After losing two battles of the Federal Court, Kameny presented his request before the highest court of the Nation despite not having legal experience. In his request, he did something revolutionary: he did not deny that he was gay; Instead, he challenged the long -standing social beliefs that there was something inherently badly with the attraction of the same sex.
“The petitioner affirms, flatly, unequivocally and absolutely without obligation, that homosexuality … is not only immoral,” Kameny wrote, “but, for those who voluntarily choose to participate in homosexual acts, such acts are moral in a real and positive sense, and are good, correct and desirable, socially and personally.”
Although his request was denied, it would be the decisive moment of Kameny’s life. The approach and surgical accuracy that qualified him to guide a missile through the stars thereafter would apply to guide an involuntary society to the idea that homosexual Americans were, in all the senses, deserving of the same rights and respect under the law.
“Frank Kameny did not necessarily propose to be an activist,” said Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff appointed in the emblematic failure of same -sex marriage of the 2015 Supreme Court, Obergefell V. Hodges. “Frank Kameny saw injustice. He was experiencing an unfair treatment, and reached that point where he was no longer willing to accept it, and took measures, and it was scary for him to start these, these marches in public, demand equality and justice.”
From pickets to pride marches
In 1961, the year in which the Superior Court rejected its petition, Kameny and his fellow activist Jack Nichols founded the Washington chapter, DC, of Mattachine society, one of the first homosexual rights organizations in the country.
At a time when homosexual acts were punished by law and homophobia was the norm, Kameny proclaimed his identity in the streets, even in front of the White House and other government buildings.
He also persuaded other gays and lesbians so that he was outside him and demanded equal rights. That culminated in the annual reminder manifestations outside the Independence Hall of Philadelphia, which began in 1965 and continued until 1969. Kameny enforced a strict clothing code for the participants in the demonstrations to create an air of respectability.
“There were 100 degrees, 100 literally; it was the fourth of July. Hircing hot,” Wicker said. “Frank insisted that we all wear coats and ties and that all women wear dresses and act as” common Americans. “
The LGBTQ activist for a long time, Martha Shelley, who also participated in the pickets, similarly hated the clothing code: “I hated having to put a dress or skirt and march with these pre -printed picket signs and be respectable,” he recalled.
