38 Years Ago: “You’re Fired Because a Homosexual Employee Would Tarnish Federal Gvmt’s Image”
Today’s the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in NYC, but this link from Independent Gay Forum is about a November 1971 letter sent by the Federal Personnel Office to gay-rights pioneer Frank Kameny, who’d appealed on behalf of a fired Library of Congress employee.
Although there’s a lot to justifiably criticize about the way that the gay-rights movement has proceeded in the decades since this letter, the now-astonishing contempt that Kameny (i.e., a taxpaying citizen) got from a federal official less than 40 years ago makes it clear why the gay-rights movement was vitally important.
Incidentally, Kameny’s papers are now preserved in the LoC’s permanent collection — and the current LoC director is openly gay.