Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993 TAG: 9306120101
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Short
Frank Buttino said the practice was revealed in documents he obtained from the FBI for the discrimination lawsuit he filed on behalf of all gay FBI employees and job applicants.
The class-action lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial here in September.
Buttino, a 20-year veteran then stationed in San Diego, was fired in 1990 after disclosing his sexual orientation in response to an anonymous note that was sent to his supervisors.
The anonymous note in 1988 included a letter that Buttino had sent in response to a personal ad in a gay newspaper. Buttino at first denied writing the letter, but acknowledged it several months later.
The Justice Department said he was fired because of his lie to investigators and because he made himself vulnerable to coercion.
Buttino says those explanations were a pretext for an anti-gay bias.
In his newly published book "A Special Agent: Gay and Inside the FBI," he said FBI documents showed an abusive policy by the bureau's internal-affairs unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility, toward employees suspected of being gay.
The unit would call these employees to headquarters and demand the full details of their homosexual conduct under threat of being fired for noncooperation, Buttino wrote. He said it also would tell employees that their relatives, friends, neighbors and co-workers would soon be interviewed about homosexual conduct.
by CNB