Queer Cos: Gay Men the Civil Service - On History

Contents:

• THE ERA WHEN GAY SPI WERE FEARED
• QUEER COS: GAY MEN THE CIVIL SERVICE
• HONG KONG’S TOP URT SIS WH GAY CIVIL SERVANT APPLITN FOR SPOAL BENEF AND TAX ASSSMENT
• GAY CIVIL SERVANT WS SPOAL BENEFS APPEAL AT HONG KONG TOP URT
• CONFERATE AND UNN: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF GAY CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS

THE ERA WHEN GAY SPI WERE FEARED

”Thoands of feral employe were fired or forced to rign om the late 1940s to the 1960s durg what has been lled the Lavenr Sre — when the feral ernment sought to vtigate and purge employe thought to be Amerin Psychiatric Associatn clared homosexualy a mental illns 1952, and 1953, Print Dwight D. In addn to the Department of State, the Natnal Secury Agency and the CIA "ntued to harass and seek to exclu lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals om their ranks until 1995, " the rolutn ntu. Dpe the prevailg view of homosexualy as a mental illns and a sign of perversn or crimaly, gay people started to fd one another at unrground bars and clubs.

At the time, many people equated Communism wh homosexualy—people like Senator Joseph McCarthy, who lked what he nsired to be the madns of Communists to the supposed mental imbalanc of gay people.

As Congrsnal heargs about supposed homosexual activy wh the partment raged, the telligence muny began terviewg and prsurg for the rignatns of spected gay employe. Invtigators looked for supposed signs of homosexualy, like beg unmarried, and sctized employe’ and potential hir’ voic, mannerisms and drs for stereotypil markers that they might be gay.

QUEER COS: GAY MEN THE CIVIL SERVICE

Kameny wasn’t the only person galvanized by the public targetg of LGBT people— 1969, the Stonewall Rts ma gay rights a ont-page issue, and the movement Kameny helped start and the Lavenr Sre helped foment has flourished ever sce. Only the 1970s was the ban on gay telligence muny members relaxed, and took until 1995 for another executive orr, signed by Print Bill Clton, to explicly state that the ernment may not discrimate based on sexual orientatn when to grantg accs to classified rmatn.

By then, untls gay people had been remd for years that their participatn the State Department was not wanted—and that they would be treated as send-class cizens if they tried to serve their untry. Are visible ton the stggle for gay civil rights, but wasn’t until the 1990s that a slow but steady cultural and polil shift helped the LGBTQ+ muny ga acceptance. Eisenhower signed an executive orr banng feral agenci om hirg gay and lbian dividuals, and would take two s for a feral judge to le the orr unnstutnal.

HONG KONG’S TOP URT SIS WH GAY CIVIL SERVANT APPLITN FOR SPOAL BENEF AND TAX ASSSMENT

I act as a figurehead for the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr employee work, which provis a senr voice for the LGBT muny the Mistry of Defence. I'm the first out gay man to take on the role, which I have been dog for one year alongsi my job as chief of staff at fence equipment and support.

GAY CIVIL SERVANT WS SPOAL BENEFS APPEAL AT HONG KONG TOP URT

I hate the phrase role mol, but I am open the workplace and if that giv people an example of someone who is reasonably succsful and also out gay, that's did you ci to take on? People also felt unfortable workg an anisatn that had a ban on gay people the ary – overturng this was a really big thg for LGBT civilian staff the partment, as well as their ary lleagu who had been subject to the ban, bee the ban may have been seen to jtify wispread are LGBT groups wh public servic?

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. 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. "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.

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. 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.

CONFERATE AND UNN: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF GAY CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS

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.

"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.