On the eve of gay pride weekend, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has apologized to veteran activist Frank Kameny for firing him in 1957 solely because of his homosexuality. The letter, from the director of OPM, says in full:
Dear Dr. Kameny:
In what we know today was a shameful action, the United States Civil Service Commission in 1957 upheld your dismissal from your job solely on the basis of your sexual orientation. In one letter to you, an agency official wrote that the Government
Monty says:
Any chance he has a claim for 52 years of back pay?
June 25, 2009, 1:20 pmRandy R. says:
His modest house, which he has lived in since the 50s, has also been named an historic landmark. He’s truly a wonderful man.
And, you didn’t mention that he was fired from the position of an astronomer. Apparently, he was one of the leading astronomers of his day, and the country lost his valuable services because of that silly policy. His achievements in science would have been far greater, no doubt, had he retained his position. He became an activist out of necessity, I suppose.
Which just goes to show you — a great man will achieve greatness no matter what the subject is.
June 25, 2009, 1:22 pmThales says:
Maybe this is the first inkling of the “Fierce Advocate” in chief starting to rumble toward a change in federal policy. Now a stay of the don’t ask don’t tell policy, and a statement that he will sign a bill repealing DOMA if it passes would be a good start. Gay rights has been the biggest disappointment to me of Obama’s presidency so far. I see almost no political risk in him taking either one of these steps.
June 25, 2009, 1:47 pmRPT says:
This was obviously a right action. Re the sexual activity/security risk rationalization, and because there may not be any comment-able VC posts on the legal ramifications of the Governor Sanford escapades, it is reported that his paramour is reportedly employed by the Argentine government. Should anyone be concerned? Did he violate any statutes besides the South Carolina adultery law? And, re the international law and norms issue, would that law apply to his admitted conduct in Argentina?
June 25, 2009, 1:53 pmThrobert McGee says:
Kamen means “rock” in Russian (I assume his name is of Slavic origin), which seems fitting.
June 25, 2009, 2:01 pmDanny says:
How times have not changed. What happened to Mr Kameny could still happen, today in 2009, to anyone in 37 US States. We lag behind even ex-Soviet countries in this regard.
I hope Mr Kameny will be invited if/when ENDA is finally signed and the US reaches the barest minimum level of civilization
June 25, 2009, 2:35 pmOren says:
June 25, 2009, 2:44 pmLosantiville says:
There was always an alternative approach in any case:
June 25, 2009, 2:49 pmJust Dropping By says:
I had no idea astronomy was such a high-security operation!
If the Commies had found out the precise degree of Mercury’s perihelion, we’d all be speaking Russian now!
June 25, 2009, 2:55 pmU.Va. Grad says:
What do we need a government Astronomer for?
He didn’t do astronomy per se. He was employed by the Army Map Service.
June 25, 2009, 2:57 pmLymis says:
“What do we need a government Astronomer for?”
Figuring out where to point them thingies NASA shoots in the air?
June 25, 2009, 3:02 pmRandy R. says:
Thales: “Maybe this is the first inkling of the “Fierce Advocate” in chief starting to rumble toward a change in federal policy.”
Don’t hold your breath. John Berry is the highest appointed official in the Obama Adm. that is openly gay, and he’s been defending Obama’s reticence and brief on DOMA and his blithe concern about gay issues in general.
So, in order to placate the gay community, they figure it’s a lot easier to throw us some crumbs than to actually do anything substantive. This isn’t meant to diminish Mr. Kameny’s apology — it is richly deserved under any circumstances. But it is apparent that this adminstration will do whatever it takes to keep us happy, so long as it doesn’t actually have to do anything of substance.
June 25, 2009, 3:05 pmKen Arromdee says:
And, you didn’t mention that he was fired from the position of an astronomer. Apparently, he was one of the leading astronomers of his day, and the country lost his valuable services because of that silly policy. His achievements in science would have been far greater, no doubt, had he retained his position.
Wouldn’t a different astronomer have been hired after he was fired? And, since he would then have had a job, wouldn’t he have had a chance to produce achievements in science too?
