GAY COUPLE UNSUITABLE FOR CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201030015-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: December 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201030015-9
STANFORD DAILY (CA)
8 DECEMBER 1982
ou l e" unsui tabl e or C'I~4
` ` Ga couple"
VI (ntn
A 'ear ago, law students at UC-Berkeley solicited
Stanford law student support for a picket protesting
CIA recruiting at the two schools. While the
Berkeley protest forced the CIA to conduct its in-
tervie%%s under federal protective custody in Oak.
land, we Stanfordites chose a different method. We
figured that an effective way to register our distaste
for CIA practices and to expose their unstated poli-
ce of refusing to hire homosexual citiiens was to in-
terview with them ourselves - posing as a gay cou-
ple seeking undercover assignments.
After securing the last available interview slots,
we asked the interviewer, the chief of the CIA's liti-
gation department (we'll just call him the Shadow),
if we could interview together since we had mutual
questions and concerns. He agreed, reluctantly, and
ushered us in.
"What Agency legal work interests you?" the
Shadow asked.
"Well, we are only interested in covert operations
- if we handled Freedom of Information requests
we'd be blacklisted from undercover work and we,
want to be spies."
"What kind of covert work?" he inquired.
"Domestic intelligence," we enthused. "We'd he
very good at infiltrating leftist political groups and
disrupting them from the inside.
The Shadow cleared his throat. "You know, out
charter no longer permits us to conduct domestic
intelligence operations, so uhh ... that might not be
possible."
"We know you say that publicly." we said with a
wink, "but that will changb soon" The Shadow
smiled and indicated he shared our optimism that
President Reagan will succeed in his attempt to,
once again open the domestic market to the cloak
and dagger crowd.
The Shadow slowly scrutinized our resumes.
"You two have worked fora number of liberal polit-
ical groups."
"Oh, yes sir," we said. "For years we have been
infiltrating various left-wing, subversive organiza-
tions from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to,,
Ralph Nader's organizations and other groups!
which threaten national security."
The Shadow now appeared puzzled. "You mean
you didn't believe in what these people were doing?
Why did you do it?" _
"You can't just walk into one of those kooky l!
anti-nuke groups and expect them to trust you.'
Most of your agents probably were presidents oV
Young Republicans for Nixon in college, a worthy;,
cause, but we've been planning ahead."
At this point we worried that our patriotism
sounded a bit intense even for a Company man. But
we had to be enthusiastic recruits because our "dir-
ty little secret" would soon be revealed.
"The Agency often makes se of well-placed in-
ternational lawyers and professors. You two could
get well-established and contact us later," The
Shadow advised.,
-1 I think on- the international front we are more
litttt h6d: iii-paramiiitaryactivites than paralegal
i rtie~? ' Qe'i+eplied. -
"What did you have in mind?" The Shadow
asked.
"You know, the usual things you guys do -
counter-insurgency, destabilizing leftist govern-
ments ... we'd be great."
"I'm sure we do very little of that," The Shadow
insisted instead urging that we might find the Agen-
cy's legal work intriguing. Undeterred, we asked
him if the legal staff ever set up fictional companies
to function as covers for agents overseas.
"Well, yes," " he replied reluctantly, "lawyers have
to set those up." But a business that didn't exist
could not have a CIA lawyer sign its legal docu-
ments, we observed. "Wouldn't you need a fictional
law firm?" He nodded, so we pushed our line of
questioning a step further.
"Let me get you straight. We'd be working for a
law firm that didn't exist, filing fictional legal docu-
ments for a corporation that didn't exist. Do your
attorneys ever suffer a certain identify crisis?" The
Shadow barely smiled now.
Earlier in the interview, we hr d cgsually dropped
the possibility that we could pose as gay-rights ac-
tivists to gather information about left-wing politi-
cal activity in San Francisco. That bait made the
Shadow suspicious, and he followed it up.
"Mike, your resume says you grew up in the
Midwest and went to college back East. Why did
you come out to San Francisco for law school?"
The Shadow inquired.
"Well; my friend and I were tempted to go to
Yale, but you know, people out East are just so up-
tight. "
Our "little secret" slowly dawned on him as he
compared the address and phone number on our re-
sumes. (Since we were housemates, they were the
same.)
..You two live together?" The Shadow said with
unconceded.disdain, actually backing his chair up a
few feet. By now we were both bursting with
laughter inside, but we kept on our serious in-
terview masks.
"I think you'll find it nearly impossible to gain
employment with the Agency given those, uh, that
lifestyle." the Shadow told us quite seriously.
"Why would the government purposely dis-
criminate against gays?", we asked, incredulous:
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201030015-9
"Don't get me wrong. We don't discriminate
against homosexuals, we just don't hire them. They
are a security risk. Homosexuals could easily be
compromised or blackmailed to reveal secrets. "
"But wait, what if we are totally out of the closet
and not even our mothers care," we indignantly
countered.
The Shadow became very flustered and soon
brought what had become a 40-minute interview to
an end. Although we were unaware of it at the time,
the CIA is currently defending against federal liti-
gation challenging the Agency's refusal to hire gays.
And believe it or not, the CIA's key defense is that
gays present a "security risk."
As we left, we weren't exactly anxious to receive
the prize that every law student hopes for - an all
expense paid fly-back for more interviews. We were
afraid our fly-back to Langley, Virginia mightturn
out to be a one-way trip.
(Jim Steyer is a third-year law student, Mike
Calabrese is a third-year JD/MBA student.)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201030015-9