Reno Orders FBI to Discard Anti-Homosexual Hiring Policy

WASHINGTON — Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has ordered the FBI to discard a policy making it difficult for homosexuals to be hired, and the bureau now will forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Until 1979, the FBI had banned homosexuals. Since that time its policy was that homosexual behavior made it “significantly more difficult to be hired.”

Reno issued a statement Thursday prohibiting all kinds of discrimination throughout the Justice Department.

While that order was a restatement of existing policy for most of the department, the language forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation produced a major change for the FBI, spokesman Carl Stern said.

The bureau issued its own statement Friday:

“The FBI, like the attorney general, is committed to ensuring that applicants and employees are judged on the merits of their qualifications,” the statement said.

Reno’s statement came as a federal class action case brought by former FBI agent Frank Buttino, 48, began in San Francisco.

Buttino is a decorated 20-year FBI veteran who was fired in 1990. His supervisors in San Diego received an anonymous note in 1988 saying that he was gay. Buttino denied it at first, explaining later that he knew he would be fired if he told the truth. After he acknowledged his homosexuality several weeks later, he lost his security clearance and then his job.

The FBI says Buttino was fired because he lied, and not because he is homosexual. It was not clear whether the new policy would affect that case.