So if you want to figure out how much we lost in achievements in science, you’d need to figure out the difference between what he might have achieved and what his replacement achieved instead. Of course, it would be a personal loss to him, but it isn’t necessarily a loss to the country unless his replacement was inferior, and even then, only to the degree that he was inferior. If his replacement did 90% as well, we really lost only 1/10 of an astronomer’s worth of achievements. If his replacement was better, we could even have gained.
June 25, 2009, 3:11 pmEric Rasmusen says:
When the political circle turns again, will some new Administration apologize for hiring homosexuals? Or maybe, apologize for hiring tax cheats?
Also, will Obama apologize for the Jackson Administration firing of all the non-Jacksonite civil servants back in 1828?
June 25, 2009, 3:14 pmDanny says:
It does diminish the apology, actually I would say it invalidates it entirely. When people apologize for things, they mean that they wish they had not done them and promise not to do them again. But the US government has not changed. It continues to allow employment discrimination against gays and lesbians, just like in Mr, Kameny’s case. This is akin to a husband apologizing to his wife for cheating, but refusing to end the affair.
June 25, 2009, 3:26 pmRandy R. says:
Ken: “Wouldn’t a different astronomer have been hired after he was fired? And, since he would then have had a job, wouldn’t he have had a chance to produce achievements in science too? ”
I don’t know who or if he was replaced. Kameny had a Ph.D. from Harvard in Astronomy, and taught at Georgetown University before taking the Map job. (He also served in WWII, which delayed his education).
I recall reading that he had made several important observations as an astronomer, which is why he was considered a leading light. But those were in books, and I have a hard time finding the reference.
Of course, we don’t know whether Kameny would have produced a lot for our country, or more than who replaced him. But the fact that he was fired despite his obvious qualifications, no doubt put a chill on other highly qualified gay people looking for jobs. So the firing wasn’t just about him, but sent a message to others that the feds don’t want you. And of course, that was official policy in the gov’t until the 70s.
So although the loss to the country is likely, yet speculative, the cummulative loss of all those talented people who might have served in the gov’t is certain, although undocumented.
June 25, 2009, 3:34 pmRandy R. says:
Eric: “When the political circle turns again, will some new Administration apologize for hiring homosexuals?”
Or better yet, let’s have a future adminstration apologize for hiring people who cheat on their wives. ‘Course, that would mean we’d have to fire half of congress.
June 25, 2009, 3:37 pmA. Zarkov says:
If Civil Service is all about merit then should be not bring back the Civil Service exam that the Clinton Administration abolished?
June 25, 2009, 4:55 pmPutting Two and Two... says:
In the 50s…
June 25, 2009, 5:12 pmTatil says:
Federal government does not fire gays any more except for the military personnel, so the office apologizing did change. I’d say glass more than half full.
June 25, 2009, 5:51 pmOren says:
Were the stars a bigger threat back then or am I missing something?
June 25, 2009, 5:57 pmOren says:
The Administration (thankfully) doesn’t hire Congress. The People of the various districts can decide whether their philandering Congresscritters are worthy of reassignment.
June 25, 2009, 5:58 pmPutting Two and Two... says:
Were the stars a bigger threat back then or am I missing something?
I was just alluding to paranoia about the Space Race possibly encompassing astronomy.
(Side note: it strikes me that living in an era of Fill-in-the-Blank Races, as opposed to Wars on Fill-in-the-Blank, would have been more fun…)
June 25, 2009, 6:05 pmLarryA says:
June 25, 2009, 6:13 pmDanny says:
OK, I looked it up and you’re technically right, there is a 1998 executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation for US federal workers. The class is 10% full, not 0% full like I thought.
It would be nice to be included in an actual federal anti-discrimination laws though. And on the state level there are no such protections.
I think it is well-intentioned but also hypocritical and ridiculous for any US gov’t office to start apologizing to gay people given how little the situation has changed.
June 25, 2009, 7:26 pmPro Natura says:
Let’s also have a moment of silence for Alan Turing, who suffered a similar fate and whose ensuing suicide deprived humanity of a a first-rank mathematician.
