A Special Agent: Gay and Inside the FBI - Hardcover

Buttino, Frank; Buttino, Lou

3.43

21 ratings by Goodreads

9780688119584: A Special Agent: Gay and Inside the FBI

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688119581 ISBN 13: 9780688119584

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1993

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A former FBI agent describes how, once his homosexuality was revealed, he fought to regain the job he loved, taking his fight to the American public and to court. 65,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

A jumbled account of how Frank Buttino, a 20-year FBI special agent, is fired--and fights back--when the Bureau receives an anonymous letter accusing him of being gay. The letter includes a collection of billets-doux from someone answering personals in gay magazine: These appear to be in Buttino's handwriting. So begins a Golgotha-like road of four years of harassment of Buttino by the Bureau--including the revocation of his security clearance, followed by his discharge- -and of Buttino's maverick decision to be the first to fight the FBI's unwritten policy against gays. What follows here, though, is a sinking dirigible comprised of an enormous cast of characters, some of whom appear briefly only to vanish, or to turn up 200 pages later. And throughout this ever-shifting cast winds a labyrinthine coil--spun by the author with the help of his brother, Lou (For the Love of Teddi, 1991)--of minute legal maneuvering. More awkward still are Buttino's Norman Rockwell- styled pictures of gay life, perhaps intended to show that gays are really no different from straights. But despite the poor presentation, the enduring reader will find here a man of courage and unusually principled character, one whose sanity makes the FBI look like the Mad Hatter's tea party: While Buttino was in a command post in San Diego, for instance, directing 200 agents in an investigation of an Iranian-inspired bombing, the Bureau was putting him through polygraphs and interviews daily for three months, designed to revoke his top-secret clearance--treatment that brought Buttino to thoughts of suicide. Frustratingly, the story ends with the author's suit against the FBI still unresolved. An important story--but a lackluster treatment that will engage only the most resolute of readers. (Photographs--not seen) -- Copyright �1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

Frank Buttino was a 20-year veteran of the FBI with an exemplary record of service who led two secret lives. As an agent, he was commended by FBI directors on numerous occasions for his undercover and investigative work on drug trafficking, organized crime, and espionage cases. But in 1988, his second secret life as a gay man was shattered by a shadowy figure known only as W.J., who "outed" Buttino by sending copies of personal letters to the FBI. The author reveals in detail the arduous and excruciating inquiry by the FBI into his private life, objectively exposing the antigay practices of the bureau. Subsequent to his dismissal, Buttino filed a lawsuit to regain his special agent position, and it nears trial. This is a powerful, moving account of one gay man's struggle for acceptance in the federal government. Recommended for all collections.
- Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Lib., Ind.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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