Gay is Good: An Astronomer’s Pre-Stonewall Fight Against Homophobia
The Deviant’s War shines a light on the beginning of the gay rights movement — before Stonewall
After serving in World War II, astronomer Frank Kameny was fired from the U.S. Army in 1957 for his sexual orientation. Blacklisted from obtaining the security clearance required for other positions in his field, he found himself jobless, isolated, and irate. In his ambitious novel The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America, Eric Cervini details the life and struggle of the early homophile movement, lead by Kameny.
A League of His Own
Kameny did something incredible when he petitioned the Army Map Service and Civil Service Commission courts that dismissed him on the basis of alleged homosexual behavior. He did not deny his homosexuality. Instead, he criticized the federal government's program of sexual conformity and argued that there was no connection between reliability and homosexuality. This would become the foundation of Kameny’s later messages.
While continuing to petition these courts for reinstatement of clearance, Kameny lived his gay life in the 50s and 60s. He started the Washington chapter of the Mattachine Society, an organization centered around discussions of morality, homosexuality, and public perception of homosexuals.
Defining Homosexuality
When Jean White was writing her five-part series on homosexuals for The Washington Post in 1965, she asked Kameny an important question, also posed to psychiatrists she had interviewed: were homosexuals sick? Psychiatrists at the time were in agreement that homosexuality was deviance, a sickness. Kameny, on the other hand, stated that it was not a sickness or maladjustment, but a preference, not dissimilar to heterosexuality.
When Congressman John Vernard Dowdy questioned whether the Mattachine Society promoted the idea that homosexuals could enter into an equivalent of heterosexual marriage, Kameny was forced to think on his feet. In 1965, his organization had no official stance on gay marriage. In that House District Subcommittee hearing, while under intense scrutiny from the Texan Congressman, Kameny held “If two individuals wish to enter into such a relationship it is certainly their right to do so as they choose; yes sir.”
Intersectional Activism
Kameny worked with lesbian activist Barbara Gittings and Gay Liberation leader Randy Wicker to present a unified front to the public, with varying levels of success. While the groups disagreed on protests tactics, they recognized similar struggles in the Black Freedom Movement and with trans resistance movements.
In 1962, Bayard Rustin (the Black, gay, socialist pacifist that is credited with informing MLK’s non-violent approach) organized a March on Washington. Senator Thurmond attempted to weaken support for the march by declaring Rustin as guilty of “sex perversion.” No less than two hundred thousand showed up to the march, including Frank Kameny and seven other Mattachine members.
From Homosexual to Gay to Good
After hearing the chanting of boycotting Black students in Newark, 1968, Kameny recognized the power of phrasing. The students chanted simple, yet forceful messages, like “Black is beautiful.” On an August day, Kameny came up with his version, “Gay is Good.”
This broad term was revolutionary not just in its positivity, but in the connotation of moral goodness. After so long in the shadows, in the closet, in therapy, finally a positive affirmation of goodness.
Reading this in the year 2020, even with examples of queer representation in media, I felt a lightness in me. Never before had I seen or read the caveat that not only was gay OK but more than that — it’s good: it’s good to be who you are. The world indeed is a better place for it.
There is more in Cervini’s Deviant’s War, in Kameny’s life, and in the gay rights movement than can possibly be read and digested in one sitting. However, I began reading this tome to feel a sense of connection to the LGBTQ community. After a pride month in quarantine, with no parades to distract me, I felt myself floating in an ether of uncertainty. I’ve used the phrase “LGBTQ community” before, but always in the empty way that people talk about things which they know little about.
After a self-curated curriculum of novels and documentaries, I have a better idea now of how the letters that make up our great acronym are connected. And if we allow “gay” to operate both as an identity and as an umbrella for all of us, then gay truly is good.
