Mattachine Society of Washington

The Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW) was a gay rights organisation founded in August 1961 by Frank Kameny and Jack Nichols.

Kameny's experience with being fired over concealing his homosexuality and a previous run-in with the San Francisco police when he applied for his position combined with the lengths he went to to regain his job to no avail led him to try and confront the deeply homophobic prejudices that had entered American society along with the Lavender Scare.

[1] The MSW would become nationally famous for its members picketing for gay rights at various federal sites, including the White House and the Pentagon.

In the spring and summer of 1965, Kameny and Nichols organised a series of gay pickets outside government buildings in Washington D.C., including outside the white house.

[4] MSW also protested against the U.S. military ban of gay people in 1965; they picketed outside the Pentagon and covered the building with flyers on "How to Handle a Federal Interrogation".

[4] The MSW, alongside the other Mattachine Societies and lesbian civil rights groups such as the Daughters of Bilitis, made up the 1950s and 1960s homophile movement.

A man in a blue shirt wearing glasses and a flower garland waves to a crowd.
Frank Kameny
The October 1957 edition of The Ladder , mailed to hundreds of women in the San Francisco area, urged women to take off their masks. The motif of masks and unmasking was prevalent in the homophile era, prefiguring the political strategy of coming out and giving the Mattachine Society its name.