A Visit to Congressional Cemetery

More to see than a bunch of dead politicians

Writing on this platform has been a good kick in the pants for me to get out and about to places that I should have visited a long time ago. Forty-one years since I first moved to the Capitol Hill neighborhood, I finally got myself to Congressional Cemetery last month. Although the impetus was a walking tour to mark Jewish American Heritage Month, I found myself much more taken with the history of the LGBTQ+ community buried there than with the Jewish politicians. And what better time than Pride Month to share some of what I learned.

The pamphlet and map available at the cemetery office features 14 prominent residents (as the cemetery prefers to call them). Several of these, including Franklin Kameny (1925-2011) and Leonard Matlovich (1943-1988), can be found at “Gay Corner,” the first LGBTQ+ section of a U.S. cemetery.

Kameny is sometimes referred to as the father of the modern gay rights movement. Dismissed from his job as an astronomer at the U.S. Army Map Service in 1957 (more than 10 years before Stonewall), he was the first known gay person to take his dismissal to court although the Supreme Court refused to hear it. He led protests at the White House, Pentagon, State Department and U.S. Civil Service Commission, and was instrumental in getting homosexuality removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. His lifetime motto: “Gay is Good.”

In 1975, Leonard Matlovich challenged the U.S. military’s ban on gay service members, applying techniques borrowed from the civil rights movement. While he was eventually reinstated in 1980, he ended up accepting a settlement rather than serve under terms that would not allow him to openly express his identity. It was not until 2011 that the ban finally ended. Sadly, Matlovich did not live to see that happen. Like so many of his generation, he died in 1988 after a two-year battle with HIV/AIDS.

Leonard Matlovich’s final resting place. He served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, receiving both the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

Other notable residents of the cemetery include Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, John Philip Sousa, Marion Barry, Belva Lockwood (the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court), Elbridge Gerry (for whom the practice of gerrymandering is named), and J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover is not buried in Gay Corner although his longtime colleague and companion, Clyde Anderson Tolson, is. You do the math.

Historic Congressional Cemetery is located at 1801 E Street SE and is open daily from dawn to dusk. Docent-led tours are offered every Saturday at 11:00 am from April through October; additional tours are offered on some Sundays at 1:00 pm. All tours are free but registration is requested.

In recognition of the dog owners who helped save the cemetery from neglect and disrepair that characterized it in the mid 1990s, dogs remain welcome except for during burials and other annual events such as the June 18 Pride Run.

A quick update: You may remember perennial candidate Rodney “Red” Grant who was the subject of my first post on this platform. He got his butt kicked in last week’s Democratic primary for an at-large seat on the DC Council, losing to incumbent Robert White (82.2 to 16.9 percent). We’ll see if he tries again in two years or perhaps sets his sights lower this fall when there will be nonpartisan elections for advisory neighborhood commissions.