The Lavender Scare And The Costs of Cold War Hysteria

A visualization of the heightened surveillance during the Cold War in the United States.

During the Cold War, the United States was shaped by the goal of containing communism. The Red Scare is well known because of its focus on suspected communists, but a parallel campaign targeted LGBTQ Americans. Thousands of people lost their jobs, and their reputations were tarnished beyond repair. Many queer individuals came to live in constant fear.  To understand why this happened, it is important to look at the global tensions that put fear in the hearts of Americans, as well as how initial concerns about communism shifted into attacks against homosexual individuals. This left deep fissures in America’s society, and it continues to be a major chapter in the history of discrimination in the United States.

In the 1950s and 1960s, many Americans believed that the Soviet Union had become too powerful. Inside the USSR, the Communist Party controlled politics, media, and almost every aspect of daily life. The Soviet government used surveillance, prison camps, and executions to punish anyone who went against leaders such as Nikita Khrushchev and before him, Joseph Stalin. When the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations formed NATO in 1949, the Soviet Union responded by tightening its control over Eastern Europe, especially in countries like Germany and Poland. The USSR used cultural exchange programs, propaganda, and financial assistance to spread communist ideas across the world. To many Americans, these actions suggested a global movement that would grow to crush democracy and capitalism, which they depended on.

In 1949, Mao Zedong became the leader of the People’s Republic of China. At first, China was modeled after the Soviet Union, but Mao later rejected the Soviet approach. China also tried to export communism by supporting movements in Korea, Vietnam, and other parts of Southeast Asia. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), like the USSR, used propaganda, re-education campaigns, and mass surveillance to demand loyalty from its citizens. Under Mao, dissidents were sent to labor camps, imprisoned for decades, and forced to move to the countryside to “learn from the farmers.” In the late 1950s, CCP members intimidated Chinese-American immigrants who supported capitalism by threatening to seize the money that they were sending back to their families.

During the 1940s and 1950s, America was filled with suspicion and hysteria. Senator Joseph McCarthy fueled this by making unsubstantiated claims that communists had infiltrated the federal government. As the USSR and CCP spread their ideologies in the East, American citizens became increasingly paranoid that communism would spread through those they least suspected. Soon, individuals began accusing their coworkers and neighbors, causing them to be subjected to loyalty tests and intense background checks. Hollywood blacklisted actors, writers, and directors who were suspected of having communist connections. Civil servants had to swear allegiance to the United States or lose their jobs. One of the most disturbing parts of this so-called “Red Scare” was the mass firings of LGBTQ individuals from the federal government. This would come to be known as the “Lavender Scare.” 

Joseph McCarthy (left) talking to Roy Cohn (right) during the Army–McCarthy hearings.

Homosexuals in the U.S. were demonized even before Senator McCarthy brought them into his exploitation of Americans’ fears. In 1947, the U.S. Park Police created the “Sex Perversion Elimination Program” in Washington, D.C., which focused on arresting and intimidating gay men. By the time McCarthy began his witch hunt in 1950, society already viewed homosexuality as immoral. McCarthy argued that homosexuals were morally weak, easily coerced, and therefore more susceptible to being blackmailed by the Soviet Union. Since the country was already fearful of espionage, many people, including government officials, accepted this idea without question.

This thinking eventually led to Executive Order 10450, issued by President Eisenhower in 1953. It expanded background checks by including not only political loyalty, but also personal morality and sexual behavior. Anyone who was considered a “security risk,” including gay and lesbian employees, could be barred from federal work.

Washington, D.C. was a federal employment hub. It had a large but quiet queer community in the 1950s and 1960s, so the city quickly became a primary target of surveillance. Police raided gay bars, entrapped gay men in public restrooms, and formed “moral squads” that looked for evidence of homosexuality. The D.C. vice squad regularly passed the names of arrested men to the Civil Service Commission and the FBI, which resulted in thousands of firings. Workers were often called into meetings without any explanation, interrogated, and terminated from their jobs without due process. Historian David K. Johnson described Washington, D.C. during this period as “a city of closets,” where queer people lived in a constant state of fear and stopped interacting with anyone who could potentially “out” them.

The effects of the Lavender Scare extended far beyond the nation’s capital. In 1958, the Florida Legislative Committee began investigating suspected homosexuals at universities. Many students and faculty members were expelled or cut from their jobs. In 1956, Hazel’s Inn, a motel, was raided by 35 police officers, and close to 90 people were arrested for “lewd vagrancy.” Hazel’s Inn was one of the only places homosexuals could congregate in peace, but it closed due to the publicity. In 1964, Louie’s Fun Lounge in Chicago was raided and more than a hundred patrons were taken into custody, including eight teachers. Nearly all of them ended up losing their jobs. Homosexual individuals could not gather freely, and many lived in fear that any public mistake could destroy their lives.

A photo showing a protest against unfair treatment by the federal government.

It is estimated that 10,000 civil servants lost their jobs because of their real or perceived sexual orientation. The emotional effects were just as devastating. The firings, fear, and isolation took an extreme mental toll on those who were impacted. One example is Thomas Hicock, a man who had been a Foreign Service officer for 20 years. A week after he was fired, he took his own life. Firings were often done quietly, but the records remained public and permanently damaged reputations. In some places, LGBTQ communities became closer-knit but more underground to avoid exposure.

Several people who were harmed by the Lavender Scare later became important activists. Frank Kameny, who was fired from the Army Map Service in 1957, became the first person to challenge sexuality-based discrimination before the Supreme Court. Barbara Gittings, who was blacklisted from federal library jobs, helped organize early protests and assisted with declassifying homosexuality as a mental illness.

The Lavender Scare is one of the most painful but important episodes in the history of the United States. It grew out of fear of communism and turned prejudice into official policy. It destroyed thousands of lives, but it also sparked early LGBTQ activism that helped shape the modern movement for equal rights. By studying this history, people today can better understand how fear can be used to justify discrimination and why protecting civil liberties is essential.