While most people are familiar with the “Red Scare” of the 1950s, the Lavender Scare was a lesser known but equally dangerous part of this period. During the Red Scare, federal workers were interrogated, fired, and some, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were even executed with the justification that the government was rooting out communist spies.

The full extent of the Lavender Scare is still unknown, as documents related to the period still hadn’t been released to the public as of 2017.

What LGBTQ+ Life Was Like Before the Lavender Scare

To understand how the Lavender Scare came about, it’s important to first look at the period just before. In many ways, the 1920s and 1930s were a golden age for LGBTQ+ Americans.

After World War I, the Roaring ‘20s welcomed a new period of cultural and sexual freedom. With a booming economy and a renewed zest for life, the once rigid rules for American society began to loosen up. LGBTQ+ spaces flourished and nightlife and speakeasies were a common meeting point for these communities. Movies, songs, and other forms of entertainment increasingly featured LGBTQ+ themes and characters and the general American public began hearing about LGBTQ+ topics for the first time.

The Backlash

In 1934, the Hays Code was introduced to silence any content that wasn’t deemed “wholesome,” “moral,” and “correct thinking.” It ordered that no film should “lower the moral standards of those who see it” and that “the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin.” This included such acts as sex (or even kissing that was a little too passionate), mocking religion, and illegal drug use.

It also banned interracial romances as well as any and all topics related to LGBTQ+ people.

This new morality standard set the scene for the late 1930s through 1940s, as church leaders and government officials sought to control public morality. Though World War II made the government focus on a unified country above all else, when it ended, so did the remaining tolerance for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Timeline of the Lavender Scare

The Lavender Scare was a joint effort by different branches of America’s government to target and remove LGBTQ+ employees from the federal government.

The end of World War II in 1945 marked the start of the Cold War. Suddenly, communists were the boogeyman of American living rooms. Within the next decade, everything changed for LGBTQ+ Americans—particularly those in the federal workforce.

1946-1949

  • 1946: Congress passed a budget with a rider that allowed the secretary of state to dismiss any federal employees for the sake of national security.
  • 1947: The U.S. Park Police began a “Sex Perversion Elimination Program” which targeted gay men for engaging in consensual same-sex relations.
    • President Truman also passed an executive order that demanded loyalty from federal workers and targeted anyone who displayed “immoral” conduct.
  • 1948: Congress passed a law “for the treatment of sexual psychopaths” that defined sexual psychopaths as “a person, not insane, who by a course of repeated misconduct in sexual matters has evidenced such lack of power to control his sexual impulses as to be dangerous to other persons because he is likely to attack or otherwise inflict injury, loss, pain, or other evil on the objects of his desires.” The acts targeted by this law included indecent exposure, sexual acts involving children, prostitution, and sodomy. 
    • Despite the statement that a “sexual psychopath” was not considered insane, they were listed as a “patient” throughout the act, were examined by psychiatrists to determine if they fit this term, and committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital (formerly known as the Government Hospital for the Insane) if they were found guilty. There, they could be held until the Superintendent of the hospital determined that they’d “sufficiently recovered.”

1950

By 1950, LGBTQ+ Americans and communists were becoming increasingly linked by politicians who saw both as godless, going against “traditional” family values, and morally weak or psychologically disturbed. Though a memo to the secretary of state outright stated that there was no evidence to support the claim that LGBTQ+ people were any threat to national security, it went on to add that the “tendency toward character weaknesses” still made LGBTQ+ employees unsuited for work in the federal government.           

  • February: Senator Joseph McCarthy made a now-infamous speech claiming to have the names of 250 known communists who were currently employed within the state department. Of these, two were suspected communists simply because they were identified as homosexual.
  • March to May: The Wherry-Hill Investigation was a committee of two who sought to create a procedure to identify and fire “moral perverts” and prevent them from being hired or rehired by the federal government. During this period, a supposed 90 out of 100 suspected LGBTQ+ people resigned, which the committee took to mean a larger scale effort would yield more substantial results across the government.
  • June: The newly created Hooey Committee took over where the Wherry-Hill Investigation had left off. They led unprecedented surveillance of employees who were suspected to be LGBTQ+ and provided input into how to legislate a master database of identified LGBTQ+ people. 
  • December: The Hooey Committee submitted a report to the Senate encouraging federal agencies to aggressively enforce policies regarding “immoral conduct.” This report laid the groundwork for decades of further discrimination by declaring LGBTQ+ Americans national security threats simply for their sexuality.

