The Lavender Scare

As we begin to talk about the Red Scare in class and read about it in our textbooks, another scare at the same time caught my attention as an interesting blog topic. The Lavender Scare was a hunt for homosexual people in the government, as they were believed to be connected to communist. This claim had no real logic to it, but people believed they were morally connected somehow, or that they would be blackmailed into giving the soviets government secrets.

The Lavender Scare started along with the Red Scare, as Senator McCarthy released his famed list of federal employees who were communists. McCarthy spoke about homosexuals in reference to this list, calling them "unsafe risks.” In the 1950s, this claim caused a full federal investigation into the departments of government to stop “the employment of homosexuals and other sex perverts in the government.” This also made it very hard for gay people to resign and try to escape the persecution, as the resignation itself was also often seen as an admittance to being gay, and staining their record with “perversion.”

Eventually, a report called Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government was released by Senator Hoey, who had done investigations into the homosexual issue as well. The report stated that in the past three years of investigations done, from the The Hoey Committee Investigation to the The Wherry-Hill Investigation, that 5,000 people had been detected as homosexuals in the military and civilian workforces. The report then concluded that homosexuals should no longer be allowed in the government, as they posed too large of a security risk and were "generally unsuitable.” This report helped to lay the groundwork for executive order #10450.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1953 Executive Order #10450, "Security Requirements for Government Employment,” explicitly added sexuality onto the requirements for employment, banning lesbians and gay men from working in the government. It is estimated that, because of this order, 5,000 - 10,000 civil servants lost their jobs. This came from investigations that looked at how a person acted, dressed, or even who their friends were. People were placed under surveillance to see if they visited gay bars or hung out with “known homosexuals.” This guilt by association as well as guilt by stereotype was demeaning and terrifying, forcing many back into the closet, and causing others to lock the door tighter. Being out at this time was a gamble. It could get you fired, beaten up, disowned, and targeted more than ever before.

This caused many people to lose opportunities. Queer people no longer bothered applying for any government positions, afraid to be persecuted and outed. Some passed up promotions and other job opportunities due to the executive order. Some who had been fired already face underemployment, complete unemployment, financial ruin, and in some of the worst cases, suicide. Luckily, the Lavender Scare didn’t publicly reveal the names to the world, and had no dramatic spectacles, keeping many relatively anonymous. This likely saved lives, as truly public outings could have lead to further hate crimes and suicides.

Despite the fear, some fought back. Frank Kameny was a brave individual who took the case to the supreme court. He argued that discrimination against homosexuals was the same as racial discrimination, or gender-based discrimination, or religious discrimination, and that he should not be treated as a second-class citizen. He sadly lost the case, but continued to fight for gay rights, and could honestly be a blog post of his own.

The ban continued on until the the U.S. Civil Service Commission ended it in the federal civil service in 1975. In 1977, the ban was also lifted for foreign service. However, the ban was never truly over until Executive Order 12968, signed by Bill Clinton, that stated “The United States Government does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation in granting access to classified information.” Even then, the official repealing of the act came with President Obama signing Executive Order 13764.

As we look back on the Lavender Scare, we also must remember that these people were not just numbers or ghosts. Due to the lack of public spectacles, gays and lesbians often remained as feared spectres, fired mysteriously and not kept track of. But lives were ruined. One man spoke about how he lost his job and income, and could no longer care for his sick parents. Another committed suicide from leaping off a bridge. Though the papers the government officials turned in listed these people as statistics, real lives were thrown away.

The Lavender Scare was an event not many know about, especially not by name. But it had an astronomical impact on thousands of lives and left a dent for years afterwards. The act wasn’t officially repealed until 2017, and even then survived over 20 years, causing financial ruin, hate crimes, and death. This is not an event we should ignore in the midst of all the other cold war events, as it affects us to this day. This piece of LGBT history will not be overlooked.

Sources:
https://www.nglcc.org/blog/lgbt-history-lavender-scare
http://outhistory.org/items/show/1425
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html (This source is amazing, read it if you want the full story!)
https://www.bnl.gov/bera/activities/globe/kameny.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_10450