Gay people and ernment secury clearanc. A social science perspective - PubMed

Contents:

• YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF THE RED SRE, BUT THE LSER-KNOWN, ANTI-GAY 'LAVENR SRE' IS RARELY TGHT SCHOOLS
• THE ERA WHEN GAY SPI WERE FEARED
• CLTON ENDS BAN ON SECURY CLEARANCE FOR GAY WORKERS
• STATE DEPARTMENT'S 1ST OPENLY GAY SPOKPERSON SENDS SIGNAL TO THE WORLD, ADVOT SAY
• SECURY CLEARANCE DELAYS HAMPER GAYS' CAREERS
• GAY PEOPLE AND ERNMENT SECURY CLEARANC. A SOCIAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE
• 'UNIQUELY NASTY' REMEMBERS THE U.S. BAN ON GAY FERAL WORKERS

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF THE RED SRE, BUT THE LSER-KNOWN, ANTI-GAY 'LAVENR SRE' IS RARELY TGHT SCHOOLS

“They read me my rights, ” he rells, “and they said ‘we unrstand you’re leadg a gay liftyle. ’ And I remember sayg, ‘well, I didn’t thk I was leadg , but y, I’m gay. Eisenhower’s Executive Orr 10450, the vtigatn, terrogatn and systematic removal of gay men and lbians om the feral ernment beme policy.

Known as the “Lavenr Sre, ” the policy was based on the unfound fear that gay men and lbians “posed a threat to natnal secury bee they were vulnerable to blackmail and were nsired to have weak moral characters, ” says historian David K.

THE ERA WHEN GAY SPI WERE FEARED

Joseph McCarthy’s fear-mongerg “Red Sre” mpaign the early 1950s, which targeted alleged subversive munists workg the feral ernment, thoands of ernment employe were forced out of their jobs as a rult of the anti-gay policy. The polil and moral fears about alleged subversiv beme tertwed wh a backlash agast homosexualy, as gay and lbian culture had grown visibily the post-war years. The Lavenr Sre tied the notns together, nflatg gay people wh munists and allegg they uld not be tsted wh ernment secrets and labellg them as secury risks, even though there was no evince to prove this.

CLTON ENDS BAN ON SECURY CLEARANCE FOR GAY WORKERS

Johnson timat that somewhere between 5, 000 and 10, 000 people lost their jobs as a rult of the Lavenr Sre, although is difficult to know the te number of people affected, as the policy acted as a terrent to any gay man or lbian woman who would have been prospective ndidat for ernment jobs. Acrdg to a 1983 oral history terview wh drag kg Rty Brown, who served the Navy, the fear went even beyond Washgton, permeatg the entertament dtry Hollywood and the bars and nightclubs New York Cy, as people were aaid they would be fired if their employers found out they were gay. By 1965, Kameny and other gay men and lbians were picketg outsi the Whe Hoe and helpg other fired employe wh their urt s.

And although 1975 the Civil Service Commissn announced new l that meant gay people uld no longer be barred or fired om feral employment bee of their sexualy, discrimatn ntued other agenci where employe had secury clearance, like the NSA, where Shoemaker worked.

STATE DEPARTMENT'S 1ST OPENLY GAY SPOKPERSON SENDS SIGNAL TO THE WORLD, ADVOT SAY

Wh the civil rights activist’s help, Shoemaker beme the first gay employee at the NSA to keep their job and their secury clearance after such an vtigatn, unr the ndn that he told his fay he was gay.

And although Pete Buttigieg was recently announced as print-elect Joe Bin’s pick for Transportatn Secretary, which would make him the first openly gay Cabet member, discrimatn agast members of the LGBTQ muny is still prent current U. Image source, Getty ImagMI5 has been named the UK's most gay-iendly employer - but isn't long sce same-sex relatnships were nsired a threat to natnal secury. "How to spot a possible homo, " ran a headle the paper.

Below this, for MI5's benef, was a list of supposed signifiers of male homosexualy ("a gay ltle wiggle", "his tie has the latt knot", "an unnaturally strong affectn for his mother") pretext for this unsoliced advice - which now seems clearly offensive - was the se of John Vassall, a gay civil servant who spied for the Soviets unr threat of blackmail. A gay man, the paper's reporter said, was a facto secury risk: "I wouldn't tst him wh my secrets. "Fast forward 53 years and the service tops Stonewall's 2016 list of the 400 bt plac to work for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people.

SECURY CLEARANCE DELAYS HAMPER GAYS' CAREERS

Acrdg to the Tim, more than 80 of s employe belong to an LGBT staff source, Eveng StandardImage ptn, Brish civil servant and Soviet spy John Vassall shortly after his release om prison 1972And yet a ban on gay men and women servg MI5, MI6 or GCHQ was force as recently as 1991. A seri of Cold War sndals featurg gay men meant homosexualy was lked many people's mds wh pnage and betrayal. As well as Vassall, who was ught a honeytrap by the KGB, at least two of the Cambridge Five spy rg, Guy Burgs and Anthony Blunt, were gay, while a third, Donald MacLean, was bisexual.

There was also Daily Telegraph Mosw rrponnt Jeremy Wolfenn - son of John Wolfenn, who chaired the missn that remend the legalisatn of male homosexual acts - who was photographed by the KGB havg sex wh a man, and whom MI6 subsequently attempted to e as a double agent. He turned to heavy drkg and died 1965 age ptn, Alan Bat played spy Guy Burgs Alan Bent's An Englishman AbroadIn the Uned Stat, Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-munist mpaign targeted sr of gay officials, explicly lkg homosexualy wh subversn and Soviet sympathi, a procs known as the "lavenr sre". FBI chief J Edgar Hoover - himself wily believed to have been gay - ed the agency to target dozens of gay ernment was a perd which LGBT people risked losg their reers and their eedom if their sexualy was revealed.

GAY PEOPLE AND ERNMENT SECURY CLEARANC. A SOCIAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

In 1953 Print Eisenhower signed Executive Orr 10450, which effectively led that gay people were secury risks. Homosexual acts between men were illegal Great Bra until 1967. "This associatn between homosexualy and secrecy, furtivens and potential treachery ensured gay characters were a recurrg trope Cold War-era spy fictn.

John Le Carre's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy clu gay subtexts - ma even more explic the 2011 movie adaptatn of the latter. Image source, Getty ImagSome have ma the se that the Brish telligence servic appear to have been relatively acceptg of homosexualy, if only pared wh other parts of society that monly persecuted LGBT people.

Burgs's gay affairs were wily known telligence circl. Acrdg to Christopher Andrew's thorised history of MI5, gay men and women were 1951 judged by the service when vettg public servants to be "maladjted to the social environment", potentially "of unstable character" and vulnerable to blackmail.

'UNIQUELY NASTY' REMEMBERS THE U.S. BAN ON GAY FERAL WORKERS

However, Andrew says MI5 was "relatively unncerned" about gay civil servants so long as they "remaed discreet". In 1965 MI5 risted a view om the Treasury that homosexualy should be an absolute bar to any kd of public office that required posive ptn, Jim Broadbent and Ben Whishaw BBC drama London SpyThe legalisatn of male homosexualy 1967 meant the fear of blackmail uld no longer hold. Q: Will beg gay, lbian or bisexual prevent me om gettg and matag a secury clearanceA: No.