Post: Jobseeker Says Ashcroft Asked About Sexuality
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A health care expert seeking a top Cabinet post in Missouri's
government contends then-Gov. John Ashcroft questioned him about his sexual orientation
during a job interview, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
Ashcroft is expected to win Senate confirmation as President Bush's attorney general,
but Democrats have raised questions about Ashcroft's record on civil rights and his
opposition to the nomination of a gay man as ambassador to Luxembourg,
on the basis of his sexual orientation.
Ashcroft assured Senate Democrats during his confirmation hearings last week
that he would not consider sexual orientation in the hiring and firing of employees
if approved as attorney general.
The Post quoted Paul Offner, a Democrat and health care policy expert
who applied in 1985 to be head of Missouri's Department of Social Services,
as saying Ashcroft asked him directly about his sexual orientation, leading him
to believe it was a condition for getting the job.
Ashcroft spokeswoman Mindy Tucker told the Post the former Missouri senator
and governor could not remember the meeting.
``The senator does not recall this meeting and cannot imagine starting a meeting
with this question,'' the Post quoted Tucker as saying.
``He made it clear to the committee ... that sexual orientation has never been something
that he has used in hiring in any of the offices he has held, and it will not be a consideration
at the Department of Justice,'' she said.
``SAME SEXUAL PREFERENCE AS MOST MEN?''
Offner, who was single at the time of the interview, told the Post he was
stunned by Ashcroft's query, which he said came with no introduction.
``Mr. Offner, do you have the same sexual preference as most men?''
Offner quoted Ashcroft as asking at the start of the interview, according to the Post article.
``Yes,'' Offner said he replied.
``Have you ever used an illegal controlled substance?'' Ashcroft asked next.
``I have not,'' Offner said.
``If his position is that this has never been an issue with him, then why did he say it?'
Offner asked in an interview with the Post.
``It is hard to believe it wasn't a job qualification.''
Offner, 58, who is now married, said Ashcroft crossed the line with his direct question
about sexual orientation. He Ashcroft later told him he could not give him the job because
''his people would not understand.''
The Post noted that a question about sexual orientation would not violate Missouri law, which does not prohibit discrimination in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation.
But it would appear to contradict Ashcroft's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee,
in which he said ``sexual orientation has never been something that I've used in hiring in any
of the jobs, in any of the offices, I've held. It will not be a consideration in hiring at the
Department of Justice.''
The Post quoted Rich McClure, Ashcroft's chief of staff from late 1985 until late 1992, as saying
he had never heard Ashcroft or any of his staff or legal counsel ask ``that kind of question''
during job interviews.
Offner did not get the job. He went on to serve as senior health care adviser to the Senate
Finance Committee and then tried to help the District of Columbia reform its health care
reimbursement system before joining the faculty at Georgetown University, according to the Post.
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