Richard Lamar Schlegel | |
|---|---|
 Schlegel in 1949 college yearbook photo | |
| Born | (1927-02-11)February 11, 1927 |
| Died | February 25, 2006(2006-02-25) (aged 79) |
| Education | Pennsylvania State University (BA),American University (MPA) |
| Occupation | Civil servant |
| Employer | United States federal civil service |
| Known for | LGBT rights activism |
Richard Lamar Schlegel (February 11, 1927 – February 25, 2006) was an AmericanLGBT rights activist and civil servant fromPennsylvania. Fired from federal and state government jobs on account of his sexual orientation, he filed a wrongful termination suit that reached theUnited States Supreme Court in 1970.Schlegel v. United States is considered an early landmark case in the Americangay rights movement.
Schlegel was born inBerrysburg,Dauphin County,Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1927. He was the only child of Roy Fredrick Schlegel, a construction worker, and Margaret Annetta (Deibler) Schlegel, a schoolteacher and homemaker, both ofPennsylvania German descent.[1][2]
Schlegel graduated from Milroy High School inMifflin County, Pennsylvania, and attendedPennsylvania State University from 1943 to 1945. He dropped out after being outed by a fraternity brother and was promptly drafted into theUnited States Army Air Forces, where he served two years on bases in Texas and Florida, performing office duties for the Office of the Judge Advocate General. He returned to Penn State under theG.I. Bill in 1947 and graduated in February 1949 with a bachelor's degree.[1] Later that year, Schlegel enrolled atAmerican University inWashington, D.C., receiving a master's degree in political science and public administration. While attending graduate school, he interned at the federalCivil Aeronautics Administration and accepted a full-time civil service job at the CAA in 1952.[1]
After three years at the CAA, Schlegel worked for theFederal Civil Defense Administration atBattle Creek,Michigan, from 1955 to 1958. He then became a civilian employee of theDepartment of the Army based inHonolulu,Hawaii, where he worked in the transportation office atFort Shafter. When he sought top-secret security clearance in 1960, military investigators uncovered three male soldiers who confessed to having sexual relations with Schlegel. He was charged with "immoral and indecent conduct" under civil service regulations and was fired on July 31, 1961.[1][2]
After his dismissal, Schlegel lived inSchoolcraft, Michigan, and Washington, D.C., for two years before moving toHarrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he was finance director of thePennsylvania Department of Highways from 1963 to 1965. He resigned involuntarily when the state police opened an investigation into his sexuality. From 1966 to mid-1967, he worked for a Philadelphia-based accounting firm named Laventhol, Krekstein, and Griffith, CPAs. He later worked at Paul Brooker Sales International from 1972 to 1979. In retirement, he became a financial investor and millionaire.[1][2]
Fired from his federal job in July 1961, Schlegel exhausted federal administrative appeals before filing a wrongful termination suit in 1963 in theUnited States Court of Federal Claims. He declared that the charge of "immoral and indecent conduct" was unconstitutionally vague and that the civil service's efficiency was not impacted by his private life. He sought reinstatement and back pay. Six years later, the seven-judge panel ruled unanimously against him, declaring that "any schoolboy knows that a homosexual act is immoral, indecent, lewd, and obscene" and that homosexual conduct undermined the efficient workings of government. On February 28, 1970,ACLU lawyersNorman Dorsen andMelvin Wulf petitioned the United States Supreme Court to hear Schleger's case, casting it as a landmark case for civil liberties. On April 20, 1970, the Supreme Court unanimously refused to hear Schlegel's case. Although Schlegel failed to regain his job,Schlegel v. United States is considered an early landmark case in the Americangay rights movement.[2][3]
During the 1960s, Schlegel became an active member of theJanus Society, an early homophile association based inPhiladelphia, and founded a Janus Society chapter in Harrisburg. Barred from government jobs, he became active in gay magazine publishing, working as a proofreader, writer, and editor for Guild Press and Potomac News (both owned byH. Lynn Womack),Drum (edited byClark Polak), and Trojan Book Service from 1967 to 1969. In 1970, he was editor and publisher ofPACE!, a short-lived magazine published by the Philadelphia Action Committee for Equality.[1]
Schlegel lived in Pennsylvania from 1970 until his death on February 25, 2006, at the age of 79. He was interred at Sweitzers Memorial Cemetery in his hometown of Berrysburg.[4] He endowed a scholarship at Bucknell University in 1999,[2] and his will posthumously established the Richard L. Schlegel National Legion of Honor Award for an Emerging Activist, based at American University.[5] Schlegel's correspondence and other papers are held in the library archives ofCornell University, theONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at theUniversity of Southern California, and other institutions.[6][7]
In October 2021, thePennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission installed a roadsidestate historical marker outside Schlegel's row house at 205 State Street in Harrisburg. The marker was one of two sponsored by the LGBT Center of Central Pennsylvania, and the first to address LGBT history in central Pennsylvania. Soon after the marker was installed, state senatorJohn DiSanto called for the marker's removal, pointing to a 1993 oral history interview with Schlegel available onOutHistory.org, in which Schlegel recalled engaging in sexual activity as a 16-year-old with a younger boy aged 11 or 12. DiSanto accused Schlegel ofgrooming. The PHMC board voted unanimously to remove the marker, which was taken down on June 3, 2022.[3][8]