Pride Google Doodle for June: Frank Kameny

For Pride Month, a new Google Doodle has made its debut; honoring LGBTQ and civil rights activist Frank Kameny. Who is Kameny, and what has he done? He is many things; he is a scientist, veteran, and well-known activist. He lobbied to lift a ban on LGBTQ employees in the 70s, fought for homosexuality to be declassified as a mental illness, sued the federal government after he was outed and then fired for his sexuality, and so much more. 

The Google Doodle that was created was inspired by a photo of him attending a Pride event, and it shows him surrounded by flowering trees, wearing a flower garland in Washington, D.C. Kamney enlisted in the military when he was a young man, keeping his sexuality a secret in order to fight in WWII. After the war, he enrolled in Harvard University, pursuing a PhD in astronomy. With his doctorate, he was hired on with the Army Map Service, but quickly lost his job after a background check revealed he was arrested for “lewd conduct” in San Francisco in 1956. 

Today, his career would be able to flourish, but back then, being LGBTQ and employed by the government was not safe. In the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower issued an executive order demanding the investigation and firing of queer government employees, claiming that their lifestyle made them more likely to be blackmailed by communists. This did not stop Kameny from fighting or himself and his fellow queer community. He sued the government and became known as one of the first LGBTQ rights appeals to make it to the Supreme Court. Although he was unsuccessful in his first fight, he went on and became an activist for many decades, with much success. Not only did he advocate for himself, he advocated for many other government employees who were seeking restitution, like Otis Francis Tabler, who was the first openly gay person to receive security clearance. 

In 2009, under the Obama administration, the U.S. government formally apologized to him for its former treatment of queer employees. Frank Kameny passed away at the age of 80 in 2011, but his spirit and his lifelong fight will forever live on.