Clearanc and Closets: Gay Life the Foreign Service | The Foreign Service Journal - June 2016

Contents:

• BEG GAY THE FOREIGN SERVICE
• GAYS THE FOREIGN SERVICE: DEBUNKG THE SECURY MYTH
• CLEARANC AND CLOSETS: GAY LIFE THE FOREIGN SERVICE
• TOM GALLAGHER, FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER WHO QU TO LIVE AS OPENLY GAY, DI AT 77
• STATE DEPARTMENT FIGHTS FOR RIGHTS OF GAY ENVOYS
• CAREER DIPLOMAT DISCS GAY RIGHTS FOREIGN SERVICE
• TOM GALLAGHER, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER, HAS DIED AGED 77
• GAY DIPLOMATS SAY STATE DEPARTMENT IS FAILG THEIR FAI
• US NAM FIRST GLOBAL ENVOY FOR GAY RIGHTS

BEG GAY THE FOREIGN SERVICE

When he applied for Kennedy’s new Peace Corps as a senr llege, he didn’t hate to lie, wrg on the secury clearance that he’d never had a homosexual experience.

The untry’s strict fundamentalist terpretatns of Islamic law punish homosexual behavr wh lashgs, wh stongs, wh ath, and while there probably is some sort of gay culture here, ’s not visible to him. He spent a few months Los Angel, where he ught up wh Don Kilhefner, who’s nng the Gay Communy Servic Center out of a broken-down mansn near MacArthur Park.

When he leav the Lost and Found one night, all sweaty sk and poundg heart, there’s a flyer on his r for a volunteer meetg for the Gay Swchboard, 387-3777, and an addrs Adams Man.

GAYS THE FOREIGN SERVICE: DEBUNKG THE SECURY MYTH

People ll the Swchboard about all kds of stuff—where to go for VD tts or fd a rap group or a roommate, which drag ntts are g up, referrals to gay-owned bs.

The st of livg his dream would be a very cramped, small life, days and nights some fabulo rince he n’t brg anyone home to, no possibily of sneakg out to a gay bar or whatever. A group of openly gay and lbian officers has been workg ternally on preventg Diplomatic Secury om nyg clearanc on the basis of sexualy, and they’ve had some ws. He lls Tom back wh the answer: “One of the people we terviewed said that he was gay, and we are wonrg whether that meant he is reee and ivolo or is a homosexual.

Tom joed the foreign service 1965, and the early 1970s he risked his reer when he me out and beme the first openly gay foreign service officer. Origally known as Gays and Lbians Foreign Affairs Agenci, glifaa is an employee affy group for LGBT+ employe, In 2020, they intified their five prri as 1) protectg LGBT+ foreign affairs employe om discrimatn, 2) promotg accredatn of same-sex spo, 3) advotg for trans* employe and EFMs, 4) expandg ont office advocy, and 5) strengtheng glifaa as an anizatn. A send report, 1989, nsisted of what Olson lled a “fishg expedn” which allegatns were ma that he was blackmailed, based on alleged homosexual activy, to mtg visa d while on assignment Colombia.

CLEARANC AND CLOSETS: GAY LIFE THE FOREIGN SERVICE

” Ultimately, the s agast Olson were dropped, and through a Freedom of Informatn Act requt, he learned that anti-gay prejudice was at the root of all the allegatns.

Ten years later while posted domtilly, he me out as an openly gay Foreign Service Officer while speakg at a nference on gays the feral ernment Washgton D. ” One week later, Deputy Unr Secretary of State John Prifoy nfirms that the State Department has fired 91 homosexual employe as secury risks.

TOM GALLAGHER, FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER WHO QU TO LIVE AS OPENLY GAY, DI AT 77

The uple ved several State Department and USAID employe who, like Bs, were beg vtigated by the Department of State for allegatns they were homosexual. Currently, there are five openly gay ambassadors and many more high-rankg posns around the Department of State, USAID, and other foreign affairs agenci. Cover of terim report on “Employment on Homosexuals and Other Perverts Government” submted to the Commtee on Expendur at the Executive Department.

STATE DEPARTMENT FIGHTS FOR RIGHTS OF GAY ENVOYS

Public perceptn of gay rights, cludg the right to marry and to serve the ary, has unrgone a sea change the last few years, so much so that Print Obama nomated five openly gay ambassadors. He also discs the fear he and others had when they started the Gays and Lbians Foreign Affairs Agenci (GLIFAA) 1992 and the support he received om other FSOs. So, I went to the office of this man who has sce died who was the man who was the most fanatilly anti-gay person DS, as far as I unrstand om other gay people.

I say that bee there were heargs that were held the Senate 1987 or ’88 on this very pot and turns out that the whole 20th century, there had never been a se of a homosexual who had been blackmailed agast his ernment except World War I — an Atrian officer was blackmailed. In April or May of 1992, a group of gay and lbian – really only gay – Foreign Service officers got together an apartment Columbia Plaza [a block away om the State Department] and was a very tense gatherg.

