“Adult persons are even more conscious that this is true.” “Any schoolboy knows that a homosexual act is immoral, indecent, lewd and obscene,” a claims court judge wrote in ruling against him in October 1969. Court of Claims, which upheld the dismissal on grounds that his sexual orientation in a government job would inevitably make the agency less efficient. He appealed his firing for “immoral and indecent conduct” to the U.S.
Schlegel was fired in July 1961 from a civilian job with the Army’s transportation office in Hawaii after his sexual activities surfaced during an investigation to qualify for a top secret clearance. “There were very few leaders, if you will, at that time - people who were willing to stick their neck out and actually have their name known.” He was the driving force behind the application to honor Schlegel. “He is certainly an important figure in the context of Pennsylvania,” said Barry Loveland, chair of the history project at the LGBT Center of Central Pennsylvania. The state Historical and Museum Commission has been seeking more markers about previously underrepresented people and groups, offering financial support for the markers if their subjects concern women, Hispanics, Latinos and Asian Americans, or if they are about Black and LGBTQ history outside Philadelphia. “I think it demonstrates a history of him grooming young boys and being involved in pedophilia and sex acts throughout that, including ultimately helping to operate a magazine with young nudes and things like that,” DiSanto said. DiSanto said Tuesday he was alerted by a constituent about Schlegel’s comments in a 1993 personal history posted online that Schlegel provided to the Philadelphia LGBT History Project.