June 25, 2009, 8:16 pmMatthew Carberry says:
Didn’t you see the films? Read the warnings?
WATCH THE SKIES!
June 25, 2009, 8:20 pmRandy R. says:
Pro: “Let’s also have a moment of silence for Alan Turing, who suffered a similar fate and whose ensuing suicide deprived humanity of a a first-rank mathematician.”
Absolutely!
Although it’s a little off topic, one of the saddest cases I know is that Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labor just has he had two hit plays running on the west end in London. One of them was The Importance of Being Ernest, often called the most perfect play ever written. He was a broken man by the time he finished his sentence, and died in Paris not long afterwards. What wonderful plays he would have written that we are now deprived of!
June 25, 2009, 11:34 pmJesse (the guest) says:
So why are federal employees subject to drug testing? If you can’t tell whether someone is a drug user without testing his bodily fluids, then surely it isn’t affecting his ability to perform his job, right?
June 26, 2009, 12:47 amCornellian says:
It’s great that he got his apology but this looks a lot like one of those purely symbolic gestures that politicians wheel out as an excuse for not doing anything substantial.
To quote the great sitcom Yes, Minister, the less you intend to do about something, the more you need to talk about it.
June 26, 2009, 12:48 amDavid M. Nieporent says:
They’re generally not.
June 26, 2009, 6:07 amMalvolio says:
You can repeat it, but that doesn’t make it true.
The US security apparatus was (and to an extent still is) paranoid about homosexuality because of the Cambridge Five — five very senior British government officials who were actively spying for the Soviets, and at least three of whom and possibly all five were actively having sex with each other. They weren’t motivated by fear of blackmail, they were just awful human beings, and the spycatchers of the time reasoned that their orientation might be tied up with that.
And even if true that the blackmail issue were the only reason to deny a closeted homosexual security clearance, what of it? The OPM isn’t in a position to remake societal preferences, now matter how irrational they may currently be nor how more just or more convenient different preferences would be.
June 26, 2009, 9:20 amCornellian says:
The US security apparatus was (and to an extent still is) paranoid about homosexuality because of the Cambridge Five — five very senior British government officials who were actively spying for the Soviets, and at least three of whom and possibly all five were actively having sex with each other. They weren’t motivated by fear of blackmail, they were just awful human beings, and the spycatchers of the time reasoned that their orientation might be tied up with that.
They were also all upper crust white men who went to Cambridge but for some reason it never crossed the minds of the “US security apparatus” to carve out for suspicion categories of people matching any of those adjectives. If they had a knee jerk suspicion of their difference that may be an understandable reflection on human nature but is hardly the mark of a savvy intelligence organization.
And even if true that the blackmail issue were the only reason to deny a closeted homosexual security clearance, what of it? The OPM isn’t in a position to remake societal preferences, now matter how irrational they may currently be nor how more just or more convenient different preferences would be.
The issue was whether government as a whole should have adopted that position, not just an obscure government agency that most people don’t even know exists.
June 26, 2009, 10:54 amRandy R. says:
Malvolio: “They weren’t motivated by fear of blackmail, they were just awful human beings, and the spycatchers of the time reasoned that their orientation might be tied up with that.”
If any federal officials reasoned that they were awful human beings because they were gay, then not only where they wrong, but they weren’t very good investigators. There have been plenty of people who spied for enemies who were straight.
“And even if true that the blackmail issue were the only reason to deny a closeted homosexual security clearance, what of it? The OPM isn’t in a position to remake societal preferences, now matter how irrational they may currently be nor how more just or more convenient different preferences would be.”
IT isn’t about remaking societal preferences. It’s about national security.
Gays were being blackmailed because if anyone found out they were gay, they would be fired from their job. Eliminate that threat of being fired, and you eliminate the threat of being blackmailed. Why would any government want to set up a system whereby it’s employees may be blackmailed into handing its secrets over to the enemy? Yet, that is exactly what the feds were doing. So by doing the right thing, which is allowing openly gay people to hold jobs in the gov’t, they completely eliminated that threat. Proof? Since the policy has been changed, not a single accused traitor has ever been found to be gay.
June 26, 2009, 11:45 am