LGBT Workers At The Justice Department Said They're Quitting Amid "Declining Morale, Discrimination"

[left-of-center2012]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dominicholden/lgbt-justice-department-discrimination-barr-letter

The Justice Department has grown increasingly hostile toward its own LGBT workers, causing top talent to quit as they experience discrimination and “declining morale,” according to a group of LGBT employees who confronted Attorney General Bill Barr in a letter this week.

The group DOJ Pride (Founded in 1994, DOJ Pride represents LGBT employees across the federal government’s largest law enforcement agency, which includes the FBI, DEA, Bureau of Prisons, US Attorney’s Offices, and other subdivisions) cites its internal survey of LGBT workers who find it “demoralizing” that officials have failed to issue a statement guaranteeing protection from harassment at the Justice Department.

Other workers cited in the letter said the FBI academy discriminates against gays and Latinos and evaluates them more harshly, and that “many gay agents attending the FBI academy are dismissed because they are not masculine enough.”

The Justice Department filed a brief in federal appeals courts in 2017 and 2018 arguing that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation — contradicting numerous federal court rulings in recent years. During Barr’s confirmation hearing, he said anti-gay discrimination should be illegal under the law, but he said current law does, in fact, allow anti-LGBT discrimination against workers.