Government Persecution of the LGBTQ Community is Widespread
The 1950s were perilous times for individuals who fell outside of society’s legally allowed norms relating to gender or sexuality. There were many names for these individuals, including the clinical “homosexual,” a term popularized by pioneering German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. In the U.S., professionals often used the term “invert.” In the mid-19th Century, many cities formed “vice squads” and police often labeled the people they arrested “sexual perverts.” The government’s preferred term was “deviant,” which came with legal consequences for anyone seeking a career in public service or the military. “Homophile” was the term preferred by some early activists, small networks of women and men who yearned for community and found creative ways to resist legal and societal persecution.
With draft eligibility officially lowered from 21 to 18 in 1942, World War II brought together millions of people from around the country–many of whom were leaving their home states for the first time–to fill the ranks of the military and the federal workforce. Among them were gays and lesbians, who quietly formed kinships on military bases around the world. They served in silence, always fearful that revealing their identity to a potential new partner or friend could get them dishonorably discharged, if not court martialled. The military first developed formal punishments for homosexual behavior during WWI, and over time developed increasingly probing means to root out “deviants” from within and prevent them from enlisting. In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower implemented new standards for civil servants that banned homosexuals from serving in many positions.
The Lavender Scare
Thousands of members of the military and civil servants would be dismissed because of rules against homosexual behavior. A few anecdotes seemed to support the government’s reasoning homosexuals were a grave security threat because they could be blackmailed by foreign governments. The idea was hard to counter as few homosexuals were in a position to publicly discuss their identity.
In the years following WWII, homosexuals were more directly tied to communism. The Cold War period gave rise to Senator Joseph McCarthy, who explicitly targeted “deviants,” not only in government service, but also in Hollywood as part of a larger project to rid America of its undesirable elements. The highly publicized effort to rid the U.S. of communists came to be known as the “Red Scare,” while the effort to dismiss homosexuals would later be termed the “Lavender Scare.”
There were no out LGBTQ elected officials in the entire country.