CIA SUED BY HOMOSEXUAL FOR REMOVAL OF SECURITY CLEARANCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: November 24, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360009-1
ARTICLE APPEARED
QN PACE . , 3
W~SHINGTON POST
24 November 1983
CIA Sued by Homosexual for
Removal of Securitv Clearance
By Katharine Macdonald
Special to The Washington Post
LOS ANGELES, Nov., 23-John
;William Green, 51, is a conservative
..Republican who describes himself as
-."very much a nationalist, one of
..those flag-wavers. And I have always
'.had a great deal of faith in my coun-
try and its intelligence-gathering ac-
tivities."
But Green says that faith has
-beer. shaken because it took the CIA
-?13 years to discover that he is a ho-
mosexual, a fact that he insists he
never tried to hide.
Now Green is the. plaintiff in a
suit against the CIA that gay leaders
believe may be a watershed case for
homosexual rights.
Green.has worked as an aerospace
engineer at TRW Inc.; a major de-
fense contractor, for 15 years, during
which he received five security clear-
ances. In 1981, 13 years after he
started at TR.W. the CIA discovered
that Green was a homosexual and
revoked the clearances.
Green since has filed suit in U.S.
District. Court in an attempt to force
the agency to restore his clearances,
and said he is prepared to take his
case to the Supreme Court.
Until now, most cases concerning
homosexuals and security clearances
have been resolved at the adminis-
trative level, and none'-has gone to.
the Supreme Court.
In 1973, the U.S. Court of Ap-
peals for the . District of Columbia
ruled that revocation of. a security
clearance for homosexuality was
"probably illegal." But the issue was
not fully resolved. -
A current case in the D.C. Court
of Appeals, Doe v. Casey, is consid-
ered . weaker than Green's. The de-
fendant is a CIA employe and under
the law may be fired at will by the
CIA director. Green, .however, is em= have nothing to hide lose our clear-
ployed by private industry.' He has
-what his attorney calls "a spotless se-
curity record." And in his 15 years at
TRW, he has lived -an openly gay
- life.
Green grew up in northern Cal-
ifornia, served in the Navy and at
age 21 began a homosexual relation-
ship that lasted 21 years. After it
broke up, Green lived alone for four
years until he met his current lover,
another TRW employe with whom
he 'has lived for 41/2 years. It was
during a security check of that man
that the CIA discovered' Green's ho-
mosexuality-and the source was
Green himself. "I said, "You couldn't
have come to a better person.' We
live together, and no one knows him
better than me,' " Green related.
Green said the investigator asked -
only if he considered the relationship
a long-term one. Green said he did.
Green's lover, who asked that his
identity be withheld, said the inves-
tigator came to his office about a
week later, and asked questions
about Green. He added:
"After about five minutes, she
asked, `Are you and he having a ho-
mosexual affair?' I said yes."
Shortly afterward, Green's secu-
rity clearances were revoked and
TRW gave him a job that did not re-
quire clearances.
The government's position is that
homosexuals are subject to blackmail
and coercion. But this, Green be-
lieves, is "a bureaucratic Catch-22
[wherein gays] who hide nothing and
ances. The people who keep their 1
clearances are the frightened and
closeted homosexuals' who can be
blackmailed, and who-really are dan-, !
gerous targets for foreign espionage."
Green said 'that since his'-Navy
days he has never tried to conceal
his homosexuality.
Neither the CIA nor TRW asked
if he was gay, he said, and he never
volunteered the information. A num-
ber of Green's co-workers have writ-
ten to the CIA, stating that they had
long known of, Green's sexual pref-
erence and that he made no secret of
it.
Green said the government is es-
sentially saying to him, "We have no
record of your being gay. Therefore,
you hid it. Therefore, you are subject
to coercion."
John McDermott, a Los Angeles
civil rights attorney who is handling
Green's case, said the question is "to
what extent homosexual conduct
renders an individual vulnerable to
blackmail."
Green's record "is the most com-
pelling evidence that he's not a se=
curity risk," he said.
Green, who admits that he exper-?
invented once with marijuana and
once with cocaine, said he is certain
heivill win his case.
"I haven't got a fear. There aren't
any closets.". Then he laughed, and
said, "No. There aren't any skeletons
in the closets."
TRW and the CIA declined com-
ment on the case.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202360009-1