Understanding and Teaching U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History by Leila J. Rupp

Author:Leila J. Rupp [Leila J. Rupp and Susan K. Freeman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press

Conclusion

Because the mechanics of the Lavender Scare—the interrogations, resignations, and even suicides—happened largely behind closed doors, these stories have not made it into the historical record. Unlike the Red Scare, we have no news footage of accused homosexuals under Capitol Hill klieg lights facing their accusers. But the story is perhaps all the more powerful because it has been hidden for so long. Those who already teach about McCarthyism and the Red Scare will find inclusion of its lavender cousin not a burden but an advantage. It helps provide a more complete and nuanced understanding of the overall fear of subversives that characterized Cold War political culture. It helps explain how Reverend Billy Graham, defending McCarthy in 1954 against Senate censure, praised him for his work “exposing the pinks, the lavenders, and the reds who have sought refuge beneath the wings of the American Eagle.”9 By demonstrating how fear of political subversives overlapped with fear of sexual immorality, and how both had political motivations, it clarifies how and why Truman’s loyalty program expanded into the Eisenhower security program. It raises timely issues about the scapegoating of a disaffected minority, about real or imagined threats to national security, and about the risks and benefits of the expanding apparatus of the national security state. Ultimately it raises the issue of who is granted full citizenship rights in the United States and the constant historical tension between preserving both freedom and security.10

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