FBI LGBTQ+ surveillance parallels to anti-trans legislation

Note: This piece was originally published in our annual print magazine which was published March 31, 2024.

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Time continues to move forward, but often, history finds ways of repeating itself. A great example of this is the approximate 90 years₁ of FBI surveillance the LGBTQ+ community endured and how that parallels modern-day politicians advocating for anti-trans legislation. 

Many think that the surveillance of LGBTQ+ people began with former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who was known to have had a bias against gay people. However, in reality, the surveillance started before WWI₂, and records show that even in the 1920s₂, this scrutiny was occurring. 

University of California, Irvine Librarian Daniel Tsang collected hundreds of documents detailing FBI surveillance of the LGBTQ+ community. In 1990, he discussed his findings in a feature with the University of California Irvine newspaper, New University₂. 

"In the early 1900's Franklin Roosevelt was assistant secretary of the Navy and he ordered Navy Personnel to go into the streets outside Newport, R.I., to have sex with other guys who were Navy personnel and then turn them in," Tsang said. 

Historian Athan Theoharis₃, explained in the early 1990s that the FBI, under the leadership of Hoover, began a sexual deviance program in 1951. This program spied on LGBTQ+ people through many avenues, including sending fake letters, wiretapping, opening people's mail, spearheading smear campaigns, spying on gay rights groups on college campuses, and much more₂. 

"The information often was used to discredit individuals and organizations and to pressure gay public employees to resign," Theoharis said.  

Amidst this campaign, Hoover made his bias known. For example₄, an investigation into the gay group, the Mattachine Society, was closed in 1953 due to no security threat. However, top FBI officials disagreed. On the memo, Hoover's chief aid, Clyde Tolson, wrote, "I think we should take this crowd and make them 'put up or shut up.'" Next to this is another note, "I concur." Signed 'H' for 'Hoover.' 

Graphic by: Sienna Parmelee

Political scientist Dan Siminoski told the Los Angeles Times in 1984₄, "I think Hoover made a personal campaign against gays."

This observation was based on thousands of pages of FBI documents that were released via FOIA and is a stunning parallel to modern politicians who have made a personal campaign against trans people. In fact, multiple Republican legislators from Michigan and Ohio were recorded in an online forum talking about banning trans healthcare for all, regardless of age. 

"In terms of endgame, why are we allowing these practices for anyone?" Josh Schriver of Michigan said. "Why would we stop this for anyone under 18, but not apply this for anyone over 18?₅"

As Theoharis said, "The FBI was not a law enforcement agency…it was a moral purification agency.₃" 

This is yet another troubling similarity to many of today's Republicans who use their jobs to push their moral and religious beliefs. In Ohio, lawmakers and religious lobbyists coordinated on anti-trans legislation. As an article in the Scientific American explained, "​​This morality policing signals a new form of governance over gender identity in the US. However, the underlying issue is not gender, but rather a "war on youth" that is using trans issues as a vehicle to impose control over children, teens and all young people." 

While the FBI may not be illegally surveilling individuals and groups like in the past, legislation has been weaponized against trans people. The ACLU is currently tracking 515 anti-LGBTQ bills so far during the 2024 legislative session. Many of these bills target trans people and gender-nonconforming individuals. 

Of the era of LGBTQ+ surveillance, Tsang said₂, "Social change movements were considered radical attempts to overthrow the government. So gay movements were also looked at the same way."

Because of this, lesbian feminists, in particular, came under extreme scrutiny by the FBI in the 1970s. During this time, the FBI began to question members of feminists and lesbian communities in Hartford, Torrington, and New Britain, CT. The FBI said the questioning was to get tips about the whereabouts of Susan Saxe and Katharine Powers, who were on the FBI's most wanted lists since 1970 for allegedly participating in a bank holdup in Boston where a police officer was killed. However, many at the time thought it was an excuse to surveil the women's movement and lesbian groups₆. 

