Top U.S. Spy: ‘Use Whatever Bathroom You Want’

For the record, America’s top spy really doesn’t care what restroom his spooks use.

“I’ll say without equivocation … in [intelligence community] facilities … you can use whatever restroom you feel comfortable and safe in,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday in remarks at the Intelligence Community Pride Summit. He called the policy a “chance to lead by example.”

Clapper’s remarks come amid an acrimonious debate over transgender people’s access to restrooms. In March, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law requiring individuals to use bathrooms in schools and public buildings that match the gender that they were assigned at birth.

The law has been widely condemned as discriminatory against transgender individuals. On Wednesday, Clapper skirted that broader debate.

“I won’t dwell on the issue of transgender rights,” he said. “I know our nation is currently engaged in a complex conversation.”

Intelligence community leaders have described their welcoming attitude toward LGBTQ individuals as a recruiting priority since 9/11. In a 2014 speech, Clapper said making the gay community feel welcome in the ranks of intelligence officials is “not just about what’s right. It’s about good business in our profession.”

During the Cold War, homosexuality and what the government described as “sexual perversion” was an all but unmentionable within the intelligence community. Agents whose sexual orientation did not fall within the narrow bounds of heterosexuality were considered risks for blackmail by foreign intelligence services.

Agents were frequently dismissed on account of their sexual orientation. Witch hunts within the intelligence community drove many to suicide, as the Daily Beast’s Shane Harris has written.

Increased openness toward homosexuality within the intelligence community has helped dispel the power that blackmail over sexual orientation might have once had over U.S. spies. For intelligence officials who no longer fear being outed or otherwise suffering career setbacks due to their sexual orientation, such blackmail has little payoff.

In recent years, the U.S. intelligence community has tried to overcome a discriminatory policy that dates back to the 1950s, during the Eisenhower administration. And in 1995, then-President Bill Clinton signed an executive order mandating that security clearances couldn’t be denied or revoked on the basis of an employee’s sexual orientation.

That order was separate, however, from the infamous 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prohibited military officials from directly asking personnel about their sexual orientation — although troops still could be fired for engaging in gay acts or marriage. The law was repealed in 2010.

“When I spoke at this summit two years ago, I mentioned that I was serving in the Air Force when ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was enacted,” Clapper said Wednesday. “I am thankful that — as a nation — we have put that policy behind us.”

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