The Purge You’ve Never Heard Of: The Lavender Scare
- Ankita Lodh
- Mar 10
- 4 min read
Many Americans have heard of the Second Red Scare, an anti-Communist movement spearheaded by Joseph McCarthy, that sought to censor political opponents’ voices amid fears of Communist infiltration in the United States. This period saw the creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which investigated individuals who were suspected to be Communists or Communist sympathizers. Famously, more than 100 professionals in Hollywood who fell under this category, from directors to actors to musicians, were blacklisted. However, the Lavender Scare, which occurred simultaneously, is not discussed as widely.
In the late 1940s, the political fears that stoked the Second Red Scare fused with anti-homosexual sentiment, birthing a second moral panic called the Lavender Scare. The federal government soon capitalized on this development. Starting in 1950, government officials systematically “cleansed” the State Department by firing employees who were suspected to be gay. In 1953, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which explicitly forbade gay people from working for the federal government. Countless other decisions from this era’s leaders were based on unsubstantiated claims that homosexual people were “weaklings,” “moral risks,” and “misfits.”
These problematic terms ultimately enabled the dismissal and rejection of thousands of competent individuals due to the unfounded association of gay people with Communists and other so-called “subversives.” According to figures like Joseph McCarthy, these “subversives” were manipulative and self-serving and sought to dismantle the traditional American way of life. The initial job losses themselves were devastating, and the publicizing of the affected individuals’ information caused further damage by barring them from finding new work. Additionally, those targeted suffered immense strain within their families and broader social networks. Several people, left fearful and hopeless, unfortunately committed suicide.
It is worth considering how the government got away with such sweeping statements and actions in the first place. The reality is that these government policies came at a time when LGBTQ+ representation in media, particularly movies, was largely forbidden. The Hays Code, which was in effect from 1930 to 1968, barred Hollywood creatives from depicting homosexuality in films because it fell under the category of “sexual perversion.” Even when LGBTQ+ representation was present, it was often subtle and fraught with blatant caricatures that portrayed gay people as morally inept and overly sexual. Negative public perceptions were essentially reinforced by tightly regulated media. By labeling gay people as a “corrupt” monolith that threatened the nation, officials such as Joseph McCarthy carefully crafted the foundation necessary to justify discrimination.
The Lavender Scare was not officially over until 1975 when the Civil Service Commission announced that it was no longer legal for federal employees to be restricted from or fired from work due to their sexual orientation. Despite this development, certain barriers to LGBTQ+ employment in the government persisted for another two decades. The prejudice that enabled the Lavender Scare did not simply disappear. It reemerged in the US military in 1994 when the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was enacted. Although this policy purportedly protected closeted military service members from being harrassed, it explicitly prevented openly gay individuals from serving.
The formal reasoning given for the policy was that the presence of openly gay service members would pose a risk to the “high…morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion” necessary for the military to perform effectively. The policy remained in place until 2011. In essence, much of the messaging from nearly 80 years ago continues to be used to defend overt discrimination. This underscores the need for continued activism and involvement amid the creation of new policy.
While the Lavender Scare was a truly bleak period in American history, its beginnings fed the early activism of the fight to secure LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. One notable figure who emerged during this period was Frank Kameny, who was working as an astronomer with the US Army Map Service when the Army began to suspect that he had relationships with men. Kameny maintained that his personal life had nothing to do with his job, but the Army ended up firing him in 1958 under the grounds that he exercised “immoral conduct.” Kameny became a vocal activist and went on to lead several initiatives for LGBTQ+ rights until he died in 2011.
The Lavender Scare revealed how irrational prejudice and bias can fuel decades-long systematic discrimination through policy. It is critical that we be mindful that many protections we enjoy today were secured not so long ago. As debates over LGBTQ+ rights continue, we must remember the importance of defending civil liberties for all. We must also continue to publicly challenge old ways of thinking as we fight for a more equal society. Kameny summarized this goal succinctly in a 1961 letter to President Kennedy: “Let us, as we advance into the Space Age, discard the policies and attitudes, and ‘laws and constitutions,’ the customs and institutions of the Stone Age.”
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