by Evelyn Bailey
Last month Shoulders To Stand On looked at the founding of the Mattachine Society and its influence on society’s attitudes toward homosexuality. This month, STSO will look at the Lavender Scare, and next month the identification of homosexuality as a diagnosable mental disorder in the DSM-1, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The United States in the 1950s experienced marked economic growth — with an increase in manufacturing and home construction amongst a post-World War II economic boom. The Cold War and its associated conflicts helped create a politically conservative climate in the country. Fear of communism caused public Congressional hearings in both houses in Congress whilst anti-communism was the prevailing sentiment in the United States.
Conformity and conservatism characterized the social mores of the time, until Rock and Roll music enters the scene. The 1950s are noted in United States history as a time of compliance, conformity. Gender roles began to change during this time. Women were used to taking jobs outside the home much like they had during the War, and began to fight for their rights and desire for outside employment. Homosexuality and Juvenile Delinquency were just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg that mothers were blamed for. The image of home and family changed, and the idea of a domestic housewife no longer applied to much of the country as many worked outside the home.
In 1950, the same year that Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed 205 communists were working in the State Department, Undersecretary of State John Peurifoy said that the State Department had allowed 91 homosexuals to resign. McCarthy then added the claim that gay men and lesbians were even more dangerous than Reds. Because the psychiatric community regarded homosexuality as a mental illness, gay men and lesbians were considered susceptible to blackmail, thus constituting a security risk. U.S. government officials assumed that communists would blackmail homosexual employees of the federal government who would provide them classified information rather than risk exposure.
The fear of this supposed homosexual menace became known as the Lavender Scare. The Lavender Scare drew its name from the term “lavender lads,” used repeatedly by Sen. Everett Dirksen as a synonym for homosexuals. In 1952 Dirksen said that a Republican victory in the November elections would mean the removal of “the lavender lads” from the State Department.
On April 27, 1953, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which made it official government policy that gay and lesbian employees were to be hunted down and fired. McCarthy hired Roy Cohn–widely believed to be a closeted homosexual–as chief counsel of his Congressional subcommittee. Together, McCarthy and Cohn were responsible for the firing of scores of gay men from government employment, and strong-armed many opponents into silence using rumors of their homosexuality.
More than a thousand federal agents were assigned to the task of determining who was a homosexual. People were subjected to grueling interrogation: “Who do you live with? Who are your friends? What bars do you frequent? Would you like us to call your family back home and ask these questions?” People were ordered to give up the names of their gay and lesbian friends. Most chose to resign immediately, rather than face continued pressure or further scrutiny.
In 1957, Dr. Franklin Kameny, a Harvard PhD turned a lemon situation into lemonade! He had been working for the U.S. Army Map Service, and was fired from his job when the government found out he was gay. But unlike the thousands who had been fired before him, he fought back! The purges created a sense of anger and militancy in the gay community that sowed the seeds of the gay rights movement. In 1965, years before Stonewall, Kameny and a small band of brave men and women staged a picket in front of the White House, in what is believed to be the first gay rights demonstration in the country. Kameny went on to devote his entire life to the fight for LGBT rights, and just before his death saw his achievements honored by President Obama.
In the 1950s, Americans also felt the effects of the Red Scare. Though the climate of fear and repression began to ease in the late 1950s, the Red Scare has continued to influence political debate in the decades since and is often cited as an example of how unfounded fears can compromise civil liberties. The Red Scare made credible the Lavender Scare even though after several investigations over many years, not a single case was ever found of a homosexual who actually gave up secrets in order to avoid being exposed.
Historian David Johnson points out that the so-called Lavender Scare was actually deeply ingrained in fifties culture, pre-dated McCarthyism, and long outlived it. Johnson further argues that the government’s repressive action significantly helped to unite gays and lesbians through a shared repressive experience, and this, ironically, helped to spur the modern gay civil rights movement.
People continued to lose their jobs through the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. In 1995, President Clinton officially rescinded the policy that had been put in place by President Eisenhower in 1953, and for the first time in four decades, LGBT people could freely work for the civilian agencies of the federal government. Clinton, however, also instituted the controversial military policy, “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Congress voted to end the policy last year.
Today, there are still 29 states in the country in which it is perfectly legal to fire people simply because they are LGBT – a direct result of our government’s homophobic policies that were put in place in the 1950s that have continued to the present day. Employment Non-Discrimination Act has passed the Senate but has not passed the House and shows no signs of movement in that direction.
As reported by the Huffington Post, March 6, 2014 Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) are circulating a letter among their Senate colleagues that calls on President Barack Obama to issue an executive order extending workplace nondiscrimination protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. According to Merkley’s office, the effort is bicameral; the LGBT equality caucus is recruiting co-signers in the House of Representatives. Obama has the ability to ban discrimination among government contractors only, whereas legislation passed by Congress would apply to all employers.
Late in 2002, New York State passed SONDA (Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act) which prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and the exercise of civil rights – for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, NOT trans* people. Shoulders is proud of New York State for passing SONDA over 10 years ago. The law does not guarantee a change in how LGB men and women are treated (and obviously it does not include trans* people, who are still without the slightest civil rights protections in NYS).
We must be proud of who we are and have the courage to confront injustice when we see it. So it is with a deep sense of gratitude and pride, that Shoulders To Stand On recognizes our brothers and sisters who lived their lives courageously and authentically in the years prior to Stonewall.