Being a queer man living in the US these days, it takes so much determination not to be completely paranoid. After all, every day the media seems full of homophobic and transphobic incidents that we felt we had dealt with and overcome back in our community’s past. There are several times we are tempted to pinch ourselves to discover if this is just a nightmare created by our vivid imaginations. But no, we are awake, and this sadly is our new reality.
In an interview with The Advocate, 36-year-old David Maltinsky, who is suing the federal government over his unlawful termination, described a workforce suddenly afraid to be visibly LGBTQ+. “People immediately started scouring their desks of Pride flags, anything personal in nature, even.. People were having meetings for weeks following [discussing how] this threat of dismissal can now come from inside your workplace. His legal suit is alleging Patel and Attorney General Pamela Bondi fired him unconstitutionally and retroactively, punishing him for displaying a Progress Pride flag at his Los Angeles workstation years earlier, a flag the FBI itself once flew and later gave him to keep.
Its worth comparing Maltinsky’s service record with that of Patel. Maltinsky entered the FBI as an intern at 18 and was hired full-time at 19. He came out at 21, already working at the bureau. Over 16 years, he supported high-profile corruption investigations, worked cyber cases, served as a staff operations specialist, and led the Bureau Equality Committee, advising leadership on LGBTQ+ issues. In 2019, he became chair of the FBI’s LGBTQ+ advisory group and earned the Director’s Award for Outstanding Service in Diversity and Inclusion. Two years later, when the FBI and the General Services Administration authorized Pride flags on federal buildings, the Los Angeles Field Office used Maltinsky’s own Progress Pride flag, the one he personally owned, because the building didn’t have one on hand. That flag became the first Pride flag flown over the Wilshire Federal Building.
Patel on on the other hand was the primary author of the Nunes memo, alleging that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials abused their authority in the FBI investigation into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials. So he was rewarded with the FBI Job when the Orange Man was elected, now he can often been seen looking uncormfortable and surly in the background when Pam Bondi is getting tongue tied when lying to the Pres,
