The papers of Franklin Edward Kameny (1925-2011) span the years 1843-2006, with the bulk of the material dating from 1957 to 1996 after his dismissal as an astronomer from the United States Army Map Service on charges of homosexuality. Following an unsuccessful legal appeal for reinstatement of government employment which was petitioned to the United States Supreme Court, Kameny became one of the founders of the Mattachine Society of Washington, the city's first gay rights organization, whose stated purpose was to become a “civil-liberties, social-action organization dedicated to improving the status of the homosexual citizen through a vigorous program of action.” This call for social action and legal reform politicized a movement whose priorities, up to that time, had been more focused on education and information and in the process established Kameny as one of the leaders of the modern gay rights movement. The collection contains Kameny's personal papers, case files of numerous individuals he defended at various federal administrative hearings, and records of organizations documenting the growth of the broader gay rights movement both nationally and in the Washington, D.C, area. The papers include correspondence, legal records, drafts, testimony and statements, notes, minutes of meetings, speeches and writings, reference material, printed matter, and miscellaneous material and are organized in the following series: Correspondence , Case File , Legal File , Organizations , Subject File , Speeches and Writings , Miscellany , Addition , Restricted , Classified , and Oversize .

The Correspondence series traces the evolution of the gay rights movement in the United States through Kameny's life and activism from the 1950s to the present. The series contains letters sent and received between Kameny and family members, friends and colleagues in the gay rights movement, and members of the public seeking advice and information. The material reflects on many of the aspects of Kameny's career as activist, organizer, and counselor, and complements topics and themes explored in more detail throughout other series of the collection. The series documents Kameny's personal biography as well as the debates within the gay rights movement concerning appropriate tactics and Kameny's own role as a leading strategist. The series employs cross-references to link correspondents with pseudonyms, which were frequently used by early gay activists and writers. Notable correspondents include Barbara Gittings, Antony Grey, Barbara Grier (pseud. Gene Damon), Foster Gunnison, Richard Inman, Morris Kight, Dick Leitsch, Larry Littlejohn, Morty Manford, Robert A. Martin (1946-1996; pseud. Stephen Donaldson), Jack Nichols (pseud. Warren D. Adkins), Elaine Noble, Clark P. Polak, Edward Sagarin (pseud. Donald Cory Webster), Richard LaMar Schlegel, Bruce Chardon Scott, Don Slater, Kay Tobin, Bruce R. Voeller, Arthur Cyrus Warner (pseud. Austin Wade), Randy Wicker, and Shirley E. Willer.

In 1974, Kameny, acting as counsel on behalf of Otis Francis Tabler, Jr., appeared at the first open public security clearance hearing conducted by the Defense Department's Industrial Security Clearance Review Office. The successful outcome of the hearing and the granting of Tabler's clearance marked a turning point in the Pentagon's program and a victory in Kameny's efforts to discredit the broadly held assumption within the federal government that gay individuals were inherently unreliable and uniquely vulnerable to blackmail. It was just one of many cases in which Kameny served as administrative counsel to individuals who encountered problems obtaining or keeping security clearances issued by the government and which are included in the Case File series. Kameny also represented gay and lesbian service members who were separated from the United States military with less than honorable discharges and defended individuals victimized by discriminatory practices in federal employment. In addition to Tabler, the Case File contains the records of other important cases in which Kameny participated before various government administrative review boards and federal courts in defense of gay civil liberties including Donald Lee Crawford, Robert Lee Fultun, Richard L. Gayer, Bruce Chardon Scott, Otto H. Ulrich, Jr., and Benning Wentworth.

After being fired from the federal government in 1957, Kameny fought his dismissal through many levels of the government's administrative appeal process, up through the federal courts, and finally to the United States Supreme Court. The Legal File contains material concerning Kameny's legal suit for his right to federal employment and his subsequent attempts to obtain a security clearance from the federal government. The series largely concerns Kameny's efforts challenging discriminatory government policies affecting gay individuals on matters of civil service employment, military service discharges, and security clearance issues and includes various legal cases relating to these challenges; correspondence and policy statements exchanged with the Civil Service Commission concerning the suitability of gay individuals for federal employment; a statement submitted by the Mattachine Society of Washington to the commission entitled “Federal Employment of Homosexual American Citizens”; records and background material concerning the highly publicized case of Leonard Matlovich, a lawsuit questioning the military's policy of discharging gay and lesbian service members; a printed statement submitted by Kameny in hearings before the House Committee on Un-American Activities commenting on the government's industrial security clearance program as contained in a bill to amend the Subversive Activities Control Act (H.R. 15626); and drafts of Kameny's personal policy position, “Gays, Blackmail, and Security.”