That first meetg was an opportuny to vent a lot of anger, which was done, and then the anizer of the meetg asked if this meetg suggted that we might form an anizatn sometime the near future to work on issu of ncern to gay and lbian Foreign Service officers. In 1992 before the electn of Bill Clton, before his guratn, there was a great al of tensn and the ma ncern was to get DS to stop harassg homosexuals like myself for beg homosexual. After the electn of Bill Clton and subsequent years, the anizatn has bee largely a social anizatn, but also has prevailed upon the State Department wh unmarried heterosexual Foreign Service officers to have the State Department acrd equal hog to unmarried Foreign Service officers, gay or straight, and married Foreign Service officers whout children.

CAREER DIPLOMAT DISCS GAY RIGHTS FOREIGN SERVICE

So, there are a lot of people who are serly thkg of leavg the Foreign Service, gay or straight, simply bee they nnot have their tellectual and tnal peers wh them. The next five or so hours, we had the most vrlic…and anti-Clton telephone lls anized by the relig right, exriatg him for his posn on abortn and also on gays the ary. In the urse of chattg wh [GLIFAA] members, I had learned that Sherman Funk, our spector general, and his wife were very active a group lled PFLAG [Parents and Friends of Lbians and Gays].

It turns out that Sherman Funk and his wife, while they’re not themselv gay or lbian, have a dghter who is lbian who they’re very proud of and that Sherman Funk or his wife – I’m not sure which – were the natnal head of this anizatn of parents and iends of lbians and gays, a very active anizatn. He said that he uld not scribe to me his ntempt for those Foreign Service officers who me to him after he had been terviewed on TV durg one of the monstratns and told him they admired his urage marchg on behalf of his dghter when they themselv had children who were gay and would not be seen dog so public. The qutn of DS refg to cleanse my rerd any meangful way fally beg forced by this orr to cleanse lerally wh a razor bla, takg out all referenc to the word “homosexual” or “gay” or any timatn that the might be somehow crimal activi – bee, ankly, they were not unr DC law – so they went through the rerd.

“The State Department’s director general has not ma clear that jobs are not jeopardy if [employe] are gay, ” says David Bs, a program director the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missns who has been subject to secury review as a gay. Agency for Internatnal Development (USAID) have tablished polici toward gay employe a piecemeal manner, failg to publicize existg polici, charge several gay employe. Also March, an rmal group reprentg gay employe of the Foreign and Civil Service State, USIA, and USAID exprsed their ncerns about “nsistent standards” to the director general.

TOM GALLAGHER, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER, HAS DIED AGED 77

In rponse, Ambassador Perks assigned Deputy Assistant Secretary for personnel Kenh Hunter to meet wh the gay employe and terme a urse of actn. David Bs, spokman for the employe, says that they now have tablished a group lled Gays and Lbians Foreign Affairs Agenci, which meets monthly to reprent the ncerns of gay employe of State, USIA, and USAID.

“My ma problem wh [State’s Office of Diplomatic Secury], says a gay officer, “is that, my five years, there’s never been a policy promulgated…. ” Diplomatic Secury (DS) adher to a general policy that was stated durg a prs briefg on Augt 4, 1982: “[A]dmted or alleged homosexualy, per se, do not nstute a basis for nial of employment or secury clearance. He worked whout cint, however, until 1986, when DS sought his discharge on suabily grounds, ially bee of “homosexualy, ” followg disclosure of a brief liaison wh another Amerin man.

GAY DIPLOMATS SAY STATE DEPARTMENT IS FAILG THEIR FAI

Danny Hall, an admistrative officer most recently assigned to the Domin Republic whose sexual preference is known to lleagu, says that on his return to Washgton om his first tour he was lled to three terviews wh Diplomatic Secury and asked about his homosexualy. ” In 1953, Print Eisenhower signed an Executive Orr explicly barrg homosexuals om employment the feral ernment, and a number of employe were fired. The Department of Defense had a policy of dismissal for employe wh gay “tennci, ” acrdg to Mary Newbe, a staff attorney wh the Lambda Legal Defense and Edutn Fund who specializ Defense Department issu.

Kameny, an thory on secury clearanc for gay people, several s have tablished a precent that curtails the feral ernment’s abily to refe a secury clearance on the basis of homosexualy alone. The CIA the late 1980s also cid that homosexualy per se was not grounds for nyg an SCI clearance, although was on factor to be taken to acunt termg tstworths. The official anxns about gay employe stems om an old perceptn that gays, leadg a liftyle that is stigmatized, may be more sceptible to blackmail than heterosexuals.

US NAM FIRST GLOBAL ENVOY FOR GAY RIGHTS

“The ia was that homosexuals were particularly apt to be blackmailed, ” says Larry Williamson, puty assistant secretary of State for Personnel.

The State Department, however, still nsirs applints and employe who are homosexual to be potentially vulnerable to blackmail, Williamson says. A study unrtaken for the Department of Defense on the sceptibily of gays to blackmail suggts, however, that gays and lbians are no more likely than heterosexuals to be prsured to mtg treason. None of the State, USIA, or USAID spokmen terviewed for this article uld offer substantiatn for the fear that gays are vulnerable to blackmail.

Larry Williamson says he is not aware of any s of blackmail volvg a gay, and Larry Carnahan, actg director of USIA’s Office of Secury says, “There have been no such s USIA. A sendary reason for subjectg gay employe to heightened scty is the reluctance to allow any Foreign Service employee to engage behavr that might embarrass the U.