Post Office to End “Observation Stations” in Men’s Restrooms
The U.S. Post Office announced on this day that it would dismantle over 5,000 “observation stations” in men’s restrooms in post offices across the country.
Postmaster General John A. Gronouski called the practice “An unfortunate invasion of privacy,” but he did not think the Post Office “violated anyone’s rights.” The “observation stations” were small rooms with one-way glass, from which postal inspectors could secretly observe restroom patrons. The Post Office claimed they were created because of thefts of government property by postal employees, but most people believe they were created to observe homosexual activity.
No observation stations were installed in women’s restrooms, it was explained, “because of the low percentage of women employees” in the Post Office and “other reasons.”
The snooping in men’s rooms was a legacy of the homophobic panic that swept the country, and Washington in particular, in the 1950s, and is known as the “lavender scare.” For some of the events of the “lavender scare,” see March 29, 1950, May 19, 1950, November 27, 1950, and March 25, 1952. In a major change in public policy, President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 27, 1953 revised President Truman’s Federal Loyalty Program to include immoral conduct, which in practice meant homosexuality, as grounds for dismissal from federal employment.
The other forms of Post Office spying on Americans involved the “mail cover” programs by the FBI and the CIA, which involved secret cooperation of the Post Office. See the expansion of the CIA mail cover program on September 23, 1953. And in an incident of high comedy, the FBI in the midst of its own secret and illegal mail cover program on January 22, 1958 stumbled upon the equally secret and illegal CIA program.
Learn more about the “Lavender Scare”: David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (2004)
See the documentary: The Lavender Scare (2012): http://www.thelavenderscare.com/
Watch Boys Beware, classic homophobic warning film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2zikCUPPxw
Learn more: Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (1999)
Learn more: Craig Loftin, Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America (2012)