1952 to 1953

  • 1952: The American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as “a sociopathic personality disturbance.” This was not changed until decades later.
  • 1953: President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an executive order that barred any employees suspected of being LGBTQ+ from all levels of the federal government. This order stayed in effect until the 1960s.

Progress Since

  • 1975: The Lavender Scare officially came to an end when the U.S. Civil Service Commission reversed the ban, ensuring that LGBTQ+ people could no longer be barred or fired from the federal government because of their sexuality.
  • 1993: President Bill Clinton signed the policy “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which ended the ban on LGBTQ+ military members but required them to keep their sexual identity secret.
  • 1998: Clinton issued an executive order removing most remaining limitations for LGBTQ+ federal employees.
  • 2011: “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed.
  • 2017: President Barack Obama officially repealed Eisenhower’s executive order banning LGBTQ+ employees from the federal government. Secretary of State John Kerry also made a formal apology to LGBTQ+ federal employees, saying, “These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today.”

Lasting Impacts

Throughout the Lavender Scare, between 10,000 to tens of thousands were fired from federal employment, though the true impact is difficult to estimate, as anyone who was not fired was required to keep their identity a secret in order to stay employed.

Those who were fired often faced unemployment or underemployment, as they were barred from federal jobs and faced discrimination and exclusion in the private sector. “Guilt by association” meant that even those who admitted to knowing LGBTQ+ people became targets during this period, which further isolated the community. According to government archives, “Suicide was not uncommon. Some of these tragedies we know about; others remain forever hidden because obituaries typically omitted the cause of death in such cases.”

Could History Repeat Itself?

In many ways, we’ve once again been living in a golden era of LGBTQ+ acceptance. From the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to the 2015 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right to same-sex marriage, the 2010s saw huge strides in LGBTQ+ rights.

By 2022, 61% of Americans had a positive view of the legalization of same-sex marriage, a total reversal of surveys from as recently as 2004. In February, Gallup announced that 9.3% of Americans now identify as LGBTQ+, a number which has doubled since 2020, suggesting that an increasing number of people are comfortable being “out.”

However, with progress also comes backlash.

Over the last two years, the American public’s acceptance and support of transgender individuals has noticeably decreased. While the majority of Americans still support protections for transgender people in jobs, housing, and public spaces, more than ever believe that schools teaching anything related to gender identity should be illegal.  

Given this national shift, it’s perhaps not surprising that 78% of LGBTQ+ American adults expect President Donald Trump’s administration to negatively impact those who are transgender, and 71% expect the same for the rest of the queer community.    

January 2025

On his first day of office, Trump signed an executive order that claimed to defend women “from gender ideology extremism” and “restore biological truth to the federal government.” This order  included but was not limited to:

