Lavender Scare

The Lavender Scare was a moral panic about homosexual people in the United States government which led to their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign which is known as McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. Gay men and lesbians were said to be national security risks and communist sympathizers, which led to the call to remove them from state employment. It was also thought that due to the stigma around homosexuality, gay people were vulnerable to blackmail, which could lead to a breach in national security. Lesbians were at less risk of persecution than gay men, but some lesbians were interrogated or lost their jobs. The focus on persecuting homosexuals in state employment, through McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare, led to more alleged homosexuals being persecuted than alleged communists during the campaign. The Lavender Scare normalized persecution of homosexuals through bureaucratic institutionalization of homophobia. Former U.S. senator Alan K. Simpson wrote: "The so-called 'Red Scare' has been the main focus of most historians of that period of time. A lesser-known element and one that harmed far more people was the witch-hunt McCarthy and others conducted against homosexuals."