[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 181 (Tuesday, November 29, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2127-E2128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING FRANK KAMENY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 29, 2011

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, before he died, Frank Kameny had already won 
a place reserved for Americans who make personal sacrifices for human 
rights. There can be no doubt that Frank's pioneering sacrifices for 
the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, LGBT, community place him 
alongside the nation's human rights heroes. What exactly did Frank do? 
At a time when it was unthinkable, Frank refused to suppress who he was 
to keep his job with the Federal Government. A World War II veteran 
with a Harvard Ph.D., Frank had everything going for him except, of 
course, his identity and, thus, his legitimacy. It was being forced 
out, not coming out, that was the issue, and Frank took his dismissal 
from the federal service (for which he later received an apology) as a 
badge of honor. As we in the Civil Rights Movement began wearing our 
hair natural, i.e., nappy, to show that ``black is beautiful,'' Frank 
coined ``gay is good.''
  But it was Frank's lonely act of defiance, without reward, that sets 
him apart. Frank no

[[Page E2128]]

more set out to sacrifice his livelihood when he refused to deny his 
sexual orientation to federal authorities than Rosa Parks intended to 
give up her work as a seamstress when she refused to move to the back 
of the bus. Rosa Parks got tired of suppressing her full identity and 
dignity, and so did Frank. Frank did not put in those years of hard 
work for his Ph.D. in order to come out as a gay man. Like Rosa Parks, 
Frank wanted the same kind of life as the rest of us. But at a moment 
of reckoning, Frank summoned something few of us have: raw, pure 
courage. It is a brand of courage that is the opposite of self-
preservation.
  Long before there was a LGBT movement, Frank lost his job and his 
livelihood for the rest of his life. Yet Frank lived to see historic 
advances that bear his signature, including security clearances for 
gays in the Federal Government and the admission of gays into the 
United States armed services.
  We honor those who fight for human rights. We revere those who make 
sacrifices for human rights. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose memorial we 
dedicated in October after he sacrificed his life. Anita Hill, whose 
fearless testimony 20 years ago brought her controversy, while she 
brought record numbers of women to the House and Senate.
  As we honor Frank, in a place that is part of the government that 
dishonored him, we remember that it is one thing to join a movement; it 
is quite another to start one. We revere Frank because his life tells 
us that great human rights victories often begin with the courage of a 
single individual like Rosa Parks and, yes, Frank Kameny.

                          ____________________