The internal tensions and diverse nature of the gay rights movement are closely observed through the records and publications of its various groups and organizations. The Organization series is arranged alphabetically by name of organization within the following types: conferences; education, research, and social service; international; legal; mattachine societies; political and community service; professional; religious; and student and youth groups. The series documents the evolution of gay rights as it expanded from a small and uncertain movement to one with significant social and political impact especially as reflected in the records of the Mattachine Society of Washington. The correspondence files of the society, arranged alphabetically by correspondent from 1962 to 1969 and chronologically thereafter, trace its formation as well as the activism that distinguished it from similar organizations of the time. Controversy surrounding the attempt by Congressman John Dowdy to revoke the rights of the society to solicit funds in the District of Columbia by amending the Charitable Solicitation Act (H.R. 5990) demonstrates the resistance encountered by the society in its efforts to champion the cause of gay rights. The society was active in publishing newsletters, supporting the establishment of the East Coast Homophile Organizations, a regional affiliation of like-minded organizations, coordinating the mass mailings of its statement of purpose to politicians and government officials, and in publicizing its message through a speakers bureau and information service. In addition to the society's files, the series also contains the records of other organizations with which Kameny was closely associated including the Gay Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C., the Gay Rights National Lobby, and the National Gay Task Force.

When the American Psychiatric Association announced in 1973 that it had voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, the gay rights movement achieved one of its first great victories. The Subject File contains material relating to this breakthrough event including a printed manifesto to the psychiatric community distributed by Kameny and Barbara Gittings at the association's annual convention exhibition in 1972, “Gay, Proud and Healthy.” While the Subject File provides little documentation of his campaign for the District of Columbia's nonvoting delegate seat to the United States House of Representatives in 1971, the series does contain substantive files pertaining to Kameny's other civic contributions and interactions with the district's government including his appointment to the city's Commission on Human Rights and election as a delegate to its Statehood Constitutional Convention.

Presidential politics and protests have spotlighted gay rights issues at various times with varying effect. Of particular interest in the Subject File are papers dedicated to a meeting arranged by the National Gay Task Force with the White House in 1977, the first such high-level communication achieved by a gay rights organization, and the important presidential election campaigns of 1972 and 1980. In 1965, Kameny, adopting a tactic from the civil rights movement, helped introduce a new level of militancy in the struggle for equality when he led a small group of demonstrators in the first public protests for gay rights at the White House and organized the first of several annual July 4th pickets held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The Subject File contains items associated with these and subsequent demonstrations staged in Washington, D.C., that year as picketing was expanded to include the Pentagon, State Department, and Civil Service Commission. In addition to these papers, Kameny's collection of picket signs used in these marches and protests, 1965-1969, are located in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.

As a guest speaker or expert witness on gay issues, Kameny was much in demand around the country, and he spread his activist message through a full schedule of speaking engagements, radio and television appearances, panel discussions, and seminars which are arranged in the Speeches and Writings File . Kameny's signature slogan, “Gay Is Good,” gained currency after it first appeared in 1968 in a lengthy letter written to Playboy magazine, one of many letters to the editor and other letters of opinion written by him to various publications and individuals over the years, all of which are also located in the Speeches and Writings File.

The Addition contains material that adds to and amplifies the themes found in the original collection: more case files, more correspondence, more items from gay organizations. Several files in the Addition merit special comment. Kameny's correspondence with his mother and sister in the family correspondence in the Addition dates both before and after the family correspondence in the original papers. The letters document his mother's learning of and eventual acceptance of her son's homosexuality, her deep concerns over his inability to get and hold a job commensurate with his education, the difficult relationship between Kameny and his sister, and his mother's financial assistance which helped Kameny to continue his activism and life in Washington. Another file of special interest is the collection of correspondence, printed matter, and related materials from Richard John "Jack" Baker, gay activist from Minnesota. Included in the file are materials from Baker's military discharge, his successful run for student body president at the University of Minnesota, and most notably, his 1971 legal marriage in Minnesota to Mike McConnell that led to Baker v. Nelson, an important case in the fight for gay marriage rights. Kameny and Baker's correspondence covers issues of the gay rights movement and reflects the differing attitudes held by coastal gay organizations compared to Baker and McConnell in the Midwest. Also of note are the mimeograph masters documenting the early years of homophile organizations, especially of the Mattachine Society of Washington. Some of the masters are printed on sleeves, others are the actual stencils. Photocopies of the brittle paper sleeves were made as a reference set while the originals are restricted because of their fragility. The case files include new clients of Kameny not represented in the original papers as well as additions to files from the first part, many quite sizable. An outgrowth of Kameny's gay rights activism was his eventual role in District of Columbia politics. Additional material from Kameny's involvement in the local politics and governance of the District of Columbia includes items from the Commission on Human Rights, the District of Columbia statehood constitutional convention, Board of Appeals and Review, testimonies in front of the city council, and items from his race for delegate from the District to the United States House of Representatives.