  • Defining Sex: The order declared that there were only two sexes (male and female) and that “gender identity” would not be acknowledged or factored into any nondiscrimination laws.
  • Federal Identity Document Gender Markers: It removed the “X” designation for non-binary individuals and required that any future passports, visas, or Global Entry cards (including renewals) use the sex assigned at birth regardless of legal gender on other official documents. It also designated that the Office of Personnel Management “shall ensure” that the records of Federal employees reflect their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender.
  • Dismantling LGBTQ+ Discrimination Protections: The order encouraged agencies to ignore the previously established interpretation of the 2020 Supreme Court decision (Bostock v. Clayton County), which prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace, educational institutions, housing, health care, and more.
  • Bathroom Separation: It stated that agencies should take “appropriate action to ensure intimate spaces,” such as bathrooms, were designated by sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity. It also specified that officials “prioritize investigations and litigation” related to a person’s right to single-sex spaces in the workplace.
  • Remove Federal Funding for LGBTQ+ Topics: Trump halted federal funding that was in any way related to LGBTQ+ topics or individuals. (However, since then, the courts have stepped in to indefinitely block this move.)
  • Remove Documents Related to LGBTQ+ Topics: Ordered agency heads to “promptly rescind all guidance documents inconsistent with the requirements of this order.” This includes but is not limited to documents such as, “the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s ‘Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace,’” “U.S. Department of Education Toolkit: Creating Inclusive and Nondiscriminatory School Environments for LGBTQI+ Students,” “Supporting Intersex Students: A Resource for Students, Families, and Educators,” and “Supporting Transgender Youth in School.”
  • Removing References to Gender in Federal Agencies: The order instructed federal agencies to “remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal or external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.” This led to several federal agencies ordering the removal of pronouns from employee email signatures.
  • Transgender women moved to men’s prisons: The order called for all prison occupants to be housed according to their sex assigned at birth, meaning transgender women were to be moved to men’s prisons.
  • Trump directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to end all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) “mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities.”

Within his first week, Trump reinstated and expanded the ban on transgender Americans serving in the military. Since then, the Pentagon has announced that it plans to create a procedure to identify transgender service members and discharge them from the military within the next thirty days.

In a memo, Pentagon leadership stated that any diagnosed history (past or present) or “exhibited symptoms” of gender dysphoria makes a person “incompatible with military service.” It also states that service members must meet “high standards” of “readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity” and that this is “inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints” on those with gender dysphoria. 

On January 29, Trump issued a new executive order that characterized discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in public schools as “radical, anti-American ideologies.” The order warned of potential prosecution of any teachers or officials who mentioned such topics to children, falsely characterizing them as “sexually exploiting minors” by acknowledging their pronouns and gender identity. It also instructed schools to “promote patriotic education” and reestablished the 1776 Commission on Promoting Patriotic Education, which was previously criticized by the American Historical Association.

February 2025

On Feb. 25, Christopher F. Rufo, a City Journal writer, shared screenshots from employee chats that took place within the National Security Agency (NSA) employee’s internal system. These chats were within LGBTQ+ employee resource group meetings and spaces, discussing topics such as gender transition surgery and polyamory, according to  Rufo. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated on X that these workers had been identified and that “action is underway.” The same day, she told Fox News that she “put out a directive today that they will all be terminated and their security clearances will be revoked.” According to Deputy Chief of Staff Alexa Henning’s post on X, all intelligence agencies were told to “identify employees who participated” in the chatrooms and “to terminate their employment and revoke their security clearances.” 

March 2025

As of March 11, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported there were 511 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the U.S., 449 of which were advancing beyond their initial introduction, and three of which had already passed. At 74 bills, Texas has the highest number of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation currently being introduced or advanced at the state level. One such bill would make it a felony to use anything but your sex assigned at birth on public documents or employment records, punishable with fines up to $10,000 and up to two years in prison.

On March 4, President Trump gave the joint address to Congress where he highlighted his term so far, including his executive orders aimed at LGBTQ+ individuals. He stated that “we’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government, and indeed, the private sector and our military.” He also focused on transgender people at times, saying that one of his executive orders was “banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.”

What You Can Do to Resist a Future Lavender Scare

For those wondering what can be done, here are a few actions individuals can take to protect themselves and their communities:

Keep your community safe: Most social media and messaging apps are not a safe place for discussing LGBTQ+ topics or organizing efforts. For written communications, switch to apps like Signal which focus on privacy and aren’t in the current administration’s pocket. When in doubt, focus on in-person communication outside of federally run buildings.

Make your voice heard: There has been a rise in backlash against legislators recently, from huge turnouts at town hallsto good, old-fashioned protesting. Apps like 5Calls have simplified the process of reaching out to Congress and are a great, low-energy, low-time-commitment way to get started. 

Strengthen your community: Now is the time to seek out LGBTQ+ spaces and find the others in your area who are facing similar challenges. When governments fail us, it’s our friends, family, neighbors, and community members who step up to help.