many credit frank kameny with being the father of the gay rights movement and news 4's mark segraves the new headstone unveiled today to honor his life and his legacy? he was the single most important and most influential person in the history of the gay rights movement. >> reporter: frank kameny lied about being gay so he could serve in world war ii. after being fired from his job with the federal government for being gay, kameny began a decades-long crusade to get equal rights for gays and lesbians. >> more than any one person, frank was responsible for ending the ban for gay employment in the federal government and for reversing the a.p., the american psychiatric association position that homosexuality was a mental illness. >> this guy, the in the ' 50s a '60s was pushing the envelope. >> in 1964 frank kameny was looking for a member of the military who would be willing to come out so that there could be a test of the legality of gay service. >> kameny found the person he was looking for in air force sergeant leonard matlovick who agreed to about public with his sexuality appearin