Frank Kameny Memorial: Gay Rights Pioneer Honored In Washington (PHOTOS)

An Obama administration official, three members of Congress and a Yale Law School professor were among the many high-profile figures who attended a poignant memorial service for late LGBT rights leader Frank Kameny at Washington D.C.'s Cannon House Office Building on Tuesday night.

“His life cleared the path that I and countless others followed into public service,” John Berry, the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, who in 2009 became the Obama administration’s highest-level gay appointment, told the gathering, according to the Washington Blade. “His unrelenting and unceasing fight for gay rights enabled other Americans to step out of the closet and into the full light of equality. But most importantly, his long battle and eventual triumphs show the miracles that one person wrought upon the world.”

Kameny, who died Oct. 11 at age 86, became a pioneer in the LGBT movement when, after being fired from his government job in 1957 for being gay, he took his case before the Supreme Court in 1961. In 1965 he helped organize the first gay rights march in front of the White House.

Check out a selection of photos from the memorial below, courtesy of Robert Dodge. For more of Dodge's work, head to his official site here.