HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A THREAT TO SECURITY
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360003-7
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
August 6, 2010
Sequence Number:
3
Case Number:
Publication Date:
May 30, 1984
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
File:
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360003-7.pdf | 57.17 KB |
Body:
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0202360003-7
ARTICLE ArY N VLLJJ''U. =1111ALU
ON PAGE 30 May 1984
Homosexuality Is Not a Threat STAT
By SYDNEY J. HARRIS
T HE homosexual in our soci-
ety - whether you approve
of him or not - is enmeshed
In a Catch-22 that makes the Army
version look positively benign.
Consider the case of John Green,
a 50-year-old electrician, who is
suing the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy (CIA) for $1 million. Green was
fired from his job, and his five
Goverment security clearances
were lifted, when he admitted to
being gay.
Now, it is not, a crime to be a
homosexual in our society, but it
might as well be. Green was
bounced because the CIA (as well as
other security forces) believes that
gays are more susceptible to being
blackmailed than straights are.
The official fear is that the threat
of "exposure" might pressure the
closet gays to trade classified
material in exchange for silence
about their tendency. But why Are
gays more likely to be the targets of
blackmailers? Because if they are
disclosed as such, they will be fired
from sensitive jobs. Catch-22.
If nobody much cared who was
gay and who was not, the potential
blackmailers would lose all their
leverage. If our national attitude
was "So what?" then the gays
would be no more of a "security
risk" than any straight male who
might succumb to the blandish-
to Security
ments of a seductive female agent.
But since we do seem to care, and
since thousands of gays are afraid
to proclaim their true identity, our
very attitude of intolerance gener-
ates the "risk" in hiring them for
military-industrial positions of
trust. In effect, we force them to
hide, and then penalize them for
hiding.
All we have to do is to change our
archaic attitude, to bring it in line
with most other civilized countries,
and then quite automatically the
homosexual is no longer any more
fearful of being "exposed" than
anyone else. And, just as automati-
cally, once this fear of stigma is
removed, the risk of blackmail
evaporates like a puff of smoke.
(Actually, and historically, het-
erosexual men have proved to be
far-greater security risks In the spy
system, bartering secrets for femi-
nine favors, for greed, for revenge,
or for political fanaticism.)
Mr. Green seems to have a good
case against the CIA, especially
since he didn't even bother to lie to
the agency about his sexual procliv-
ity when he was asked to provide a
reference for a friend.
If a man is straight enough to
admit he isn't straight, who in the
world would try to blackmail him?
This is the only way out of the
Catch.
cNews America Syndicate
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0202360003-7