Norton to Speak at Capitol Hill Memorial for Human Rights Leader Frank Kameny on Tuesday

Norton to Speak at Capitol Hill Memorial for Human Rights Leader Frank Kameny on Tuesday

November 14, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) on Tuesday will speak at the memorial service of her friend Frank Kameny, a leader of the national and local LGBT community who passed away last month, at 4:30 p.m. in the Cannon Caucus Room (345 Cannon House Office Building).

A World War II veteran with a PhD from Harvard, Kameny was fired from his job as an astronomer at the Army Map Service in 1957 because he was gay. Kameny devoted the rest of his life to building the LGBT movement, living to see gay Americans granted security clearances by the federal government and receiving an apology from the Office of Personnel Management, the successor agency to the Civil Service Commission that fired him.

In her talk, Norton will explain why she believes that Kameny's pioneering work for the LGBT community place him alongside the nation's human rights heroes.