An update on last week's lo-o-ong article about the coercion
of a gay employee by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
into providing management with a list of suspected gay/lesbian
employees.  It's in today's (5/19/92) New York Times:

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency said today [5/18] that
it had destroyed a list of gay employees supplied by a
homosexual at the agency who has said he was pressured by
security officers.

The director of the agency, Wallace E. Stickney, also announced
that he would convene an outside board of review to examine the
agency's Office of Security after indications that it "may be
operating under outmoded procedures."

Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on
Administrative Law and Governmental Relations, said that in
light of the agency's action he would postpone a hearing
scheduled for Thursday to examine the matter.

Mr. Frank, one of two acknowledged homosexuals in Congress, had
demanded that agency officials explain their actions involving
the gay employee, Jerald. E. Johnson, who said he was asked to
submit the list of known and suspected homosexuals as a
condition for receiving permission to participate in an
overseas project.

"FEMA has taken some steps to correct the problem, and I am
postponing, not canceling, the hearing to see what they do,"
Mr. Frank said in an interview.  "The potential of a hearing
seems to have had some influence on them."

Mr. Johnson, a 32-year-old management analyst who acknowledges
he is gay, said he was somewhat disappointed about not being
able to testify before Congress and felt that FEMA's management
officials were "getting off pretty light" by not having to
explain their actions in public.

"I was hoping to have my day in court, so to speak," Mr. Johnson
said in an interview, "and now they are saying this is the best
way to go, sort of settling out of court.  But if Barney Frank
is satisfied, I have to understand that and go along."

In a letter sent to Mr. Frank today, who made it public, Mr.
Stickney said that the idea of a list of gay and lesbian FEMA
employees "either solicited or unsolicited by this agency is as
abhorrent to me as it is to you."

Mr. Stickney, who last week defended his security office's
actions and said the agency had acted lawfully, said in his
letter today that the document did not belong in the official
files of FEMA.  He said he wanted to destroy the list, but
sought Mr. Frank's permission before doing so because the list
could have been an exhibit at a hearing.

Mr. Frank, who had previously called for destroying the list,
sent a letter back to Mr. Stickney encouraging the agency to
destroy it and any copies of it as soon as possible.

Anthony Venti, a spokesman for FEMA, said the list was removed
from a safe and shredded this afternoon in the presence of
Mr. Stickney and other officials.

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rod williams -=- pacific bell -=- san francisco -=- rjwill6@pacbell.com