CIA Recruiting Gay Spies at Miami’s South Beach
BY MATTHEW JENKIN
The day we see a gay James Bond or Jason Bourne may not be as far off as we thought after the CIA announced it is actively recruiting LGBT spies in Miami, Florida.
America's secret service has teamed up with theMiami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to sponsor a networking event at theLGBT Visitor Center in South Beach tonight (28 November).
The agency will use the evening to promote careers in the CIA and 'debunk myths' about the clandestine organization which in 1989 was found to deny security clearances to gay people.
Michael Barber, the CIA’s LGBT Community Outreach and Liaison program manager told the Miami Herald that the event is the first of its kind.
Technical Information Officer Tracey Ballard, who will also speak tonight, said: 'There was a history of discrimination against LGBT persons in the federal government.
'The process was extremely difficult for LGBT people to get security clearance prior to 1995.'
The rules on gay employees were relaxed after President Bill Clinton signed an anti-discrimination order banning the government to refuse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff access to classified information.
Ballard adds that the new rule meant LGBT employees felt more comfortable to come out at work.
She said: 'It allowed conversations among our peers. True conversations. We didn't’ have to hide anymore. That's a cultural shift, to allow our peers to be seen as equal, based upon the work they do.’
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