Magistrate Orders Release of Thousands of Records on FBI’s Surveillance of Gays

Thousands of FBI records of more than 30 years of government surveillance and infiltration of homosexual groups--including many previously made public, but with parts censored--have been ordered released by a federal magistrate in Los Angeles.

In a decision issued Thursday, Presiding U.S. Magistrate Ralph J. Geffen said there was no “plausible law enforcement basis” for the FBI’s decades-long operation to monitor the activities of homosexual groups.

Undercover investigations by FBI agents using paid informers, Geffen said, were “based upon the anti-homosexual bias of the (late) FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and his belief that homosexuals, especially when organized or joining in groups, posed a threat . . . (to national security)”

The ruling came after a gay activist’s lengthy battle to find out how far the FBI went to watch gay and lesbian groups since 1950.

Lawsuits Expected

The activist, Dan Siminoski, a political scientist who was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, said he expects a number of personal-damage suits to be filed against the government for the surveillance operation.

Geffen’s order goes to U.S. District Judge William Keller for implementation. If either side objects within 10 days of Geffen’s decision, Keller can alter the order.

Considering that Geffen has reviewed the case for 18 months, ACLU attorney John Heilman said he expects no changes.

Neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor FBI officials in Los Angeles had any comment on Geffen’s ruling, or the possibility of appeal.

“I can’t comment at this time,” FBI spokesman Jim Neilson said.

In 1982, under the Freedom of Information Act, Siminoski began seeking FBI files compiled since 1950. The ACLU filed suit in U.S District Court in 1983. The FBI then turned over 5,800 pages of documents, but passages were blacked out and other files were withheld.

Siminoski, 41, said Saturday that he has “very strong suspicions” that FBI investigations of homosexuals still continue.

The FBI has vehemently denied such allegations.

“Absolutely not,” spokesman Charles Steinmetz said Saturday in Washington, adding that proscriptions on civilian surveillance are “set in stone.”

New Policy

“Currently the FBI would only investigate criminal violations of federal law or security threats to the United States,” he said.

Recalling his examination of thousands of pages of the previously released documents, Siminoski said, “There is nothing in the records to indicate that the investigations have been stopped.”

He also cited recent disclosure of FBI investigations of group’s opposing American policy in Central America as evidence.

Asked if he had any indication that he had ever been investigated by the FBI, Siminoski declined to answer. But later, while discussing the possibility of personal-damage suits, he said, “I could be such a person.”

Homosexual groups known to have been under surveillance in the past include One Inc., the first openly homosexual American magazine, which began publication in Los Angeles in 1953, and the Mattachine Society, a gay organization founded in Los Angeles in 1950.

Siminoski, who works as a family counselor in Los Angeles, said Saturday that he felt “fantastic” because of the ruling. “In the final analysis, it’s about civil liberties,” he said. “I don’t see it as a gay-rights case.”

The case, he said, was about the right to organize and the ruling validates principles “up and down the Bill of Rights.”

“I wanted it to be over six years ago,” Siminoski said of the case. “It should not have required litigation.”