The Man Who Invented Gay
Rights
By David Carter, Special to CNN
December
24, 2010 3:47 p.m. EST
Editor's note: David Carter is the author of "Stonewall: The Riots That
Sparked the Gay Revolution," the basis for the American Experience
film "Stonewall Uprising" that will be shown on PBS in April. He is working on a biography of Frank Kameny.
The one main question that exists is concerning this legislated
movement that was built upon the purported existence of a Gay
Gene [Lying through their teeth
that homosexuality was not a learned deviant behavior, but that it was genetic.
So that a person predisposed to homosexuality can not help what they are
programmed to be] as their rational for Gay Rights Super-citizenship
through the Judicial and Legislation pen. Since the announcement in mid-2010
that after a decade of genetic research no gay gene
exists; will all the laws and statues that have been
put on the books on the basis of lies deceit and false information in Federal
and State be nullified and or removed?
Gay rights is just one of an increasing number of unconstitutional laws that
have been put on the books in the last three decades that create a class of
Americans with what we call Super-citizenship. That is a special unconstitutional rights giving
one group of people rights above and beyond the rights of all other American
citizens, a virtual legal trump card. Examples of this are feminism; black
civil rights, hate crimes, gay rights, atheist rights, and now muslim rights.
This breech that has been created by socialist/progressive/liberals seeking the
means to legislatively overthrow the
A seat at the front of the audience was reserved for 85-year-old Frank Kameny, who
attended wearing the Combat Infantryman Badge that he was awarded for his
service in World War II. Kameny recalls his service
fighting in the wake of the
But Kameny was not invited because of any heroism he
demonstrated in World War II, but rather for a much greater act of courage than
even that conflict had demanded of him. He was invited because it was Kameny who began the assault on the military policy of
discharging homosexuals by leading a demonstration at the Pentagon in 1965.
Indeed, it was Kameny who called upon the minuscule pre-Stonewall gay
rights movement -- known then as the homophile movement -- to model itself upon
the civil rights movement.
This may not sound radical today, but in the mid-1960s homosexuality was seen
as the ultimate taboo. The sea change in American attitude towards Homosexuality, divorce,
adultery, fornication and other kinds of deviancy can be traced directly to
Television and Film were these former Vices were portrayed as acceptable and
normal, while those that do not participate in these acts are increasingly
depicted not only as bigoted hate mongers but as being abnormal. Many details
of this are written and boasted of in the book “The Media.” As the homophile [Manlove] movement stated,
homosexuals were triply condemned: The medical establishment deemed them
mentally ill, the law made them criminals, and religions branded them sinners.
At a time when
lesbians and gay men were so totally ostracized, the homophile movement had
decided its best tactic was to embrace the label of sickness: at least that
seemed a half-step up from being criminals. But Kameny
felt that such an approach was counterproductive, and that rather than begging
for crumbs, gay people should demand equality with heterosexuals. To gain
equality, he argued, the movement should renounce the sickness theory and
embrace militant tactics.
Kameny succeeded to an astonishing degree. He led
the fight for tactics such as public demonstrations, went on the attack against
the Civil Service Commission for its policy of firing homosexuals and
spearheaded an effort to get the homophile movement to take the position that homosexuality was not only not a mental
illness but was on a par with heterosexuality. In 1968, he got the
only existing national association of gay rights organizations to adopt as its
slogan a phrase that Kameny had coined, "Gay Is
Good."
Kameny himself had been discharged
from the Army Map Service in 1957 for being gay.
His relentless efforts paid off by not only making the homophile movement more
militant but in changing laws and policies. In 1973, in response to a series of
court decisions in which Kameny was involved, the
Civil Service Commission announced that it was ending its ban on employing homosexuals.
Another thing to consider here: If this
article had been on an different subject – for example if it were an article on
the final success of a single individual that had restored prayer back into the
public schools – That man or ministry would be hailed, for their devotion and
dedication. They would be extolled for their perseverance in the face of
adversity and this would be declared a great miracle of God. We point this out as this has been before our
eyes, and ears a great working of satan.
If we had a small handful of believers
in Jesus Christ, or even one individual, so loving and devoted to Christ; so perseverant
in their seeking to do the word and commandments of Jesus Christ and the
Apostles, so obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit, -- the outcome of this
very article would be so different. Instead of this hands down victory of satan and the powers of darkness, what would it be like to
read about one person turning around and entire nation, and making it a servant
of Jesus Christ?
One man like Paul, Peter, Barnabas, or the other Apostles.
One man like Enoch, Noah, Abram, or Jacob. One man like the prophets
of old. One man like John Wesley, George Fox, George
Whitfield, or
The problem is not that God’s hand has
waxed short in our day, rather the problem is that the
men and women of this Laodicean Era are seekers of personal pleasure, personal
enrichment, and personal fulfillment more than they are lovers of God. No believer no matter how you dress them up in
knowledge of the word of God and of things spiritual can succeed in God if they
still have one hand, one leg, or one arm that loves the things of this world.
