Friends of Frank Kameney have confirmed to The Blade that the founder of our movement passed away today. in the Smithsonian exhibit "Treasures of American History".

It seems fitting that the news of Kameny's death comes on National Coming Out Day and during LGBT History Month.

Dr. Franklin E. "Frank" Kameny was one of the most significant figures in the American lgbt civil rights movement.

In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the Army Map Service in Washington, D.C. because of his homosexuality, leading him to begin a struggle with the American establishment that would transform the homophile movement and spearhead a new period of militancy in the homosexual rights movement of the early 1960s.

Kameny protested his firing by the U.S. Civil Service Commission due to his homosexuality, and argued this case to the United States Supreme Court in 1961. Although the court denied his petition, it is notable as the first civil rights claim based on sexual orientation.

The signs Kameny and others once used during the 1960's gay civil rights protests were made part of the Smithsonian exhibit "Treasures of American History" in 2009.

Kameny, born and raised in New York City, served in combat as an Army soldier in World War II in Europe.

Kameny, one of two founders of the Mattachine Society in D.C., is credited with bringing an aggressive new tone to the gay civil rights struggle.

In 1968, Kameny, inspired by Stokely Carmichael's creation of the phrase "Black is Beautiful",[citation needed] created the slogan "Gay is Good" for the gay civil rights movement

Kameny and the Mattachine Society of Washington pressed for fair and equal treatment of gay employees in the federal government by fighting security clearance denials, employment restrictions and dismissals, and working with other groups to press for equality for gay citizens.

Kameny was 86.

Kameny was found in his bed on Tuesday afternoon and had apparentlt passed in his sleep. —Staff