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>>Ackerman suggested the State Department could hire dozens of outed — and ousted — former military translators.<<

Its been a long time since I was involved in research where qualifications for security clearances came up... but 15-20 years ago it wasn't whether you were gay or had used drugs or had an affair - it was whether you were keeping it secret and thus it could be used against you.

Nobody could threaten Barney Frank with revealing his sexual orientation because he's open about it. But somebody working at state secretly being gay is a potential risk.

In the olden times if you disclosed a secret to to the people doing the background check then they might require you to tell you wife and your mother and employer (or whoever you were afraid to tell) as a condition of getting clearance.

I don't know whether the rules are the same now, but if they are it would make sense to fire someone who hid a big secret that made them vulnerable to blackmail

BTW, this is one problem with "Don't ask don't tell" - its a recipe for blackmail.