Page "Coming out" Paragraph 6

In the 1960s, Frank Kameny came to the forefront of the struggle.

Having been fired from his job as an astronomer for the Army Map service for homosexual behavior, Kameny refused to go quietly.

He openly fought his dismissal, eventually appealing it all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court.

As a vocal leader of the growing movement, Kameny argued for unapologetic public actions.

The cornerstone of his conviction was that, " we must instill in the homosexual community a sense of worth to the individual homosexual ," which could only be achieved through campaigns openly led by homosexuals themselves.

His motto was " Gay is good.

" In 1961, Donald Webster Cory published his landmark The Homosexual in America, exclaiming, " Society has handed me a mask to wear ... Everywhere I go, at all times and before all sections of society, I pretend.

" Cory was a pseudonym, but his frank and openly subjective descriptions served as a stimulus to the emerging homosexual self-awareness and the nascent homophile movement.

With the spread of consciousness raising ( CR ) in the late 1960s, coming out became a key strategy of the gay liberation movement to raise political consciousness to counter heterosexism and homophobia.

At the same time and continuing into the 1980s, gay and lesbian social support discussion groups, some of which were called “ coming-out groups ,” focused on sharing coming-out “ stories ” ( experiences ) with the goal of reducing isolation and increasing LGBT visibility and pride.