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The Lavender Scare; An Historical Look Back at LGBT Militarism
By Justin Monaco
Teacher, Marie Curie Middle School 158Q
Remember when a President of the United States signed an order demanding that all gay and
lesbian government employees be fired?
Remember when this led to an anti-gay witch hunt conducted in the same era as the Red Scare?
Remember when thousands of people lost their jobs because of their sexual orientation?
Huh?
If you’re scratching your head because you have never heard about this time in history, don’t
worry, most people haven’t. But it’s all true!
LGBT is frequently ignored in social studies curriculum and in textbooks. If it is
acknowledged, it usually begins with the Stonewall Riots. However, one of the most important
periods of U.S. LGBT history is rarely discussed: The Lavender Scare. This refers to the
persecution of gays from the 1940’s to circa 1969. It was during this period of criminalization
that LGBT citizens formed a community and planted the seeds of revolution.
Most social studies teachers know the story of Senator Joseph McCarthy and how he set
off a “red scare” when he famously charged in 1950 that the U.S. State Department and other
government agencies had been infiltrated by communist agents. Few social studies teachers
know that McCarthy also charged that the government had been infiltrated by homosexuals, and
that they posed a threat equally as grave to national security. This fear that gay men and lesbians
could be blackmailed into revealing state secrets resulted in a systematic campaign to identify
and remove all government employees suspected of homosexuality. This “lavender scare”
permeated American Cold War culture, but it also helped launch a new Civil Rights struggle.
In Cold War America, Senator Joseph McCarthy enjoyed tremendous support in the fight
in the fight against what he called atheistic communism. That support stemmed less from his
wild charges about communists that his more substantiated charges that “sex perverts: had
infiltrated government agencies. Although now remembered as an attack on suspected disloyalty,
McCarthyism introduced “moral values” into the American political arsenal. Warning of a
spreading homosexual menace, McCarthy and his Republican allies learned how to win votes.
In 1953, the
pressure to strengthen
security procedures became
codified by newly elected
President Eisenhower in an
executive order. For the
first time, “sexual
perversion” was included
in the list of behaviors that
would exclude one from
holding a job with the
federal government or
receiving a security
clearance from a federal
contractor. Agencies set up
new policies and
procedures for detecting and removing men and women suspected of being gay, lesbian, or
bisexual. Applicants were personally interviewed to look for subtle signs of homosexuality, such
as gender non-conformity. Invoking the notion of “guilt by association”, investigators checked
whether an employee’s friends or roommates were gay. Some were placed under surveillance to
determine whether they frequented gay bars or associated with “known homosexuals.” Local
police agencies were encouraged to clamp down on local gay meeting places and then share their
arrest records. Investigators vigorously interrogated civil servants about their private sex lives
and offered a “lie-detector” test as one of the only means of establishing their innocence.
Thousands lost their jobs or resigned under pressure. A small number were driven to suicide.
As McCarthyism died down by the late 1950’s, the Lavender Scare continued in civilian
life. Public service announcements that described homosexuals as perverts and pedophiles were
shown in schools. The gay and lesbian community found resistance against attempted
suppression. The Homophile Movement, which sought to stop the persecution of homosexuals,
grew stronger and organizations like the Mattachine Society were formed. During the 1960’s,
social movements and politics became more radical and the gay rights movement was not an
exception. In 1969, the Stonewall Riots ushered in a new era of gay pride and liberation.
By 1969, several U.S. federal courts had ruled that the policies of the Lavender Scare
were an infringement on American freedoms. In highly sensitive agencies such as the F.B.I. and
the National Security Agency, the ban on gay and lesbian employees would linger into the
1990’s, where President Clinton finally signed executive orders banning discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation in federal hiring practices and in the granting of security clearances.
Although, President Clinton rescinded Eisenhower’s policy in 1995, LGBT workplace
discrimination is not a story confined to the history book. There are still 29 states where you can
be legally fired for being gay.
The Lavender Scare shatters the myth that homosexuality has only recently become a
national political issue, changing the way we think about both the McCarthy era and the origins
of the gay right movement. The Lavender Scare reminds us of how acts taken by the government
in the name of ‘national security” during the Cold War resulted in the infringement of the civil
liberties of thousands of Americans. We cannot understand McCarthyism or cold war politics
without examining the fears of gender and sexual non-conformity that permeated the era.
For further reading on this topic, I would like to suggest The Lavender Scare: The Cold War
Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, University of Chicago Press,
2004. By David K. Johnson.