Revised Gay-Clearance Rules
The White House said Wednesday a revised policy on granting security clearances to gays and lesbians does not reflect a change in how the government will treat sexual orientation.
Then why change anything?
In the 1997 regulation.... sexual orientation “may not be used as a basis” for denying clearances or determining whether individuals should be eligible to access classified information unless it could make them vulnerable to coercion or exploitation.
Yesterdays update to the regulation states that security clearances cannot be denied “solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual.”
Apparently that’s true. Jeff Gannon went even farther by being a male prostitute. Yet, he got a job with the White House press core, apparently to ask soft questions that even the President would not have a problem answering (like, “What is your full name?”).
If sexual behavior is “strictly private, consensual and discreet,” that could lessen security concerns, according to the regulations that came as part of an update to clearance guidelines distributed in December. [...]
Neither allows someone’s sexual orientation to be used by itself, Duhnke said, but in both cases some other behavior must give the government pause. If someone were trying to hide the fact that they are gay, for instance, he or she could be susceptible to coercion or blackmail.
I would agree with that, but I wouldn’t say that Jeff Gannon exactly kept his sexual behavior “strictly private”, but that’s just my opinion. Hell, he even had a website listing his “services”.
Waxman and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the revisions come as the administration has refused to enforce a policy that protects federal employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. The administration has rejected the allegations.
Well, that’s stating the obvious. The Federal Government has yet to add sexual orientation protections at the federal level for gay Americans. In any federal agency today, you can be fired just for being gay, with no other reason. This change in policy, if you can figure out what has changed, seems to me to be much ado about nothing. What has changed?
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Exactly my point.... nothing has changed.
The gay community has changed. You are right, we are "out" now and, for most of us, unashamed of who we are. What hasn't changed is government. They are still back in the 1950's-1960's about all of this, as though it's some deep dark secret to hide. It's totally shameful that don't ask don't tell even exists today. It's the biggest farce ever.
This is why I think it will take a full generation for the federal government to even admit that there are gay marriages happening in this country and that they should recognize that. And it may take yet another generation for them to HONOR those marriages with BENEFITS.
I remember during Lyndon Johnson's administration some White House staffer was caught having sex in a men's room somewhere in DC. Of course, he was out of a job immedately. The reason given was security--if the person was terrified of blackmail, (s)he would be prey to recruitment as a spy.
Flash forward. Post-Stonewall and gay liberation. We're out now. There's nothing to blackmail us for if we're out. And since heteros engage in a lot of the same sexual practices we do these days (and it's becoming popularly known more and more), they can't even threaten to embarrass us. SO, all of this is just the usual harrassing, homophobic crap they've been throwing at us forever.
Are we surprised? Thoroughly disgusted, but not surprised.