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#AceHistoryDesk – #OTD Today in History – April 17 Frank Kameny Leads White House Picket

Pioneering gay rights activist Frank Kameny led the first organized White House picket for gay rights on April 17, 1965 with the Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW). Kameny, a brilliant astronomer with a PhD from Harvard, had been fired from the Army Map Service in 1957 because he was gay. Fighting against this injustice, Kameny took his case to court, and in 1961 became the first person to petition the Supreme Court with a discrimination claim based on sexual orientation. The day after the Supreme Court declined to hear his petition, Frank Kameny contacted the Mattachine Society of New York, one of the earliest gay rights groups in the U.S., and asked for advice on starting a Washington chapter.

The Mattachine Society was originally founded in California in 1950, and grew to become one of the most prominent  groups in the U.S. homophile movement. The homophile movement refers to the period of LGBTQ+ activism and organizing before Stonewall, roughly dating from the end of World War II to 1970.

Frank Kameny co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington in 1961 with Jack Nichols. The idea to picket had been discussed prior to 1965, but when Mattachine members learned from an April 16 (1965) New York Times article that Cuba was planning to put gay people into labor camps, they saw an opportunity to act. Since there was no Cuban embassy in DC in 1965, Nichols suggested they picket the White House, and they organized the protest overnight.

There were a number of influential homophile activists at the April 1965 White House Picket. Lilli Vincenz, whose papers are housed at the Library of Congress, was the only lesbian to attend the picket.  Activist Paul Kuntzler and Library of Congress employee Otto Ulrich also attended. Notably, Ulrich didn’t march but held coats instead, as he was afraid of losing his Federal job at the Library.

Feeling emboldened with the relative success of the first picket (nobody was injured or arrested, as they feared), Kameny and the Mattachine Society of Washington then held similar pickets in 1965, again at the White House (May 29 and October 23), at the Pentagon (July 31), the State Department (August 28), and the United States Civil Service Commission (June 26). The pickets then moved beyond Washington, D.C.

From 1965-1969, the Mattachine Society of Washington worked with the  East Coast Homophile Organizations (E.C.H.O.) to organize an annual July 4th  “Reminder Day Picket,” at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  E.C.H.O (later reformed as E.R.C.H.O) was founded in 1962 as an organization of east coast homophile groups. After the Stonewall Uprising in June 1969,  E.R.C.H.O  voted to turn their attention to organizing for Christopher Street Liberation Day 1970.Gay and Proud. Lilli Vincenz, filmmaker, 1970. Lilli M. Vincenz Collection. National Screening Room. Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division.

Picketing Becomes a National Strategy

Lilli Vincenz produced the short documentary, “Gay and Proud,” which features rare footage of the first Pride march, Christopher Street Liberation Day 1970. In this film, you can see legendary activists like Sylvia Rivera dancing (1:51) and Frank Kameny marching with the Mattachine Society of Washington. Kameny marched with a sign bearing the phrase he coined, “Gay is Good.” Reflecting on his experience at this first Pride march in 1970, Kameny noted that:

…it was a direct lineal descendant of our ten frightened little people in front of the White House, almost exactly five years before

Cervini, Eric. The deviant’s war: the homosexual vs. the United States of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020. p.343none

Frank Kameny continued to be an influential activist for the rest of his life. In 2009, more than 50 years after they had fired him for being gay, the Federal Government officially apologized to Kameny and recognized him with the prestigious Theodore Roosevelt Award. Kameny passed away at age 86 on October 11, 2011, on National Coming Out Day.

Learn More

• Watch this oral history interview with Frank Kameny, who discusses his time in the military. For more LGBTQ+ Veteran oral histories, see the Veterans History Project digital collection, Speaking Out: LGBT Veterans.
• Watch: Stonewall 50: LGBTQ+ Research, a panel discussion held to talk about the field of LGBTQ+ research today.
• Come explore the primary sources of LGBTQ+ history! The Library of Congress is home to the personal papers of gay rights activists Frank Kameny, Lilli Vincenz, and Paul Kuntzler. 
• Learn more about the Mattachine Society through LGBQT+ Studies: A Resource Guide.
• Take a look at related Today in History entries, like The Stonewall Uprising of 1969. 

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