For a Greater Good: The Tom Swann Story

Autobiography, Biography & Memoir

Pages: 278 Ratings:

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*Your order will be dispatched after the publication date of 10-10-2025

I wrote this book because you and I both need some inspiration from time to time in a tough world. I came out of the closet in 1992 as a gay Marine Corps veteran and civilian worker with a secret clearance for the Department of the Navy. I was assaulted and faced discrimination and retaliation from Navy officials. I was living with advanced AIDS. I suffered and persevered while the ACLU represented me in litigation against the Navy. I am the last federal employee to have his access to classified information challenged by the government based on being a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Our historic successful ACLU litigation against the Navy prompted the Navy Secretary to add sexual orientation protection to the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy for all civilian employees. The Navy added this protection more than four years before the other branches of the military. Now DEI and the EEOC are being shut down, and we seem to be going backwards. My story will shed light on how difficult work was before DEI and why these programs are so vital for our nation.

The fact that the ACLU and I accomplished this is inspiring. It means you can persevere through adversity and your hopes can be fulfilled. First, have faith in a higher power, and second, believe in the person you see when you stand in front of a mirror. You must never give up hope or give in to discrimination.

Thomas A. Swann is a native of Florida. He served in the Marine Corps from 1976–80 and the Naval Air Reserve from 1986–1988. He reached the rank of E-6.

In 1986 he became a civilian employee, GS-11, with a secret clearance at the Point Mugu Navy Base in Ventura County, Southern California. In December 1992, he did an interview with the Los Angeles Times where he came out of the closet as a gay veteran and supported President-Elect Bill Clinton’s plan to lift the ban on LGBTQ in the military. The Navy retaliated against him. The ACLU filed a complaint on Tom’s behalf. The litigation resulted in prompting the Navy Secretary to add sexual orientation protection for over 252,000 civilian workers. Tom was the last LGBTQ federal employee to have his secret clearance challenged by the government.

In 1993, Tom was the second person introduced on stage carrying the rainbow flag before one million people and C-SPAN TV at the March on Washington for LGBTQ civil rights. In 2001, he led the effort to dedicate America’s first LGBTQ Veterans Memorial in Cathedral City, California. In 2019, this memorial became a state memorial. In 2016, Tom and his husband, Guillermo Hernandez, held the very first same-sex marriage in immigration detention history. This was an international news story.