HOMOSEXUALS PRESS FIGHT ON RIGHT TO BE AGENTS

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360007-3
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
August 6, 2010
Sequence Number: 
7
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
February 1, 1984
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360007-3.pdf153.96 KB
Body: 
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360007-3 ARTICLE APPEAPZD NEW YORK TINES ON PAGE .U =6 1 February 1981+ Homosexuals Press Fight - - ? homosexual, Mr..Green raplied that on Right to Be Agents' he had reported his membership in By PHILIP TAUBMM routinely suspended the security the largest homosexuals club in clearance of a iiaguist who was dis- Los Angeles and had disvissed his spa. to The NW Yost Ttmec - - --- - homosexuality with colleagues at -covered to be a homosexual. ' . WASHINGTON, Jan. 31-Sex and work - security. The combination has al-' Then, in a highly unusual step, the ways been volatile, and the history agency linguist s promised teed clearance after . . -In the Washington-tee, a C.I.A. lto tell .electronics technicians dismissed and literature of spying are replete fthe amilhe was a homosexual and after an internal investigation con. with tales of betrayal and blackru ;n- vowed that he would not succumb to '- cluded?that "the-circumstances of his resulting from romantic attttach- blac3mrail. The decision, made by F~~tality" posed a security .merits. These days, like almost everything 1 Adm. Bobby R. Inman, then the-di- cthreat. The man, who filed suit in 1982 rector of the N.SA, rocked the Intel-; As "John Doe" because C.I.A. regula- else, the subject, has landed in the ligence establishment. ons require that employees not pub- courts, but the issue being tested The prevalent attitude among intel- 'liclY 4000se their work, asked to be bears little relation to the popular h fficials then and one that -reinctated-nn ~the th A;- ce t hi image of a rakish male spy caught in a tryst with a female foreign agent. To the considerable concern and con- sternation of intelligence officials, the subject of the lawsuits is homo- sexuality and security, specifically a gen ~o s -- -= has changed little since, is that homo- . missalviolated normal agency termi=', sexuality equals trouble. As evidence, nation procedures. officials cite the Soviet SPY' ring in' La week Richard, L.. Gayer, an Britain led by Kim Philby that .re- electrical engineer at the GTE Sylva- volved, in part, around homosexual nia Corporation in Mountain View, relationships. In the United States, in- Calif., sued the C.I.A. in Federal ible. 1 lelligence officials said that perhaps court in San Francisco charging that d 14be most serious espionage case at he had failed to receive a security I W hi t L l n as ng on es an os Ange , San Francisco, homosexual men who Ahe N.S.A. involved two analysts who clearance to work on ? a classified worked directly or indirectly for the 'detected to the Soviet Union in 1960. Project. Mr. Gayer, who has been an Central,InteWgence,Agency-and lost ? The officials said both were believed activist for homosexual rights, said their security clearances when their ,to be homosexual. he bad assumed that the C.IA was ble the bl res onsr ro e .` one official sexual orientation became known There was a time, have gone to court to challenge long- said, "when we believed the great was .y-- _ homosexuals standing attitudes - of intelligence dyer-- Dosed-J) forces toward homosexuality. All the the threat of blackmail. I think as at-. cases are still pending. titudes about . homosexuality have, Clearance Issue Raised changed, and their behavior has be- Clearance more open and acceptable, the Their contention, stated in the Los blackmail threat has receded. some- Angeles complaint filed by John W. ~ what. A primary concern now is that Green, an electrical engineer at the homosexuals often seek sex in ques- TRW Corporation who lost his clear- tionable places and with unknown ance to work on classified intelligence partners, possibly jeopardizing their projects, is simple: `"There is no ra- own safety and our security." tional, - legitimate or demonstrable Reinstatement Plea Rejected relationship between homosexuality and a person's suitability to hold a se- In the case of Mr. Green, for exam- curity clearance." - ple, the C.IA's?director of security, p P an m. "They are simply tied to the past," he said in a telephone interview. "They assume that gays are going to part with secrets at the slightest pres- sure and that as a class, we care less about the welfare and safety of the nation. That's simply not true." Franklin E. Kameny, a Washington resident who advises homosexuals about security clearance issues, .called the C.I.A. "nutty-and hysteri- cal" on the question. Mr. Kameny said: "Herein 1984 they are operating on the basis of notions unchanged since 1954. Their minds seemed her- metically sealed.'. The C.IA.'s position is equally William it. Kotapish, in rejecting an Agencies Seen as'Holdoats appeal for reinstatement. of the se- mate Tiedemonstrable etra rational, relationship. leiticu city clearance in 1982, wrote Mr. Mr. Kameny said that the intelli F - mor i and , said aid Green, "You stated that for a six- to -gence agencies, along with the mill- an agency ce serviccves, eight-month period, you had sexual tary services, were the main holdouts cY spokesman, Dale Peter- relationships with a different man against homosexuality. "We won in son, "are known to o target for cultiva- tion and known about once a week, usually meeting the Civil Service," " exploitation persons known he said, and in or believed to be practicing adult these various partners at Los Angeles most cases among defense contras- : homosexual behavior. There have discos." tots involving sensitive weapons . been a significant number of espio- Mr. Kotapish also cited 'two inci- . Prom, gays can keep their security nage cases in which homosexual con- dents of sexual activity with other clearances unless there are aggravat- duct has been a factor." : males, one involving a foreign na- ing circumstances. The policies of the Mr. Peterson added that the C.I.A. tion;" that .4-took place while you intelligence agencies are set by intel- had no blanket prohibition against - were on a business trip to a sensitive lectual Neanderthals. Their attitude hiring homosexuals or giving them facility abroad." _ is that homosexual sex is the locus for security clearances. "Each case is Mr. Green's response, as presented the divulgence of secret information. reviewed on its merits," he said, de- -by his attorneys in court documents, What about heterosexual sex?" dining to say whether the agency had was that he had worked without mm- Mr. Gayer, refining the point, said, ever retained an employee known to dent for nearly 10 years on classified "The highest-risk -class when it . be homosexual._ contracts at TRW, that he never comes to security are is.". The court cases have crystallized misled the company or the C.I.A. ' Intelligence officia1sare.-awaiting an issue that has long troubled intelli- about his sexual orientation, and that the court decisions to see whether gence forces. In 1980; the National Se- he "is not embarrassed or ashamed they will have to adopt a more lenient curity Agency, which monitors world-, about his homosexuality." To the attitude toward homosexuals. One of- wide communications and handles charge that he failed to inform either ficial said: "This is one field where code-breaking for the Government,. TRW or the C.I.A. that he was a the sexual revolution-hasn't arrived. We hope it never does." - STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360007-3