Random Things about America's Lavender Scare Targeted Gay Government Officials (12 items)

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  (#1) The US Government Began Targeting LGBTQ+ Americans After WWII

  In the wake of WWII, Americans entering the Cold War had a collective public fear of communism. Like the First Red Scare after WWI, Americans worried that the Soviets would infiltrate the US government and turn the country into a communist or dictatorial state. The period later became a time for what is perhaps best known for the McCarthy hearings, designed to root out communist sympathizers in the Army, the State Department, and later, Hollywood. 

  However, from the late 1940s through the 1970s, the government also targeted another group: the LGBTQ+ community. The Lavender Scare, spurred by congressional investigations, turned gay-identifying Americans into national security threats and advocated firing LGBTQ+ employees from federal government positions.
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  (#2) In 1950, Homosexuality Was A Crime In Every State

  In the early post-war period, identifying as LGBTQ+ was a crime. But, as in other repressive eras, an underground gay culture flourished. Rather than defining homosexuality as a mental illness or a perversion, these communities accepted it as natural. 

  Attitudes toward sexuality more broadly remained conservative in the 1950s, but some challenged that. In 1948, Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male reported that "perhaps the major portion of the male population... has at least some homosexual experience between adolescence and old age." The bestseller shocked conservative Americans, but proved to gay communities that identifying as LGBTQ+ was not abnormal.
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  (#3) Homosexuality And Communism Were Both Seen As Subversive Threats

  Starting in 1947, the US Park Police began a "Sex Perversion Elimination Program" in Washington, DC. The program targeted gay men, using intimidation tactics and arrests to drive them further underground. The decision was followed in 1948 by a Congressional law "for the treatment of sexual psychopaths," ordering the arrest and punishment of gay residents of DC. The law also claimed homosexuality was a mental illness.

  The repression of homosexuality coincided with a period of intense anxiety about national security. Homosexuality, like communism, was defined as a subversive threat to the country, and it was only a matter of time until the two threats merged. 
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  (#4) Senator McCarthy Kicked Off The Lavender Scare With Scant And Faulty Evidence

  On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy announced he had a list of 205 known communists who were currently working in the State Department. A few days later, he reported that some of those suspected communists were also LGBTQ+-identifying individuals, at the time loosely using the term "homosexual." 

  Speaking on the Senate floor, McCarthy claimed the State Department had fired, and then rehired, an employee publicly identifying as gay. McCarthy also claimed an intelligence officer reported "practically every active communist is twisted mentally or physically in some way." McCarthy used rumors about employees' sexual orientation to claim they were susceptible to recruitment by the Soviets, simply because those who identified as gay or transgender had "peculiar mental twists."
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  (#5) The State Department Interrogated Employees And Fired Suspected LGBTQ+ People

  Within a month of Senator McCarthy's claim that the State Department was being infiltrated by communists, the Deputy Undersecretary of the State Department reported 91 LGBTQ+ employees were fired for being "a security risk."

  Firing government employees because of their sexual orientation was completely legal at the time, and even encouraged by the Senate. In 1946, the Senate ordered the State Department to dismiss nearly any employee for the sake of national security. Immediately, the State Department began purging LGBTQ+-identifying employees, interrogating them with invasive questions like, “Do you identify as a homosexual or have you ever had same-sex sexual relations?”
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  (#6) Senate Hearings Publicly Interrogated Suspected Gay Employees

  Senator McCarthy's supporters in the senate, including Senators Kenneth Wherry and J. Lister Hill, targeted LGTBQ+ federal employees. Under oath, Lt. Roy Blick, head of the DC police vice squad, testified that 5,000 homosexuals lived in DC and 3,700 of them were federal employees. The press went wild, and two individuals on McCarthy's list were hauled in front of the committee and interrogated. Both lost their jobs.

  The head of the Civil Service Commission, Harry Mitchell, submitted guidelines for a "routine procedure to rid the offices of Government of moral perverts and guard against their admission." 
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  (#7) The Scare Tactics Drove People To Quit Their Jobs

  Senator Wherry bragged, "There has been increased activity on the part of Government departments and agencies... to take off their payrolls alleged moral perverts." DC police force Lt. Blick also claimed, "From what I can learn and by my own personal observation... between 90 and 100 moral perverts have recently resigned."

  The "success" of their campaign triggered a larger investigation known as the Hoey committee investigation. Multiple government agencies, including the Commerce Department, submitted reports to the Senate about their attempts to uncover "perverts" in their workforce. Many employees who were accused of LGBTQ+ behavior chose to resign rather than face additional scrutiny.
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  (#8) The Hoey Committee's Report Identified 5,000 Federal Employees As Gay

  The goal of the Senate investigations was to out LGBTQ+ employees who worked in the military and civilian branches of the federal government. When the Hoey committee issued a report titled "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government," it claimed that in a three-year period, approximately 5,000 homosexual employees had been identified in the federal government.

  With little to no evidence, the report labeled LGBTQ+ people as "generally unsuitable" and a "security risk" to the federal government, since they were supposedly vulnerable to blackmail and lacked emotional stability. The report even warned, "One homosexual can pollute a government office."
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  (#9) President Eisenhower Signed An Executive Order Encouraging Discrimination Against Gay Employees

  The Senate investigations led to presidential action. In 1953, President Eisenhower signed an executive order under the guise of security concerns, ordering federal employers to consider employees' sexuality as a condition of employment. The executive order effectively banned LGBTQ+ individuals from all government jobs and many private sector contracting jobs. 

  In the wake of the discriminatory order, an increasing number of LGBTQ+ employees lost their jobs. Some, fearful about their reputations, even committed suicide. 
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  (#10) Frank Kameny Fought Back After He Was Fired, But The Courts Refused To Hear His Case

  In 1957, an astronomer working for the Army Map Service named Frank Kameny was fired for suspected homosexuality. He was arrested in California for consensual sexual contact with another man, which was against the law at that time. Kameny fought back, appealing his dismissal until he reached the Supreme Court, which declined to hear his case.

  Although the judicial system did not protect his rights, Kameny continued to fight against anti-gay discrimination, co-founding the Mattachine Society, which targeted gay discrimination in the government. 
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  (#11) In 1965, Frank Kameny Led The First Gay Rights Protest Outside The White House

  On April 17, 1965, Frank Kameny led the first gay rights demonstration outside the White House. Participants used pseudonyms and even hid behind signs, fearful of retribution. One protester, Paul Kuntzler, said, "I was intimidated by all the photographers. I was only 23. And as they came across the street they started photographing us. Every time I approached the cameras, I hid behind my sign because I was unnerved by the whole thing."

  In other protests, Kameny carried a sign that read, "Homosexual Citizens Want to Serve Their Country, Too."
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  (#12) In Some Ways, The Lavender Scare Still Continues Today

  The Lavender Scare continued into the 1970s. Finally, in 1975, the Civil Service Commission changed its rules, declaring LGBTQ+ people could not be banned or fired from federal employment because of their sexual orientation.

  But the fight against sexual discrimination continued. President Eisenhower's executive order was in effect until President Clinton overturned the order in 1995. As of 2018, it is still legal to fire LGBTQ+ employees in more than two dozen states. The history of the Lavender Scare reminds us of how far America has come in a few short decades, but also how much work is still ahead.

  In a hopeful sign of progress, in 2015, the Department of Labor recognized Frank Kameny for devoting his life to fighting for the LGBTQ+ community. Kameny passed away in 2011. 

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