. For the benefit of readers unable to visit Washington, D.C., we have reproduced the text of the display here. "Gay Is Good"(the name of the display )
(Accompanying a photograph of picketers):"On April 17, 1965, a small group of gay and lesbian picketers started a series of protests that gave birth to a new militancy in the gay rights movement. Following in the footsteps of other civil rights demonstrators, these men and women demanded an end to discrimination by the federal government, and the full rights of citizenship." (Accompanying 3 buttons, two of which read "Gay is Good"): "Inspired by the slogan "Black is Beautiful" Frank Kameny (1925- ) coined the phrase "Gay is Good" in 1968 . Though mild by today's standards, at the time it was a radical statement challenging the commonly held belief that homosexuality was a "sickness and a sin". Other objects in this case which is to display New Acquisitions of the National Museum of American History are a pair of boxing gloves worn and signed by Joe Louis from his fight with Max Schmelling; a teapot that says "No Stamp Act"; and a rare photograph of a freed slave wearing an American flag.
Friends, Frank and I visited the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress yesterday. We were invited to witness the process of unpacking Frank's boxes, now well underway; and the sorting of thousands of pages of materials into an index or "Register". Frank's boxes were aligned on long sorting tables. Charles
In the stacks with John Haynes, political historian.
with archivist Michael McElderry; scheduled completion of Kameny Register, end of '07
Frank Kameny remembers "Founding Mother" Barbara Gittings: Entering the
gay scene in the mid-'50s with a firmly-stated rejection for herself
personally of the then almost universal dichotomy among Lesbians into"femmes" and "butches" she moved ahead to take a leadership role first
in the Lesbian scene through the Daughters of Bilitis and then, in the
'60s and onward, into the broader Movement through interactions with the -Frank Kameny  (L to R) Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny, and Barbara's life partner, Kay Lahusen, at Frank's front door in Washington , D.C. (2004) (Photo: Frank Kameny)
Press Release Contact: Bob Witeck For the Library of Congress For the National Museum of American History Gay Civil Rights Pioneer Frank Kameny Presents Washington , D.C. October 6, 2006 – In a ceremony today held at the U.S. Library of Congress, long-time civil rights activist Franklin Edward Kameny officially presented more than 70,000 letters, documents and memorabilia to the nation. The gift represents a lifetime of Kameny's personal papers destined for the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress along with several rare protest and picket signs to be made part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. In addition to these gifts to the federal repositories, many of the remaining picket and protest signs will be donated to gay and lesbian history archives throughout the United States for their collections. “Nearly fifty years ago, the United States Government banned me from employment in public service because I am a homosexual,” Kameny said. “This archive is not simply my story; it also shows how gay and lesbian Americans have joined the American mainstream story of expanded civil liberties in the 20th century. Today, by accepting these papers, the nation preserves not only our history but marks how far gay and lesbian Americans have traveled on the road to civil equality.” To make this once-in-a-lifetime gift possible, a volunteer donor group offered to support Kameny and his wishes. With advancing years and limited means, Frank Kameny was not eligible for a federal tax deduction, as is common with such an extraordinary donation. Following an expert appraisal of the documents, several individuals and groups stepped forward to partner with Frank Kameny and to establish the brief-lived Kameny Papers Project (details at www.kamenypapers.org ). It also has long been Kameny's wish to ensure the papers – once stored in his Washington , D.C. attic – remain in the Nation's Capital, his home for over five decades and that they ultimately are made available to all for historical research. The gift was made possible through an original matching grant from a former M ember of Congress, the Honorable Michael Huffington, as well as additional generous contributions from organizations and individuals including The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Gill Foundation, Bohnett Foundation, Log Cabin Republicans and the Liberty Education Forum as well as Donald Capoccia, Charles Francis, M el Heifetz , Gregory King, Elizabeth Koontz, Jonathan Rauch, Ellen Ratner and Stephen Salny, as well as pro bono contributions from Joiner Law Firm, Attorney Michele Zavos, and Witeck -Combs Communications, Inc. Richard Rosendall serves as ‘attorney-in-fact' for the Kameny Papers Project. The Kameny archive includes thousands of pages of letters, government correspondence, testimony, photographs, picket signs and other memorabilia ( www.kamenypapers.org ). The Kameny papers trace the arc of the gay civil equality movement in the U.S. through Kameny's life and activism from the 1950s to the present. The collection includes original photographs of gay men and women picketing the White House in 1965 along with the original picket signs; the original policy statement of the U.S. Civil Service Commission (1966) explaining to Kameny the legal arguments why homosexuals “are not suitable for federal employment”; documents tracing the formation and advocacy of The Mattachine Society of Washington; documents from the American Psychiatric Association and the fight to “de-list” homosexuality as a mental illness; and impassioned testimony by Dr. Kameny in defense of scores of homosexuals being stripped of security clearances, and fired from their government jobs. The Kameny papers now become part of the nation's repository of personal papers in the M anuscript Division of the Library of Congress where they will become available to historians and researchers after they are processed by the Library. The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress includes the original letters and papers of great Americans from all walks of life---from Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln to Susan B. Anthony and Bayard Rustin and a thousand other historic figures. Many of Kameny's original picket signs carried in front of the White House, the Pentagon and the U.S. Civil Service Commission will be made part of the political history collections of the National Museum of American History. There they will join similar artifacts such as abolition broadsheets, suffragist banners and civil rights protest signs collected from groups around the country. ###
Introduction Who is Dr. Franklin E. Kameny and why does his archive-- his correspondence, papers, and memorabilia collected over fifty years-- matter so much to historians, researchers, and all Americans interested in the expansion of liberty in the United States? Read this 1960 Letter from the U.S. State Department (John W. Hanes, Administrator) to Dr. Kameny confirming that the Department "does not hire homosexuals and does not permit their employment" to get a clue. Or read this Statement to Dr. Kameny's Mattachine Society from the U.S. Civil Service Commission (John Macy, Chairman U.S. Civil Service Commission, 1966) to grasp the arc of his activism. Today, it is hard to believe the level of official hostility faced down by Frank Kameny, perhaps the most influential gay activist of his time. The KamenyPapers archive is a marker in time of the animus, as well as the progress, made in the last half-century. You won't find this anywhere else, on-line or inside the government or in a library, because it has been residing in Frank Kameny's attic for 46 years now…..along with 25 boxes of documents, correspondence and memorabilia from the earliest days of the gay civil equality movement in America . Kameny, like Rosa Parks before him, and the Suffragists before her, dared to step forward into the public square to say “enough” to government-sanctioned discrimination, and to educate and expand freedom in America . This site is a sampler of the thousands of pages of documents that are in the archive of Frank Kameny, the leading gay civil rights advocate of his time. A self-described “pack rat”, Kameny saved every scrap of paper, every picket sign, every letter, making this archive perhaps the most complete and exciting archive in the gay civil rights movement. This fact has been recognized by both The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Museum of American History. KamenyPapers.com is a sampler of Frank Kameny's archive, which we aim to protect and place in a national library or archive for the benefit of researchers and historians for generations to come. Please join us in this important effort.
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