According to Majority Report, Civics Supplement₅, "There now appears to be a pattern developing of the use by the government of the FBI and the grand jury system to intimidate, threaten and divide the multi-faceted women's movement under the guise of searching for political fugitives." 

Records from 1969 to 1973 show that the FBI often had intelligence on multiple events per day in cities nationwide. Most of the notes are unremarkable, but what is most shocking is the sheer number of events, meetings, and more that were being watched. 

Ms. magazine published a list₇ of 300 organizations, saying, "While FBI surveillance was not necessarily directed at all groups listed here, every group is mentioned in the WLM (women's liberation movements) files." Included among the list are Daughters of Bilitis, Gay Activist Alliance N.Y.C., Lavender Menace, and United Gay Liberation Front. 

Ms. also wrote of the FBI's extensive, thorough, and costly search, "Among the most incriminating 'facts' amassed against Movement women were reports that we were not all heterosexual, nor were we all ladylike and attractive." 

JSAC Grapevine₆ surmised that lesbians were a focal point of the FBI’s investigation because of their vulnerability to having their sexuality publicly exposed. 

According to Ms. magazine, "Change seemed to be what the FBI feared most." 

It appears that the big issue for the FBI was that lesbians and feminists together posed a change to the status quo, a change that the FBI disapproved of. This is reminiscent of today, and the way trans people becoming more visible is causing legislators to crack down on their existence as a perceived change to the status quo. 

The United States has seen a massive uptick in proposed anti-trans legislation—in 2021, 125 bills were proposed, 148 were proposed in 2022, and an unprecedented 503 were proposed in 2023. Just five months into 2024 there have been more anti-LGBTQ bills proposed than in all of 2023. One may think that trans people make up a vast amount of the population, but that isn't the case; in fact, only 0.5% of adults and 1.4% of youth in the United States identify as trans. This is a very small part of the population that simply wants access to healthcare and fundamental human rights but are constantly being targeted by politicians. 

Feminists didn't just suddenly come into existence in 1970; it was simply at that point when things came to a head—when these women were becoming powerful and growing in numbers that the FBI became concerned about their impact. Similarly, trans people have always existed; in fact, 5000 to 3000 BC is when one of the first ever trans people was recorded—an androgynous/trans priestess. Trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people have always existed long before the words to describe them were part of the vernacular. However, as trans people become more visible, as they become more powerful, legislators are more determined to attack trans people's existence. 

A quote from Daniel Tsang in 1990 is especially relevant today. He said, "Surveillance of gay people continues because sexual diversity is not accepted." In 2024, with some slight tweaks, this quote is evergreen, "Legislation of trans people continues because sexual and gender diversity is not accepted." 

While the FBI may not be in the midst of an almost century-long surveillance operation to monitor LGBTQ+ folks, the government has pivoted and now utilizes legislation to target, demonize, and endanger trans people. 

As the San Francisco Examiner₁ said decades ago, "Homosexuality is not subversion. From the vantage of 1984 it's hard to believe anyone ever thought otherwise." I imagine that a few years or even decades from now, the same could be said of trans people. So the question is, what side of history do you want to be on? 

Print Sources

1 - That stupid spying on gays. (1984, September 19). San Francisco Examiner. 

2 - Niesel, J. (1990, October 29). UCI librarian receives grant to study government’s harassment of gays . New University . 

3 - Niesel, J. (1990, October 29). UCI librarian receives grant to study government’s harassment of gays . New University . 

4 - McMillan, P. (1984, September 25). Files trace 100-year history of U.S. gays. Los Angeles Times. 

5 - Know your government...it probably knows you. A feminist’s guide to obtaining files under the freedom of information act. (n.d.). Majority Report Civics Supplement. 

6 - The fbi, the grand jury, and the women’s movement. (1975, April). JSAC Grapevine.

7- Braudy, S., Thom, M., & Cottin Pogrebin, L. (n.d.). FBI files exposed. Ms.