Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 23:27:00 EDT From: Song Weaver Subject: (SF Chronicle) "Gay Rights in the Federal Workplace" a Front-page report from today's (2/10/94) San Francisco Chronicle, reproduced without permission... ------------------------------------------------ GAY RIGHTS IN THE FEDERAL WORKPLACE Defeating Discrimination Step by Step By David Tuller Chronicle Staff Writer Stung by widespread criticism from gays and lesbians over the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military, the Clinton administration has been taking quiet steps to reduce sexual orientation discrimination in other parts of the federal government. The changes, which represent a marked departure from the policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations, mean that gay and lesbian federal employees now have formal procedures for challenging what they perceive to be unfair treatment. However, some gay leaders have objected to the step-by-step approach, which focuses on revisions of each federal department's non-discrimination guidelines. They say the President, by apparently deciding not to sign a high-profile executive order on the issue, has missed an opportunity to send a strong message to the public and private employers that such discrimination is unacceptable. An executive order would undoubtedly draw strong criticism from many members of Congress, conservative political commentators and others. Instead, the administration has taken incremental steps that have attracted little public attention so far: - Many executive branches -- including the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Justice and the Interior -- have in the past year revised their policies on non-discrimination in employment and hiring to include sexual orientation. Several independent agencies and the White House have done the same. - The Departments of Justice, State and Defense have agreed not to subject gay and lesbian civilians to special scrutiny when trying to determine their eligibility for security clearances. At Justice, the issue came up last fall when the government settled the case of Frank Buttino, a former FBI agent in San Francisco who was fired after his superiors learned that he was gay. - In a recent letter to gay Representative Barney Frank, D-Mass., the head of the Office of Personnel Management, which sets personnel policy for the government, stressed that gay and lesbian federal employees who feel they have been discriminated against can take advantage of the same internal remedies and grievance procedures available to all employees. Frank said Clinton has affirmed his belief in equal treatment by filling key posts with open gays and lesbians, such as former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg, now assistant secretary for fair housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But Frank, who has discussed the issue with Clinton officials for months, said the administration is eager to do more to prove that it vigorously opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation. "Since they were unsuccessful with the issue of gays in the military, they were looking for a way to show that, yes, it did make a difference that gay people voted for CLinton rather than Bush," said Frank, who on Friday released the letter from James King, director of the Office of Personnel Management. Much of the impetus for the changes came from the organizing efforts of a group called Federal Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Employees, which has affiliates at some agencies and in various regions of the country. Leonard Hirsch, the group's president and an international liaison with the Smithsonian Institution, said some gays are harassed by co-workers or refused promotions because of their sexual orientation. "Our announcements about meetings have gotten torn down and defaced," he said. Michael Crowe, an architectural historian with the National Park Service in San Francisco, said he received a disturbing call last year after his name appeared in an article about gay federal workers. "It was from someone who didn't identify himself, and I could tell from the questions he asked that he saw our group as some kind of conspiracy of gays and lesbians in government," he said. The issue of gays in the workplace first drew widespread attention during the McCarthy era in the 1950s. Virtually all politicians considered gays to be a security risk, and federal workers frequently lost their jobs if superiors learned of their homosexuality. A 1978 civil service reform barred discrimination based on characteristics not related to hob performance. In 1980, the Office of Personnel Management under President Carter explicitly interpreted the law as banning discrimination based on sexual orientation -- an interpretation generally ignored during the Reagan and Bush administrations. In his letter last month to Frank, King reaffirmed his agency's commitment to the 1980 interpretation. He also outlined a number of grievance and dispute-resolution options for gays and lesbians, depending on which department or agency they work for and whether they are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. So far, the administration's moves have not stimulated opposition from political foes, such as Senators Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Dan Coats, R-Ind., who strenuously fought Clinton's effort to drop the military ban on gays and lesbians. Spokesmen for both senators said they had not heard about the effort to expand non-discrimination protections to gay civilian employees and could not comment. Gay leaders, however, have expressed mixed feelings about the administration's moves. Frank defended the step-by-step strategy, noting that a Republican president could rescind an executive order and that the revision of internal employment procedures would be harder to undo. But others said any recent victories have been bittersweet, and they stressed that a strong policy statement from the president would have a much greater effect on the contentious debate over the status of gays and lesbians in American society. Torie Osborn, former executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, said she recognized "the political realities" that informed the president's decision. "I hate to say it, bit it appears to me, given where public opinion and Congress is, that a quiet effort beneath the radar screens is the pragmatic way to move forward," she said. "You could say this is simply a lack of moral courage on the president's part, and there's a slice of that," she said. "But the upside is that this incremental reform will really affect the lives of thousands of federal workers." Other gays, such as New York Newsday columnist Gabriel Rotello, have taken a more critical stand. Accusing the president of "sneaking gay rights in the side door and capitulating in advance to vastly overblown fears of backlash," Rotello argued that Clinton and Barney Frank are missing the "best chance to reverse the symbolic (and real) damage done by the military debacle."