LGBT
Related: About this forumUncovered Papers Show Past Government Efforts to Drive Gays From Jobs
WASHINGTON Days after President Lyndon B. Johnsons election to his first full term, an administration official asked a subordinate to explain the policy on firing gays. In particular, he wondered whether someone with a history of gay liaisons could, through years of marriage, be rehabilitated into a trustworthy civil servant.
The response came quickly, and in language that would be shocking by todays standards. Technically, rehabilitated gays could keep their jobs. But John W. Steele, a staff member of the Civil Service Commission, which handled personnel matters for the government, said that seldom happened.
Some feel that once a homo, always a homo, Mr. Steele wrote. He added, Our tendency to lean over backwards to rule against a homosexual is simply a manifestation of the revulsion which homosexuality inspires in the normal person.
It was November 1964. Four months earlier, the president had signed the landmark Civil Rights Act banning discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex and national origin. The policies laid out in Mr. Steeles memo would continue for more than another decade.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/us/politics/uncovered-papers-show-past-government-efforts-to-drive-gays-from-jobs.html?hp&_r=0
shenmue
(38,506 posts)Couldn't they just let people live?
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)At the peak of the panic over terrorism, when we needed access to native speakers, they decided that being gay trumped any potential help these people could have been.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1115-03.htm
Another version says 37 translators were fired:
http://www.democracynow.org/2003/12/5/despite_increased_post_9_11_need
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)And this was at a time the gov't was desperate for translators!
mitchtv
(17,718 posts)when the bars were raided, and peoples' careers and lives were ruined
Laughing Mirror
(4,185 posts)whey they were still practicing in 1978 that "obsessive effort to identify and fire gays in government jobs" in-house.
Agents followed my FBI file-clerk roommate to the gay bars of Atlantic City in 1978, and when he got back to work after that extended holiday weekend, he knew already it was over. Still fresh behind the ears from Bluegrass country in Kentucky, he'd passed civil service test, got the FBI file clerk job DC job and everything was fine for a couple of years. He thought he'd be there forever. But they chased him down and caught him being gay, and that was it.
Apparently we know now, with these revelations, that versions of what happened to my roommate happened to many thousands.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)so many gay people. Just a completely despicable human being.
Laughing Mirror
(4,185 posts)with or without the help of Cohn.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,959 posts)She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.
Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot. "We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.
"We've had all we can take from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We're putting our foot down once and for all." The foot wore a spiked heel. According to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand painted brick and opaque glass facade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate, drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.
The thick glass shut out the outside world of the street. Inside, the Stonewall bathed in wild, bright psychedelic lights, while the patrons writhed to the sounds of a juke box on a square dance floor surrounded by booths and tables. The bar did a good business and the waiters, or waitresses, were always kept busy, as they snaked their way around the dancing customers to the booths and tables. For nearly two years, peace and tranquility reigned supreme for the Alice in Wonderland clientele.
The Raid Last Friday
Last Friday the privacy of the Stonewall was invaded by police from the First Division. It was a raid. They had a warrant. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. Since the Stonewall was without a license, the place was being closed. It was the law.
All hell broke loose when the police entered the Stonewall. The girls instinctively reached for each other. Others stood frozen, locked in an embrace of fear.
Only a handful of police were on hand for the initial landing in the homosexual beachhead. They ushered the patrons out onto Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square. A crowd had formed in front of the Stonewall and the customers were greeted with cheers of encouragement from the gallery.
The whole proceeding took on the aura of a homosexual Academy Awards Night. The Queens pranced out to the street blowing kisses and waving to the crowd. A beauty of a specimen named Stella wailed uncontrollably while being led to the sidewalk in front of the Stonewall by a cop. She later confessed that she didn't protest the manhandling by the officer, it was just that her hair was in curlers and she was afraid her new beau might be in the crowd and spot her. She didn't want him to see her this way, she wept.
more: http://www.drakkar91.com/glbthistory/hist2.html