Jun 11, 2004  |  By: JOE CREA  | COMMENTS     

Several gay groups within federal agencies are planning Pride-related events during the next few weeks despite a White House refusal to issue a proclamation recognizing June as Gay Pride Month.

Even though some groups are planning activities, some agency officials find themselves in an awkward position because they are not permitted to provide official support or statements promoting Pride events without the approval of the Bush administration.

Leonard Hirsch, president of Federal GLOBE — the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Federal Employee’s organization — said events are scheduled at the departments of Transportation, State, Interior and the USDA, while other agencies have said they will not sanction Pride events without White House approval.

“We have continued to be boxed in a Catch-22 because agencies are saying that they can’t provide support or statements unless the White House puts forth a proclamation,” Hirsch said. “And of course the White House has not.”

One of those agencies is the Department of Justice, which came under fire last year by gay rights advocates after officials announced they would not sponsor a Pride gathering.

The decision meant that employees associated with DOJ Pride, a group of gay and gay-supportive Justice employees, would have to pay for event expenses themselves. Attorney General John Ashcroft, a longtime social conservative, initially refused the group’s request to hold any Pride events at all.

Allison Nichol, president of DOJ Pride, said she is “not at all confident” that her request for the department to sponsor a Pride event would be approved.

A public information officer for the Department of Justice did not return Blade calls seeking comment.

Nichol said that last year, the FBI scheduled a Pride event but Ashcroft canceled it.

“Given what’s happened in the last two years, one can hope that the attorney general recognizes that it is his job to represent the equal rights of all citizens,” Hirsch said. “I was sanguine that they would make a different determination this year, and I look forward to being surprised.”

Last year, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who strongly criticized Ashcroft and the Department of Justice’s initial decision not to allow its employees to celebrate Gay Pride Month, scheduled an alternative celebration for DOJ Pride members and other gay federal employees at the Capitol.

Nichol said she was in discussion with officials to provide an alternative setting for DOJ Pride festivities and hinted that her group is considering legal action against the Justice Department.

Prior to 2003, the department paid for overhead expenses, including use of the Great Hall, set-up and breakdown of microphones and added security costs because the event is held after hours.

Leif Erikson Day?
Last year, President Bush issued a series of proclamations honoring, for example, National African-American History Month, Save Your Vision Week and Leif Erikson Day, which honors the memory of the 11th century explorer. He has yet to issue a proclamation declaring June Gay Pride Month, breaking with a precedent set in the 1990s by President Clinton.

The White House did not return Blade calls seeking comment.

David K. Johnson, the author of, “The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays & Lesbians in the Federal Government,” a book that chronicles the purging of gay and lesbian civil servants from the 1940s through the 1970s, was scheduled to speak on June 10 at the State Department’s Pride event.

Tom Coleman an economic officer at the State Department and president of the Gays & Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies, the department’s official gay group, said GLIFAA has a variety of events planned, adding that the State Department’s Office of Civil Rights is “not putting their name on it.”

“They normally don’t give much in the way of financial help and assistance even though we asked for very little,” Coleman said. “However, we feel the office should sponsor something like this.”

Joe Crea can be reached at jcrea@washblade.com.