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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: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360003-7.pdf57.17 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