(Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu, The Washington Post)
Tribute to Frank Kameny
Presented by GLAA Vice President for Political Affairs Rick Rosendall
GLAA 41st Anniversary ReceptionWashington Plaza Hotel
Thursday, April 26, 2012
On March 3, I was to have offered remarks at an interment ceremony for our late colleague Frank Kameny in Congressional Cemetery. Unfortunately, that event was never held. If you will indulge me, I will offer those remarks here. Please imagine that we are gathered at Frank's graveside.
Frank Kameny considered nothing sacred. Challenging orthodoxy was his life's work. Yet we stand on what many consider sacred ground. There is no great conflict. Honoring the dead can simply involve recognizing that our every step touches the stuff of those who preceded us. Frank confronted the mystery of the universe with the tools and habits of a scientist, which stood him in good stead after intolerance cut short his career as an astronomer.
Frank's biographer, David Carter, is gathering and sifting through extensive materials, including many hours of recorded interviews, to do justice to his subject. We who knew Frank can hear his ringing cadences exhorting us to embrace and celebrate who we are and demand our full and equal rights as citizens.
We touch with pride the headstone provided by the army he served. Here rests in honored glory an American soldier well known to us. He resented having to lie to fight for his country in World War II, but because of his long and pioneering service on the domestic front afterwards, no one will have to tell that particular lie again. Complementing the white marble headstone is a plaque in pink granite bearing the affirming slogan for which he most wanted to be remembered: "Gay Is Good."
In time our inscriptions will fade away, long after we ourselves fade away. In many ways, life itself is a struggle against the ruins. The magnitude of Frank's contributions compelled some of us to help preserve his papers in our great national library whose collection was begun by the man who wrote the most liberating words of the past thousand years, that all men are created equal.
Stones wear down and paper crumbles, but Frank, your legacy will not be forgotten. We and generations unborn will make sure of it.
We commit you to the ages.
