New York: Google celebrated Pride month on Wednesday by honouring the American LGBTQ rights activist Dr. Frank Kameny, who is known as the most prominent figure of the LGBTQ rights movement. He was also an astronomer and veteran. He died in 2011 at the age of 86.
LGBT Pride Month occurs in the United States to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969.
WHO WAS FRANK KAMENY?
Born in Queens, New York, on May 21, 1925, Franklin Edward Kameny enrolled at Queens College to study physics when he was just 15. He served in the United States Army throughout World War II in Europe, and later served 20 years on the Selective Service board.
After returning to the US, Frank Kameny obtained a doctorate in astronomy at Harvard University. In 1957, Kameny accepted a job as an astronomer with the Army Map Service, but he was fired soon after due to an order effectively barring members of the LGBTQ community from federal employment.
Frank Kameny, in response to his termination, sued the federal government. In 1961, he filed the first gay rights appeal to the US Supreme Court.
“Denied but undeterred, Kameny embarked upon a lifelong fight for equal rights. Years before the Stonewall Riots, he organised one of the country’s first gay rights advocacy groups,” the Google Doodle page says.
Frank Kameny had also successfully challenged the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, and in 1975, the Civil Service Commission finally reversed its ban on LGBTQ employees.
Frank Kameny received a formal apology from the US government in 2009. Washington DC named a stretch of 17th Street NW near Dupont Circle “Frank Kameny Way” in his honour in 2010.
“Thank you, Frank Kameny, for courageously paving the way for decades of progress,” the Google Doodle page says.
Frank Kameny died in 2011 in Washington DC. He was 86.
