…the quest for accountability has fallen to the Mattachine Society of Washington and a blue ribbon Washington law firm, McDermott Will and Emery.

(“Washington Post”, Rick Valelly, 1/19/2017)

Throughout the decades-long “Lavender Scare,” gays and lesbians working in the United States government were persecuted and fired solely based on their sexual orientation. Now, Rick Valelly writes in the Washington Post, Secretary of State John F. Kerry has issued a public apology on behalf of the Department of State to all State Department and Foreign Service officers that suffered under those practices.

Mr. Valelly traces the origin of this recent shift in LGBTQ politics to the Office of Personnel Management’s 2009 public apology to gay rights activist Frank Kameny. Mr. Kameny’s “Lavender Scare” firing from the Army Map Service in 1957 led him to co-found the original Washington, D.C. branch of the Mattachine Society, galvanizing the fight for gay rights and government accountability. Read the article to learn how that fight continues today with the work of the re-formed Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., and what it means for the future of LGTBQ politics.