This Makes Perfect Sense

Because everyone knows that gays are gossipy ninnies who will spill security secrets to a different trick every night of the week.

The Bush administration last year quietly rewrote the rules for allowing gays and lesbians to receive national-security clearances, drawing complaints from civil rights activists.

The Bush administration said security clearances cannot be denied "solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual." But it removed language saying sexual orientation "may not be used as a basis for or a disqualifying factor in determining a person's eligibility for a security clearance."

The White House sought to play down the changes, approved by President Bush in December, as an effort to ensure the security clearance rules are consistent with a 1995 executive order about access to classified information.

"The minor language change did not and was not intended to alter the way sexual orientation is treated," National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said Tuesday. "The U.S. government policy has not changed in any way."

If that’s true, then the US government has been taking sexual orientation into consideration as a factor when reviewing someone’s eligibility for security clearance, even though they weren’t supposed to be. Old language: Sexual orientation may not be used as a basis or a disqualifying factor. New language: Sexual orientation may not be used as the sole factor. I call bullshit.

Lesbian and gay advocacy groups recently found the change in an 18-page document distributed by National security adviser Stephen Hadley on Dec. 29, without public notice…

"It looks as if lesbian and gay service members especially may face some additional roadblocks to obtaining their security clearances," said [Steve Ralls, spokesman for the Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network], whose group advocates on behalf of gays and lesbians in the military.

He said his organization has been getting calls from service members who don't understand the changes. "In the law, subtlety can have even unintended, major consequences. We are very concerned — and curious," he said.

So, just for the record:

Highly-trained, qualified, and gay—May be denied security clearance.

Possessing critical translation skills and gay—Fired.

Administration shill and gay prostitute—Access to press corps and classified info.

Got it.