Monday, April 14, 2014

The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government

David K. Johnson (University of South Florida). The Lavender Scare (The University of Chicago Press, 2004).  

"Warning of a spreading homosexual menace, McCarthy and his Republican allies introduced 'moral values' into the American political arsenal and helped win back the White House after twenty years of Democratic control. Drawing on newly declassified documents and interviews with former government officials, Johnson chronicles how the myth that homosexuals threatened national security ruined thousands of lives and pushed many to suicide."
The Lavender Scare book jacket