www.gay-sd.com MOMENTS IN TIME


Lambda Archives of San Diego


—with— Overt action By Pat Sherman | GSD Editor Frank Buttino was fighting


tooth and nail to hold on to his job as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he was fired on June 20, 1990. The longtime San Diego resi-


dent—appointed to the position in 1969 by the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover—had received numerous accolades from FBI directors for his performance on organized crime, espionage and drug trafficking cases. However, following an anony-


mous tip in 1988, Buttino, who then lived as a closeted gay man, was outed to his parents and, eventually, the FBI. Thus began a five-year ordeal


in which the upstate New York native would work his way out of the closet, pen a memoir, appear on national television and file a groundbreaking lawsuit that would force the FBI to alter its policies, prohibiting workplace


HISTORY


June 20, 1990 On the radio:


Wilson Philips’ “Hold On”; MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This”


In the Oval Office: George H. W. Bush Flying objects:


Computer printouts rained from buildings (in lieu of ticker tape) as anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela ar- rived in New York City after a 27-year imprisonment; Asteroid Eureka is discov- ered at Palomar Observatory


voked my top secret clearance so it was just a matter of time before I’d get fired,” he said. The bureau claimed Buttino


was dismissed for giving decep- tive answers when first asked if he was homosexual, not for actually being gay. Buttino said that in order to keep his job he had no choice but to deny his sexual orientation. He uncovered FBI documents that he said proved the FBI routinely blackmailed agents suspected of being gay. President Clinton, despite his early prom- ise to promote LGBT equality, defended Buttino’s termination. Buttino began working with


discrimination based on sexual orientation. Buttino, who today serves as


business and community liaison for San Diego Job Corps, said he was suspended from the job eight months before he was fired. “In February of 1990 they re-


San Francisco attorney Richard Gayer on a class action lawsuit that included a lesbian who said she was rejected during the recruitment process for being gay. Buttino brought his case to the American public, appearing on “Larry King Live,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “60 Minutes.” “In all the interviews I wanted [people] to see an FBI agent who


July 30-August 12, 2010 GAY SAN DIEGO


3


tice (DOJ) Pride was founded to address issues affecting LGBT employees within the DOJ’s departments and divisions, includ- ing the FBI. The organization has since honored Buttino. Buttino recently spoke to


agents at the local FBI office off Aero Drive about his lawsuit and the bureau’s historic discrimina- tion against gays, blacks, Latinos and female agents, whom the bu- reau once referred to as “skirts” and “breast-feds.” In his book, “A Special Agent:


Frank Buttino (Courtesy Frank Buttino)


happened to be gay,” he said. “I always portrayed myself in a suit and tie. It was really about chang- ing people’s perceptions about gay people, what they look like and how they act.” On Dec. 2, 1993, in a statement


issued by then Attorney General Janet Reno, the Department of Justice announced that it was adding sexual orientation to its list of unacceptable employment discrimination. The statement was issued at the request of openly gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who himself came out in 1987. Though Buttino never got


his job back, a settlement for an undisclosed sum was used to reinstate his pension, plus cover- back pay and partial legal fees. “It was a partial victory,”


Buttino said. “I wanted to go back to work. That was the purpose of my lawsuit, but as time went on it was really about changing the policy.” In 1994, Department of Jus-


Gay and Inside the FBI,” Buttino writes of his meeting with the terminally conflicted J. Edgar Hoover, whom many suspect was a closeted homosexual, months before Hoover’s death in May of 1972. Buttino recounted how Hoover


grasped his hand and held his gaze a few beats longer than was comfortable or appropriate. “To me there was no doubt that


he was a closeted gay,” said Buttino, who believes Hoover was largely responsible for the culture within the bureau that led to his firing. “A lot of times people that


are closeted and gay become the most vociferous against gay people,” he said. Though times have changed


for DOJ employees, Hoover’s duplicitous ghost was awakened in 2007, when an “outstanding” career attorney, Leslie Hagen, was fired from her job with the Justice Department by Chris- tian fundamentalist Monica Gooding, allegedly because of rumors that she was a lesbian. The Obama administration


gave Hagen her job back in early 2009.☭


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