Pioneer and tireless activist for the LGBT civil rights movement, Frank Kameny was fired from his job as an astronomer for the US government in the late 1950s because he was gay. He
co-organized the Mattachine Society of Washington,
campaigned for equal treatment of gay employees in the Federal government, was the
first openly gay candidate for Congress and worked to remove the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The Library of Congress holds his papers, the
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History includes in its collections Kameny's picket signs carried in front of the White House in 1965, his home has been made a DC Historic Landmark, and a street near Dupont Circle was declared Frank Kameny Way in 2010. In 2009, John Berry, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, formally apologized to Kameny on behalf of the United States government.
Frank Kameny died on
National Coming Out Day this October 11, 2011.
[more inside]
posted by Morrigan
on Oct 12, 2011 -
56 comments
Early this morning,
the law that legalized Same-Sex Marriage in New York State
went into effect, with many couples choosing to tie the knot
at the stroke of midnight. In New York City, the city clerk will be working overtime to process marriage licenses for the 823 same-sex couples expected to wed there today, having adding extra capacity to ensure that all couples who signed up in advance would not be turned away. LGBT weddings are
expected to bring an additional $155 million in tourism revenues into the state over the next 12 months, and governor Andrew Cuomo's
approval ratings are currently the highest of any US state governor following the passage of the bill.
posted by schmod
on Jul 24, 2011 -
149 comments
Earlier this week, the Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives
asked Bradlee Dean to give the morning prayer.
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posted by jiawen
on May 21, 2011 -
80 comments
Right before the
10th anniversary of the first same-sex marriage in Canada, Saskatchewan's highest court has
ruled that a proposed law allowing provincial marriage commissioners to refuse to wed same-sex couples is unconstitutional.
Thecourt.ca gives its thoughts on the decision and the social context surrounding it.
posted by Lemurrhea
on Jan 19, 2011 -
40 comments
Want to know what your old high school is doing to protect and support its LGBTQ students?
Write Your Principal encourages and collects correspondence about anti-bullying efforts between alumni and their alma maters. [via
projects]
posted by lalex
on Oct 18, 2010 -
17 comments
With a
ruling scheduled today on Prop 8 — the California ballot measure that took away the right to marry from same-sex couples — Dave Fleischer has an in-depth
analysis of all of the
polling data on Prop 8, and his findings include some counter-intuitive numbers, like that the confusing wording actually ended up helping the No vote more than the Yes.
posted by klangklangston
on Aug 4, 2010 -
619 comments
Choice of Broadsides is a choose-your-own-adventure game set in an alternate 19th Century world that is much like our own, where Albion and Gaul fight for naval supremacy. You can choose to be a gentleman in a standard patriarchal society, or a gentlewoman in a matriarchal one. Later on in the game you can choose your sexual orientation. Originally there were no options for a same-sex relationship, but after demands from players,
it was added in. Spoilers below the cut.
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posted by Kattullus
on Jul 14, 2010 -
42 comments
LGBT Immigration Some countries such as
Australia and
Canada already allow same sex couples to immigrate.
In the United States Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has said he will introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill early this year. A window is opening to pass the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA)....
posted by ginky
on Jan 19, 2010 -
26 comments
Queens of Poland Long review/essay at the
DRB on
Michał Witkowski's
Lubiewo (forthcoming in English translation as
Lovetown; extract
here), a book about gay life in Poland both in the days of communism and the subsequent Third Republic.
posted by Abiezer
on Jan 17, 2010 -
7 comments
1969: The Year of Gay Liberation is an online exhibit of the New York Public Library focusing on the radical gay rights movements of the late sixties and early seventies, focusing on the organizations The Mattachine Society of New York, Daughters of Bilitis, Gay News, Gay Liberation Front, Radicalesbians, Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries and the Gay Activists Alliance, and the events of the Stonewall Riot and Christopher Street Liberation Day. This is but one part of the NYPL's fine
LGBT collection, which includes, among other things,
resources for teens,
AIDS/HIV collections, and digital collections on
ACT UP,
Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen,
Bessie Bonehill,
Gertrude Stein,
Gran Fury,
Julian Eltinge,
Richard Wandel and
Walt Whitman.
posted by Kattullus
on Oct 1, 2009 -
14 comments
In the heart of Greenwich Village, New York City at 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, 1969 eight New York City police raided a gay bar, the
Stonewall Inn (later deemed a
National Historic Landmark). "As the police raided the bar, a crowd of four hundred patrons gathered on the street outside and watched the officers arrest the bartender, the doorman, and a few drag queens [see:
police arrest reports]. The crowd, which eventually grew to an estimated 2,000 strong, was fed up."
