This week President Joe Biden issued a formal proclamation Wednesday on the 70th anniversary of the Lavender Scare, a moral panic that caused investigations and firings of thousands of known or suspected gay men and lesbians who were working for the U.S. government. It was one of the darkest and scariest periods that would affect the whole queer community.
It all started soon after the end of WW2 with an agressive and merciless purge of gay and lesbian employees in the U.S. State Department. Then in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower (Democrat) issued an Executive Order extending the ban across the Federal government. The country was already in the depths of despair with Senator McCarthy’s viscous anti-communist witchhunt in full swing. His people claimed that gay men and women were not only ‘reds’ or communists but that we were more susceptible to being manipulated, which could pose a threat to the country.
During this period under the Eisenhower order countless gay men (but only a few lesbians) were publicly named and shamed losing not only their jobs, but on most occasions, their families and housing, and as public outcasts were unable to find any work or new accommodation. So many would end up taking their own lives
One of the few ‘official’ facts of this period is that between 1947 and 1950, over 1700 applicants to federal jobs were denied the positions due to allegations of homosexuality. It obviously got increasingly worse after 1953.
In his statement yesterday President Biden said “For so many members of the LGBTQI+ community, hate, discrimination, and isolation throughout our country’s history have denied them the full promise of America. The Lavender Scare epitomized — and institutionalized — this injustice.” And he added we must reflect honestly on the darkest chapters of our story” to continue building on the “tremendous progress” that has been made since the Lavender Scare
Labels: 2023, 70th Anniversary, Josh Howard, President Biden, Proclamation, queer history, The Lavender Scare
