A compelling memoir of ‘Archive Activism’

By Richard J. Rosendall

We live in a time of attempted erasure, of books banned and minorities demonized in one party’s pursuit of undemocratic power. At the same time, we see inspiring efforts to preserve and extend the civil rights gains of the past six decades.

A shining example is Charles Francis, whose new book Archive Activism is a graceful blend of engaging memoir and bracing call to the work of un-erasing LGBTQ history.

Our history has its villains. In the darkest days of the Cold War after World War II, for example, there were treacherous closet cases who aided and even led anti-gay persecution, like longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Francis poses beside Hoover’s grave in the book’s cover photo. (If you think that legacy of secrecy and shame cannot touch us now, look at the two US senators from South Carolina.)

In positive contrast to Hoover were civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, denounced on the floor of the Senate by Strom Thurmond; and luminous novelist James Baldwin, mocked in his day as “Martin Luther Queen.” They embodied intersectionality long before that term came into use.

One fired gay federal worker bravely fought erasure, charting the path of self-affirming advocacy for those who followed. That was Harvard-trained astronomer Frank Kameny. A World War II combat veteran, Kameny resented having had to deny his sexuality to serve in a war he supported. When he was fired by the Army Map Service in 1957 for being gay, he considered it an act of war—and as he told me in 1978, “I am not in the habit of losing my wars.”

Fortunately for history, Kameny was also a pack rat. Francis tells the story of how he led the effort to get Kameny’s papers to the Library of Congress, where they have been an invaluable resource for people like historian Eric Cervini, whose 2020 biography of Kameny, The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, was short-listed for a Pulitzer.

Before Kameny died he received an apology from the federal Office of Personnel Management for his wrongful termination five decades before, along with a Theodore Roosevelt Award for his defense of federal employees. The apology and award were presented by John Berry, President Obama’s openly gay OPM director.

I played a small role in helping Francis reestablish Kameny’s Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW) in 2011 with a new mission of archive activism. Since then, he and colleagues like Pate Felts, along with research partners at the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, have unearthed vital documents in the history of anti-LGBTQ animus. This includes records from the old US Civil Service Commission, the LBJ Presidential Library, Washington’s infamous St. Elizabeths Hospital, and the conversion therapy archives of an ex-ex-gay minister.

Many feelings, from inspiration to anger, are stirred by the wealth of archival material unearthed by MSW. One feeling is of sadness at the lives that were destroyed by official intolerance.

Perhaps Francis’s most important message is that we are not done. He cites current threats to our community, including “Don’t Say Gay” bills.

A stark lesson of the times we live in is the persistence of anti-LGBTQ animus, whose history has been fleshed out so well by MSW. Francis experienced it firsthand in 2015 in Cody, Wyoming, when he and husband Stephen Bottum were interrogated by police investigating a missing child report.

Charles and Stephen were treated as suspects simply because they were a gay couple with a child. What resolved the matter was that their toddler lacked an identifying feature of the missing child. The frightening episode stirred a “pained empathy” in Francis for people stopped by police for “Driving while Black.”

Like the 16 mm documentary by Lilli Vincenz of New York City’s first gay pride parade, now preserved at the Library of Congress, much of our archives will be inaccessible if we do not convert them to usable formats.

Most of us are forgotten after those who knew and loved us are gone. What matters is the difference we make by the way we live our lives. But one group who can help us live on is librarians who preserve personal archives.

Francis writes, “Without knowing how to rescue, learn, and use this history, especially in a time of peril for our democracy, we are surely lost.”

Echoing James Baldwin, Francis says to me, “We need to let the power of our history run through us.” His wonderful book is an example of doing just that.

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Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist at rrosendall@me.com.

Copyright © 2023 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.

References

1. Charles Francis, Archive Activism: Memoir of a “Uniquely Nasty” Journey, September 27, 2023, https://www.amazon.com/Archive-Activism-Memoir-Uniquely-Journey/dp/1574419080/
2. “Does South Carolina have TWO gay U.S. senators?” Kevin Naff, Washington Blade, August 31, 2023, https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/08/31/opinion-tim-scott-south-carolina-gay-rumor/
3. “Intersectionality,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality
4. Eric Cervini, The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, June 2, 2020, https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07Y738K3V/
5. “Statement by OPM Director John Berry, Mourning the Loss of Frank Kameny, LGBT Rights Pioneer,” Office of Personnel Management, October 12, 2011,
   https://www.opm.gov/news/releases/2011/10/statement-by-opm-director-john-berry-mourning-the-loss-of-frank-kameny-lgbt-rights-pioneer/
6. Mattachine Society of Washington, DC, https://mattachinesocietywashingtondc.org/
7. “LGBTQ People Suffered Traumatic Treatments at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the Mentally Ill,” Andrew Giambrone, Washington City Paper, May 31, 2018, https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/185814/independent-scholars-uncover-the-traumatic-treatments-lgbtq-people-suffered-at-st-elizabeths/
8. “National Museum of American History Acquires Archival Collection Related to LGBT Conversion Therapy,” National Museum of American History, October 16, 2017, https://americanhistory.si.edu/press/releases/national-museum-american-history-acquires-archival-collection-related-lgbt-conversion
9. “Gay and Proud,” Lilli Vincenz, Library of Congress, 1970, https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01991430/