[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 52 (Tuesday, May 2, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HONORING DR. FRANKLIN E. KAMENY AND THE GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVISTS 
                      ALLIANCE OF WASHINGTON, D.C.

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 2, 2000

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today I recognize two Washington, D.C. 
institutions that have been in the forefront of the lesbian, gay, 
bisexual, and transgendered civil rights movement, and that I have the 
distinct honor and pleasure of representing in this body: the Gay and 
Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. (GLAA), the oldest 
continuously active gay and lesbian rights organization in the United 
States and its charter member, Dr. Franklin E. Kameny.
  Since its founding in April 1971, GLAA has been a respected and 
persistent advocate in District politics tirelessly asserting equal 
rights and social equality for lesbians and gay men living in the city. 
In the last two years, its advocacy with the city government helped 
reestablish an independent Office of Human Rights and the Citizen 
Complaint Review Board; implementation of a unique identifier system 
for reporting cases of HIV/AIDS to help to protect the privacy of 
people who test positive for HIV; and the establishment of an 
antiharassment policy by the District of Columbia Public Schools.
  On April 27, GLAA held its 29th Anniversary Reception honoring the 
year 2000 recipients of its Distinguished Service Awards: Steve Block 
of the American Civil Liberties Union/National Capital Area; Jeffrey 
Berman of the Public Defender Service; local and international gay 
activist Barrett L. Brick; Food and Friends; Dr. Patricia Hawkins, 
Associate Director of the Whitman Walker Clinic; and Jessica Xavier, a 
local and national transgendered activist. GLAA also celebrated Frank 
Kameny's 75th Birthday.
  Dr. Kameny's resume reflects the history of the gay and lesbian 
movement in the District of Columbia. He remains an indefatigable and 
outspoken gay activist. Dr. Kameny holds a BS in Physics from Queens 
College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University.
  In 1957, Dr. Kameny began an 18-year struggle to end the civil 
service ban on the federal employment of gay men and lesbians that 
achieved success in 1975 and was recently formalized by President 
Clinton with Executive Order 13087. In 1961, Dr. Kameny founded the 
Mattachine Society of Washington, the first local gay and lesbian 
organization in the District. The following year, he initiated the 
ongoing effort to lift the ban on gay men and lesbians in the military.
  By 1962, Dr. Kameny had become the nationally recognized authority on 
security clearances for lesbians and gay men. His efforts resulted in 
lifting of the absolute ban on gay and lesbian security clearances in 
1980, which President Clinton made formal with Executive Order 12968. 
In 1965, Dr. Kameny organized the first lesbian and gay demonstration 
at the White House; and a year before the ``Stonewall Rebellion'' in 
New York City in 1968, he coned the slogan ``Gay Is Good.''
  In 1971, Dr. Kameny ran for Congress in the District of Columbia, the 
first openly gay person to seek such an office in the country. His 
campaign committee became the nucleus of the Gay and Lesbian Activists 
Alliance of Washington, D.C. He subsequently helped draft the D.C. 
Human Rights Law, one of the strongest civil rights laws in the 
country, which codified gay and lesbian civil rights in the District.
  Dr. Kameny's 10 year fight to have homosexuality removed from the 
American Psychiatric Association's classification as a mental illness 
succeeded in 1973. He was a founding member of the National Gay and 
Lesbian Task Force (1973), the Gay Rights National Lobby (1975), which 
ultimately became the Human Rights Campaign, and the Gertrude Stein 
Democratic Club (1976).
  Dr. Kameny became D.C.'s first openly gay municipal appointee when 
Mayor Washington appointed him to the Human Rights Commission (1975). 
He drafted the legislation which repealed the D.C. Sodomy Law in 1993.
  Dr. Kameny continues to be a revered and effective activist. He 
lectures, writes, and testifies on behalf of gay and lesbian issues. He 
has become the institutional memory of D.C.'s gay and lesbian rights 
movement.
  I ask the House to join me in congratulating the Gay and Lesbian 
Activists Alliance and Dr. Franklin E. Kameny.

                          ____________________