If you listen closely, today's political rhetoric may sound eerily familiar to that of the Lavender Scare during the Cold War, when fear of communism wasn't the only threat driving anxiety in the United States. As fears about homosexuality became intertwined with national security concerns, the U.S. government began investigating, surveilling, and firing gay and lesbian federal employees who were deemed a threat.
In this episode, we’re going back to the origins of the Lavender Scare and the Red Scare, from Joseph McCarthy’s accusations about gay people in the federal government to J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI investigations and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450. What began as fear of perceived threats to national security would leave thousands of LGBTQ+ people without jobs and shape how the federal government treated homosexuality for decades to come.
Related Episodes:
• Listen to Episode 24. Gay Villages: Won't You Be My Gaybor? (https://www.ajadedgay.com/24-gay-villages-wont-you-be-my-gaybor/)
• Listen to Episode 63. The Stonewall Riots (https://www.ajadedgay.com/63-the-stonewall-riots/)
Additional Resources:
• Why Gay Villages Matter: Exploring Their History, Evolution, and Future Challenges (https://www.ajadedgay.com/blog/why-gay-villages-matter-exploring-their-history-evolution-and-future-challenges/)
• Stonewall Riots: A Catalyst for Pride and the Fight for LGBTQ+ Rights (https://www.ajadedgay.com/blog/stonewall-riots-a-catalyst-for-pride-and-the-fight-for-lgbtq-rights/)
• The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo193960577.html)
• Red Scare (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Red-Scare-politics)
• Jewish Bolshevism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Bolshevism)
• Cold War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War)
• Joseph McCarthy (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-McCarthy)
• Joseph McCarthy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy)
• Lavender Scare (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lavender-Scare)
• “These People Are Frightened to Death” (https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html)
• McCarthyism (https://www.britannica.com/event/McCarthyism)
• McCarthyism (https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199764310.001.0001/acref-9780199764310-e-0162?d=%2F10.1093%2Facref%2F9780199764310.001.0001%2Facref-9780199764310-e-0162&p=emailAEwtzyHmSBtBQ)
• Lavender Scare (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_Scare)
• Homosexuality in the DSM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_the_DSM)
• Interim Report on Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government (https://teachinglegalhistory.unl.edu/s/oer/item/1332)
• Hoover's War on Gays: Exposing the FBI's "Sex Deviants" Program (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hoover_s_War_on_Gays/3V-lEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Hoover+s+War+on+Gays:+Exposing+the+FBI+s+Sex+Deviants+Program+amazon&printsec=frontcover)
• Timeline: FBI and Homosexuality, 1908-2015 (https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/fbi-history/1950-1959)
• FBI Memo Sex Deviates In Government Service, FBI (Record, 1951) (https://archive.lgbt/wiki/index.php/FBI_Memo_Sex_Deviates_In_Government_Service%2C_FBI_%28Record%2C_1951%29)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower)
• Executive Order 10450 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_10450)
• Army–McCarthy Hearings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army%E2%80%93McCarthy_hearings)
• Executive Order 10450: Eisenhower and the Lavender Scare (https://home.nps.gov/articles/000/lavender-scare.htm)
• LGBTQ Advocates Warn of FBI Plan to Label Trans People as ‘Violent Extremists’ (https://www.washingtonblade.com/2025/09/29/lgbtq-advocates-warn-of-fbi-plan-to-label-trans-people-as-violent-extremists/) Create Harmony (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2054246)
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