Running parallel to the Red Scare, a coordinated effort — codified in President Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450 (1953) — to identify, surveil, and dismiss suspected gay and lesbian federal workers as “security risks.” An estimated 5,000–10,000 federal employees were fired or forced to resign, and many more were denied employment. The State Department was the most aggressive enforcer. The policy remained partially in force until the Civil Service Commission lifted its blanket ban in 1975, and the executive order itself was not rescinded until 1995.

Why it’s been targeted

Coverage of the Lavender Scare appears almost exclusively in LGBTQ-history texts and AP Government supplementary readings, which have been removed from school libraries in Florida (Escambia, Clay, Duval), Texas (Granbury, Keller), and Iowa under SF 496. The 2023 College Board revision of AP African American Studies moved Bayard Rustin and Black queer history from required to optional after Florida’s HB 7 challenge. The Nation and others have explicitly drawn the comparison between contemporary “Don’t Say Gay” laws and the historical Lavender Scare.