Make no mistake despite all this man’s
efforts and undaunting perseverance this article would have never come to pass
had not this people and this generation become lovers of God more than lovers
of pleasure.
Luke 8:5-7 A sower went out to sow his seed:
and as he sowed -- and some fell among thorns; and the
thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.
Luke
8:10-14 And He (Jesus) said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of God: -- And that which fell among
thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with
cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and
bring no fruit to perfection.
These were rendered
fruitless. These traded their incorruptible seed, their inheritance given to
them from Jesus Christ even as Eve in the garden traded her heavenly inheritance
for the taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that was
so sweet to the lips and tongue but so bitter in her belly.
These traded the light
and holiness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for a corruptible bowl of lentils even
as Esau did.
What has not been taught,
what has not been said in to this generation is that the love of the world is
at enmity with God. That those that sow to the flesh sow unto themselves the pleasure and
riches of this world and eternal damnation and death. Those
that take the incorruptible glory of God and treat it as a common thing, these
tread upon the blood of Christ.
Many have said in their
hearts if only I had been back in the Garden in the beginning I would have
never traded my heavenly birthright, I would have never made any deal with the
devil and partaken of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
and that if I had been there man would have never fallen into sin. The truth is that Jesus Christ’s death on the
cross as the second and the last Adam, and His being raised from the death by
the father opened a way that all men that are made partakers of Christ’s inheritance
are also brought into that same state of Adam in the Garden before the fall.
And to your shame, and the dishonor of Jesus Christ and His blood you already
have done exactly what Eve and Esau did.
You have as Peter and the
Apostles have betrayed Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory by abandoning Him and
handing His incorruptible gift into the hands of sinful men and demons.
The nagging question of
this ever power hungry, wealth and comfort seeking generation is the cry of the
Rich Young Ruler who thought to himself that he had everything in God, just as
the Laodiceans. What lack I yet? You lack a severance from the thorns of this life, you lack severance from the cares, riches and
pleasures of this world. You lack the 40 days of the fastings, and the deep repentance
of the Apostals until they broke before God knowing
once and for all that they were sinful and corrupt, that no good thing dwelled
in their flesh, and that they had committed the most grievous sin possible
against God’s only Son, the Lord of Glory. The results were broken men that
could and would never lift their head, and their ministry, that ever recoiled
from the riches, the comforts, and the pleasures of this world. And instead lived as the prophets of Old and
the teaching Levites with no certain home and always on the move from community
to community accepting no tithes or offering, just food, and shelter until they
moved on elsewhere.
These were richly fruitful
boughs hanging over the wall before God to taste of. This is the way, walk ye in it and prove the
Lord eating of His bounty that money can not buy.
2 Peter 2:20 For
if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of
the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the
latter end (Their final judgment before God) is worse with them than the beginning.
That same year the American Psychiatric
Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness as the result of a
drive organized by Kameny. Long before the
Supreme Court declared sodomy laws unconstitutional in the 2003
While waging all these other battles, Kameny did not
shirk the Pentagon. To give but one example, when a decorated Air Force veteran
of the Vietnam War reached out to Kameny for support
with a phone call from
Months later, the Air Force veteran volunteered to serve as that case. In 1975,
carefully coached and prepared by Kameny and a
lawyer, Technical Sgt. Leonard Matlovich handed a
letter to his superior officer stating that he was a homosexual, and the Matlovich case became a national news story.
Still, success in ending the military's discriminatory policy eluded the
combined efforts of Kameny and hundreds of other
activists and a slew of organizations until this week. Asked why it had taken
so long to change the military's policy, Kameny
responded that it was a policy that went back to George Washington's day.
Where does this leave the national movement for equality for lesbians, gay men,
bisexuals and the transgendered? Many would probably say that the biggest
remaining LGBT issue is the right to marry.
But what most Americans, gay or straight, do not realize is that if a lesbian
is fired from her job or thrown out of her apartment by her landlord or denied
credit because of her sexual orientation, she cannot go to the federal
government for redress. The reason she can't is because 60 years after gay
people began to fight for their rights, Congress has not extended basic civil
rights protection to LGBT people.
Not only has Congress failed to pass a comprehensive law that would outlaw
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation -- protecting us in the
realms of housing, employment, public accommodations and credit, for example --
but, to its shame, Congress has not even passed a much narrower law, Employment
Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, that would have given LGBT people protection
only in the realm of employment.
Of course, the right to marry is an important issue, but it is high time that
Congress pass a law to extend civil rights that are more basic than marriage to
LGBT citizens.
Today, Washington has named a street for
Frank Kameny and his 1965 picket signs are in the
Smithsonian Institution, (This is outrageous) but if Congress were to pass basic civil
rights protection for America's LGBT citizens, it would be the greatest tribute
yet to Kameny's pioneering work.