You have probably heard about the Red Scare, when thousands of people lost their jobs in the 1950s for allegedly harboring Communist sympathies.
But have you ever heard of the “Lavender Scare” that happened during those same years?
Thousands of LGBT people lost their jobs due to discrimination. And on this day in Labor History, the year was 1953.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450.
The order declared that federal employees at all levels of the government needed to “be reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and of complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States.”
Later the order listed reasons federal employees could be fired, including: “Any criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction, sexual perversion.”
That last item was widely understood as a euphemism for gay or lesbian activity.
Major newspapers of the day often used the word “perversion” to refer to homosexuality.
The argument was made that homosexual people were a potential threat to national security, because foreign agents could blackmail them for information by threatening to reveal their sexual preferences.
More than 1,400 federal employees lost their jobs within the first four months after President Eisenhower signed the order.
This anti-homosexual discrimination extended beyond the federal government.
Industries that relied on government contracts took the order as a cue to conduct similar purges.
In 1957 World War II veteran and astronomer Dr. Frank Kameny was fired from the Army Map Service for being gay.
After his firing Kameny dedicated his life to leading the fight to end LGBT discrimination.
Today 29 states still do not have laws that explicitly prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
32 states offer no employment protections against discrimination based on gender identity.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show