Pressured and purged: LGBTQ intel officers are waiting in the wings

On Friday night, I attended my very first CIA resignation party.

The soiree was held at a gay karaoke bar in Virginia, just about a mile from the Pentagon. “Come join the Deep State plot against the regime,” the invitation read in jest.

It was a celebration for Julia Curlee, a former intelligence officer who I previously interviewed for her China expertise. Last week, she published an article in The Atlantic about briefing Trump administration officials at the White House, only to be fired when Laura Loomer tweeted about a “transgender, Biden holdover.”

“Trump officials had known I was trans from day one,” Julia had written. “This hadn’t been an issue until it was public—­and then nothing else I’d done mattered.” Her essay received a lot of media attention, and even Vice President Mike Pence weighed in.

At the party, full of streamers and mannequins and disco balls, I greeted Julia who was surrounded by supporters and friends.

I saw the CIA’s former Southeast Asia Department chief, Meredith Cavan. We had just taped a SpyCast episode in which she described building CIA bases to counter China, conducting intelligence diplomacy, and singing karaoke with spy chiefs to build relationships. It was only fitting that we share the stage, so we performed a terrible duet, as photographed below.

But as I stood there, speaking with people, I felt an undeniable sense that more is to come on the conversation around LGBTQ officers in the intelligence community.

More than a sadness at being silenced or purged… an anger at being reduced to “DEI,” at not being able to keeping using their invaluable expertise to serve a country they had sworn to protect. A country they still believe in. A patient but razor-like resoluteness. For justice and the job.

The Trump administration may have silenced the issue for now, but the clock is ticking. The details are in the video, not the article.

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