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Lavender Scare
Mid-20th century U.S. government discrimination against homosexuals / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.[1] 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.[2] It was thought that gay people were more susceptible to being manipulated, which could pose a threat to the country.[3] Lesbians were at less risk of persecution than gay men, but some lesbians were interrogated or lost their jobs.
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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."[4]