* Thus began
three days of rioting and the advent of the modern gay rights movement. In honor of the Stonewall Riots, many
gay pride celebrations around the world are held during the month of June, including this week(end)'s
NYC Pride, celebrating 40 years of Stonewall's impact on seeking to bring civil rights to all, including the LGBT community.
Happy Pride!
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posted by ericb
on Jun 27, 2009 -
65 comments
What with all the changes lately, sometimes I'm not sure where my right to marry whomever I want to has been ensured.
Can I Marry Gay? is a handy reference with state by state information, and keeps me up to date. Worried about recent state Supreme Court decisions forcing you to join teh gay?
Must I Marry Gay? is for you. [via
mefi projects]
posted by ocherdraco
on May 20, 2009 -
48 comments
Take my arm, my love. Don't write a check from a joint bank account. Hide all the photographs in your home and office which would identify you as a couple. Take off your wedding rings. Touch each other, and talk to each other, in public, in ways that could only be interpreted as you being "friends." A thoughtful post on "self-editing," homophobia, and the day-to-day experience of many LGBT folks, at
Shakesville (aka Shakespeare's Sister), by
Teh Portly Dyke.
posted by fiercecupcake
on May 6, 2008 -
177 comments
VisibleVote08.com On Thursday, August 9th, at 9PM EST, the
LOGO television network along with the
Human Rights Campaign are going to host a televised forum with some of the leading Democratic presidential candidates for the discussion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trangendered issues. According to the network, if you are unable to see the program on cable, it will be available to you live via the special website. And as of August 2nd, surfers are invited to submit questions to be asked of the candidates live.
posted by FunkyHelix
on Aug 1, 2007 -
27 comments
Love on the Quiet.
One breezy evening a few months ago, 19-year-old Joseph Briggs did something he had never before dared to do growing up gay in New York: he held hands with and kissed his boyfriend in his own neighborhood... While New York is legendary as a place where gays and lesbians can live openly and free from prejudice, Mr. Briggs's story reveals a great deal about what might be called the other gay New York. Life in this New York unfolds far from the chiseled Chelsea boys, funky Village bars and relatively gay-friendly neighborhoods like the Upper West Side and Park Slope, Brooklyn, that represent the public image of gay life in the city. In the farther reaches of the boroughs outside Manhattan, gay life is often harder and nearly always more complicated. In these neighborhoods, the national debate over gay marriage can be much less important than the search for a doctor who does not squirm when talking about homosexual sex. And here is your
NYC Gay And Lesbian Population Distribution--a handy, color-coded map in
pdf format, which comes from
The Gay And Lesbian Atlas to provide more snapshots of life as lived, block by block, butterfly wing by butterfly wing, hometown and homeboy, in a time of more cultural
evolution than, say, revolution.
posted by y2karl
on Jul 18, 2004 -
22 comments
Are Jazz And Gay Culture Antithetical? When an American friend of mine told me recently that gay men hate jazz, although that's not my experience in my part of the world, it got me thinking. But the article I found, by Francis Davis, only added to the mystery. Is the audience for Jazz overwhelmingly and creepily white, bourgeois, straight, macho and middle-aged (
which, embarrassingly, just about describes this Jazz fan...)? If it is, why the hell is it? Why are there so few outed
gay Afro-American musicians, for instance? Is there still a "
Don't Ask, Don't Tell" mentality? Or, more interestingly, does it have something to do with Jazz itself? Or even being gay? And what about the other
musical stereotypes (Garland, Streisand et al.) used in caricatures of gay men? Is there anything in them? [
NYT reg. required for main link; atrocious text garbling in the second.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Feb 22, 2003 -
31 comments
As a lifelong
DC Comics fan, I think I can truly state that Dr. Fate's
fabulous blue and gold costume made me the gay man that I am today. Likewise,
Element Lad's admitted shyness towards women (and pretty pink outfit) helped me identify with him as a gay teen. Until now, though, I didn't know where I could find others whose gayness was so closely intertwined with a love of comic books. The
Gay League changed all that. Warning, some of the fan-submitted artwork, featuring generously overendowed (even by superhero standards) men and women is probably a little risque for work. We're here, we're queer, we love the
Legion!
posted by WolfDaddy
on Aug 13, 2002 -
24 comments
I guess it's their choice. Because, "they" are forcing you to watch Queer as Folk. It's kinda funny reading stuff like "I wish I had Showtime so I could cancel it." or "I dumped the Disney Channel a few years ago, over their "Gay and Lesbian" week at their park", maybe, it's just sad. [note, free-republic link]
posted by tiaka
on Dec 13, 2000 -
20 comments
