Documentary and panel reveal decades-old government anti-gay actions

A federal effort to identify and bar gay Americans from working in the government still reverberates in today’s news, according to members of an Oct. 7 panel at recent National Press Club event.

The Club's Events Committee held the discussion after a screening of the documentary “Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government’s War on Gays.”

The documentary, reported by Yahoo’s Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff, detailed how the “sex deviates” program from the 1950s to early 1970s secretly collected hundreds of thousands of files on the sex lives of American citizens. The federal employees and contractors, even those who didn’t hold military or top secret positions, were routinely investigated and fired.

“I am interested in stories of government abuse and secrecy. I didn’t know this had been going on, as knowledgeable as I thought I was. It was stunning to see this laid out in black and white in the memos from the FBI,” said Isikoff.

The panel was moderated by Marilyn Geewax, NPR senior business editor and member of the National Press Club's Board of Governors. The panel was comprised of Isikoff; Charles Francis, president, Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C.; Paul M. Thompson, partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP; and Jaan Williams, director of domestic programs, Victory Fund and Institute, which works to support and elect gay candidates to local, state and federal positions.

Thompson explained how his law firm works on a pro bono basis with Francis’ group to file Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover whatever evidence of the program still exists.

Isikoff updated attendees on a story he had just filed that U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., has asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to officially “help shine a light on a dark chapter in the history of the Senate” by investigating the roles that three U.S. senators played in exploiting a situation explained in his piece.

In the 1950s then-Sen. Lester Hunt,D-Wyo., committed suicide after his son’s arrest for soliciting gay sex was publicized by the trio.

The panel members also discussed successful efforts throughout the government today to encourage lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans to serve in various roles. This was recently highlighted by the nomination by President Obama of Eric K. Fanning to be U.S. Secretary of the Army. If confirmed, he would be the first openly gay secretary of a military branch.