A GAY AEROSPACE WORKER SUES THE CIA
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360008-2
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
July 20, 2010
Sequence Number:
8
Case Number:
Publication Date:
November 28, 1983
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
File:
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360008-2.pdf | 76.52 KB |
Body:
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360008-2
NEWS WEEK
28 November 1983
"'?T1' 1'F A'.i ED
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
A Gay Aerospace
Worker Sues the CIA
John Green, a 50-year-old supervisor on a
highly classified project, was sure they
knew. The government, he told friends,
knew practically everything about the lives
of workers handling secrets. So in 1981,
during a routine security check on his room-
mate-also an employee of defense contrac-
tor TRW-Green volunteered what he
thought was a self-evident personal detail:
his homosexuality. Three weeks later the
Central Intelligence Agency ordered the 13-
year aerospace engineer's security clearance
suspended. Demotion followed. Green is
now suing the CIA, and the case is shaping
up as a sharp test of the agency's antigay
policies.
Government agencies handling classified
information have traditionally justified dis-
crimination against homosexuals by argu-
ing that enemy agents could blackmail gays
by threatening to expose their private lives.
But such policies rest on the assumption that
the worker in question fears public disclo- '
sure of his sexual preference. In recent years
the Defense Department, the National Secu-
rity Agency and other agencies have relaxed
their antigay positions in cases where em-
ployees are out of the closet.
Today the CIA is the only part of the
government that flatly refuses to hire gays.
Its guideline, entitled "Policy on Certain
Sexual Conduct," suggests homosexuality is
a "personality disorder." Gay activists are
determined to fight the policy and say
Green's suit is only the first of many to come.
Meanwhile, TRW may have encountered
more-than-usual scrutiny from the CIA for
other reasons. Green worked for the same
TRW plant that in 1977 figured in the highly
publicized "Falcon and Snowman" espio-
nage case, in which a company employee
passed secrets to the Soviets.
Hidden? The CIA defense against Green's
suit will probably rest on an accusation by
CIA Director of Security William R. Kota-
pish that Green hid his homosexuality. But
the agency may have trouble proving that in
court. Three months before the decisive
background check on Green's roommate,
Green had reported his membership in the
largest gay ski club in Los Angeles. And
interviews with Green's co-workers at TRW
suggest that the information the CIA says it
"developed" in 1981 had in fact been com-
mon knowledge at TRW for years. Harry
Schmeichel, a staff engineer, says Green told
him about his homosexuality in 1967, only
months after arriving at TRW. "He didn't
go around telling everyone, 'I'm gay',"
Schmeichel says. "But he made no effort to
hide it," According to Green, security of-
cers simply never bothered to ask.
Green describes himself as a conservative
Republican. "Up-prove of Mr. Reagan very
much," he says. "But I feel I'm the victim of
the old guard embedded in the bureaucra-
cy-peoplewith homophobic values." Ifthe
agency's real goal is to reduce the possibility
of blackmail, he adds, it's going about it in
exactly the wrong way. His gay friends are
"going to be very closeted now. They know if
I'd taken the path of getting myself a lesbian
girlfriend and giving the impression that I'm
a real stud, I'd still have my security
clearances."
JONATHAN ALTER with DANIEL PEDERSEN
in Los Angeles and KIM WILLENSON in Washington
STATT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360008-2