Jim Obergefell & other leaders honor LGBTQ+ rights icon Frank Kameny at U.S. Supreme Court (in photos)

Ten years after marriage equality became the law of the land—and a century after the birth of one of the LGBTQ+ movement’s fiercest pioneers—activists returned to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday not only to celebrate but also to sound the alarm.

They came to honor Frank Kameny, the gay rights trailblazer who took on the federal government after being fired for being gay in 1957. They came to mark the 10th anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right of same-sex couples to marry. But this time, they came with fear in their hearts and fire in their voices.

Related: Remembering Frank Kameny: Here's why he was a gay rights pioneer

“We’re celebrating the hundredth birthday of the founder of the LGBTQ civil rights movement,” Equality Forum founder Malcolm Lazin told The Advocate. “Frank Kameny—literally one of this nation’s major civil rights leaders.”

Lazin, who organized the commemoration, said the event was both a tribute to Kameny’s legacy and a direct response to what he called an alarming regression in civil rights, particularly for transgender people and LGBTQ+ service members.

“We’re also pushing back against this Supreme Court in terms of them enabling, in 2025, trans people being discharged from our military,” he said. “It’s very much part of the message we’re delivering today.”

Other prominent civil rights leaders agreed.

“The court should be hiding its face in shame,” Jim Obergefell told The Advocate. The lead plaintiff in the case that brought nationwide marriage equality, Obergefell said he returned to the steps of court with a heavy heart. “Two of those justices have point-blank said they want to overturn Obergefell. That’s not just rhetoric. That’s a threat.”

Obergefell said seeing the court under scaffolding — literally covered for repairs — felt symbolic. “To be back here in front of the Supreme Court honestly makes me a little upset in my stomach,” he said. “I look at the courthouse covered in scaffolding, and my immediate reaction was, yeah, the court should be hiding its face in shame.”

Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal, told The Advocate he had the same thought. “It’s ironic that the court is shrouded in scaffolding now. The court is clearly embarrassed by some of the rulings coming out of the building,” he said.

More than 100 LGBTQ+ advocates gathered to hold candles—one for each year since Kameny’s birth—and to reenact his 1965 pickets at the White House and Independence Hall. Kameny died in 2011. Representatives from over a dozen national organizations participated in a speaking program that doubled as tribute and protest, recounting Kameny’s enduring legacy as a civil rights architect and visionary.

“Frank believed in the Constitution’s promise of equality for all Americans,” Keith Joseph, board chair of Equality Forum, which organized the gathering, said in remarks to the crowd. Kameny, he noted, was a Harvard-trained astronomer and decorated World War II veteran who “pushed back” when the Army Map Service fired him for being gay. That resistance would evolve into one of the most consequential careers in civil rights history.

Speakers traced Kameny’s role in nearly every major LGBTQ+ milestone: co-founding the Mattachine Society of Washington; launching the first regional and national organizing networks; filing the first known LGBTQ+ rights brief to the Supreme Court; mentoring service members like Leonard Matlovich; and coining the slogan “Gay is Good.”

Elliott Imse, executive director of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, told The Advocate that Kameny’s 1971 congressional run helped pave the way for today’s openly LGBTQ+ officials.

“We’re still extremely underrepresented in government,” Imse said. “The legacy he began decades ago—the belief in the power of representation—is something that lives on, and we are still fighting for.”

Still, he said, the moment demands vigilance—especially with a pending Supreme Court decision in Skrmetti, a case that could determine key rights for transgender people to access medical care as minors. “There is no denying that we are in a crisis moment for our community and especially for people in the trans community,” Imse said. “But today is about remembering how far we have come.”

Imse added that the Victory Institute’s interns have found strength in studying history. “They told me it helped them contextualize the realities we face right now,” he said. “There will be ebbs and flows, but things always get better.”

Jennings, who once brought Kameny to speak at the U.S. Department of Education while serving in the Obama administration, told The Advocate the best way to honor Kameny’s legacy is to keep going, especially as Lambda Legal challenges the Trump administration’s policies in federal court.

“Frank had very little patience for whining,” Jennings said. “He would say, ‘Shut up and get to work.’”

For Obergefell, the stakes are clear. “This Court has turned its back on precedent,” he said. “This is not the final say when it comes to queer rights. But if we want progress, we have to show up and we have to fight like hell.

Though last-minute votes in the House Financial Services Committee kept him from attending in person, gay U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York sent a statement of support.

“Although I was unfortunately unable to attend today’s ceremony due to last-minute votes in the House Financial Services Committee, I stand in unwavering solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community in honoring the extraordinary legacy of Frank Kameny,” Torres said in a text message. “His courageous fight against discrimination laid the groundwork for my very presence in Congress, and I am eternally grateful for his pioneering advocacy. His relentless pursuit of justice reminds us that progress is possible when we challenge injustice with resilience and pride.”

The ceremony closed with a reminder of just how far Kameny’s vision stretched. From 39 picketers at the first “Annual Reminder” in 1965 to over a million people at the Millennium March on Washington in 2000, the arc of LGBTQ+ history remains shaped by one man’s refusal to accept invisibility.

“If Frank could come back for a day,” Jennings said, “he’d tell us all exactly what he told the government in 1957: This is wrong — and I’m not going to stand for it.”

Check out more photos from the historic gathering in front of the Supreme Court below! ⬇️