In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s incendiary allegations against the State Department led to a government purging that would eventually cost over a thousand people their jobs. These particular individuals, however, were not dismissed because of any direct ties that they had to the Communist Party, but instead because of their sexual orientation. McCarthy’s original accusations concerning the presence of over 200 Communists working in the government—specifically the State Department—included two allegations that specifically referenced homosexuality, suggesting that homosexuality was itself a danger to the security of the United States. Even as McCarthy—cognizant of growing pressure from his colleagues for him to produce evidence of his claims—reduced his original allegations from 205 card-carrying communists to 57 “bad risks” (Johnson 2004), the public conception of the threat of homosexuality in the government persisted and ultimately materialized into the Lavender Scare, a mass hysteria that paralleled and was concurrent with the Red Scare. Capitol Hill, with the nation alongside it, was quickly overtaken by this Lavender Tide. Soon, fear of a homosexual presence in the government surpassed even fears of communism. Unlike its Red counterpart, however, the Lavender Scare is virtually unknown to the general public even though it eventually exceeded the Red Scare in scope. The Orientalizing rhetoric and propaganda directed at homosexuals during the Lavender Scare, however, reveals a notion that existed during the Lavender Scare of homosexuals as un-American. This “othering” of gays and lesbians combined with the period’s strong American Exceptionalism suggests a motive behind the strong homophobic reaction of this period, ...
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.... The lavender scare: The Cold War persecution of gays and lesbians in the federal government. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
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In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
In the book Voices of Freedom by Eric Foner, an essay written by Henry Steele Commager argued that the anticommunist movement was the new meaning of loyalty. In the article “Who is Loyal to America” by Henry Steele, he conveyed how the Lavender Scare was a problematic issue to the government since the Lavender Scare was aimed at homosexuals working for the government. Discriminating the homosexuals was very similar to the civil rights reforms because the situation was very similar to the Red Scare at the time. Thus caused the change through feminist movement which stressed equality for everyone. This all intertwines with polices due to the fear of communism. Being “different” from the others raised a great suspicion of being a part of being
In his work about gay life in New York City, George Chauncey seeks to dispel the various myths about the gay lifestyle before the Civil Rights era of the 60’s. He distills the misconceptions into three major myths: “…isolation, invisibility, and internalization” (Chauncey 1994, 2). He believes a certain image has taken in the public mind where gays did not openly exist until the 60’s, and that professional historians have largely ignored this era of sexual history. He posits such ideas are simply counterfactual. Using the city of New York, a metropolitan landscape where many types of people confluence together, he details a thriving gay community. Certainly it is a community by Chauncey’s reckoning; he shows gay men had a large network of bar, clubs, and various other cultural venues where not only gay men intermingled the larger public did as well. This dispels the first two principle myths that gay men were isolated internally from other gay men or invisible to the populace. As to the internalization of gay men, they were not by any degree self-loathing. In fact, Chauncey shows examples of gay pride such a drag queen arrested and detained in police car in a photo with a big smile (Chauncey 1994, 330). Using a series of personal interviews, primary archival material from city repositories, articles, police reports, and private watchdog groups, Chauncey details with a preponderance of evidence the existence of a gay culture in New York City, while at the same time using secondary scholarship to give context to larger events like the Depression and thereby tie changes to the gay community to larger changes in the society.
The prejudice of both modern military policy and the Salem witch trials is built on the misconceptions and stereotypes of the accused. The belief that gay men are feminine shorts-wearing, roller skaters invested with AIDS [McGowan 13] and the perceived image of a sex-driven gay contrasts the military’s “bastion of...
Johnson, David K. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2006. Print.
Unfortunately, being labeled as a homosexual came with a specific stigma back in the mid-1980s, and many individuals were not as accepting of homosexuals as they tend to be today. Consequently, having to admit that he was a homosexual would have destroyed both Roy’s career and reputation, specifically as a result of this negative stigma. When readers examine Roy’s definition of the term homosexual once more, one may realize that Roy simply could not be labeled as a homosexual because of how damaging it would be to his career and possession of clout, which is why he is so adamant about not being labeled as such. As Roy had stated, “I have sex with men. But unlike nearly every other man of whom this is true, I bring the guy I’m screwing to the White House and President Reagan smiles at us and shakes his hand” (Kushner 52). This shows that, yes, Roy sleeps with men, but he can’t receive that label due to the fact that he is too successful and it would tear him off of his podium—he has too many powerful connections, such as the President, to admit that he is a homosexual. Unfortunately, this attitude is all too relevant today as well, for many individuals often refuse to admit part of their identity in fear of how it will change their lives. Certain terms and labels have
...n American Literature. By Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 387-452. Print.
In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people have dedicated themselves in fighting for
. Gianoulis, Tina. "Gay Liberation Movement." In St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture., edited by Thomas Riggs, 438-43. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: St. James, 2013. Gale Virtual Reference Library (GALE|CX2735801056).
The Lavender Scare was an event (corresponding to the Cold War), where unjustified fear, mass incarceration, and repression of homosexual people (specifically gay men) was eminent. The scare resulted in numerous unemployment (specifically from government jobs), suicides, and an immense drop in the quality of life for homosexual citizens. The Lavender Scare coincides with the Red Scare primarily since society perceived homosexuality equally as menacing as communism (Troops 95). Additionally, society perceived the gay men as former communist (Johnson).
For the duration of the 1950's America was absorbed with the fear of the Communists taking control of the country. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin, heightened the fears many Americans already possessed. McCarthy had a deep hatred for communists, so he devised a plan to make American’s hate communists as much as him, and also had hopes that it would get himself re-elected. McCarthy gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia where he held up a piece of paper announcing, "I have here a list of 57 known Communists who are currently employed by the U.S. State Department." Shortly after his speech, McCarthy changed the number of communists in the U.S. State Department from 57 to 205. America had felt safe and at peace from the communists. Now; however, they felt uneasy and panicked at the thought of communists working in their own government. Americans started to demand the names of these people listed on McCarthy's "Blacklist." Congress then started attempting to seek out the people on McCarthy’s list. A particular group that was closely examined was the actors and actresses in Hollywood that McCarthy declared to be communists. Joseph McCarthy used and abused his power of being a senator. In doing so, he created chaos and destruction in the lives of many people, and in most of America.
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