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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, September 19, 2008
Two
years
after
local
gay
activist
Frank
Kameny
moved
his
archives
to
the
Library
of
Congress,
those
papers
are
now
available
to
researchers.
Charles
Francis,
organizer
of
the
Kameny
Papers
Project,
said
the
50,000
items
were
“organized
to
perfection”
by
library
staff
and
would
be
an
invaluable
resource
to
people
reviewing
the
earliest
days
of
the
gay
civil
rights
movement.
“The
Kameny
Papers,
documenting
the
evolution
of
the
gay
rights
movement
in
the
United
States,
are
now
available
to
study
for
many
years
to
come,”
he
said.
Kameny
is
credited
with
playing
a
lead
role
in
launching
the
modern
U.S.
gay
civil
rights
movement
in
the
early
1960s
after
government
officials
discovered
he
was
gay
and
fired
him
from
his
job
as
an
astronomer
with
the
Army
Map
Service.
According
to
a
Library
of
Congress
index
of
the
Kameny
archives,
highlights
include
papers
related
to
the
American
Psychiatric
Association’s
1973
removal
of
homosexuality
from
its
list
of
mental
disorders
and
the
landmark
1974
federal
decision
to
grant
an
openly
gay
man
a
Pentagon
security
clearance.
Also
among
the
archives
are
materials
Kameny
used
in
marches
and
protests
from
1965–1969.
The
papers
and
other
materials
are
valued
at
$75,000.
Donations
from
the
Human
Rights
Campaign,
National
Gay
&
Lesbian
Task
Force
and
Liberty
Education
Fund,
among
others,
facilitated
the
transfer
of
materials
to
the
Library
of
Congress
in
2006.
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