000			01547pab a2200157 454500
008			180718b1997 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aLewis, Gregory B.
245			_aLifting the ban on gays in the civil service: federal policy toward gay and lesbian employees since the cold war
260			_c1997
300			_ap.387-95
362			_aSep-Oct
520			_aDuring the Cold War, Congress and the president strengthened prohibitions on federal employment of gay men and lesbians, whom they deemed to be risks to national security. The Civil Service Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation developed bureaucratic procedures to prevent the hiring of homosexual applicants and to fire homosexual civil servants. The ban was not fully lifted until the early 1970s as a result of court rulings that, to justify dismissal, the bureaucracy needed to demonstrate a rational nexus between an employee's homosexual conduct and "the efficiency of the service." Since 1980, the Office of Personnel Management has prohibited discrimination in the personnel process on the basis of sexual orientation. Several federal agencies now explicitly prohibit discrimination against gay and lesbian employees, but legal protections for them remain weak. This article traces the history of federal policy toward gay and lesbian employees since World War II, examining the impact of electoral politics, the bureaucracy, the courts, and the gay movement. - Reproduced
650			_aCivil service
773			_aPublic Administration Review
909			_a35971
999			_c35971 _d35971