Living in a Paradox: The Lavender Scare and the Creation of A Liminal Space
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v12i4.5768Keywords:
lavender scare, homosexuality, communism, cold war politics, cold war sexuality, lgbtqAbstract
This paper discusses the unique position the LGBTQ+ community holds in society, specifically around the 1960s. Unlike the second Red Scare, the paralleling Lavender Scare demonstrated the persecution of allegedly homosexual government employees under the guise of national security. Through analysis of the rhetoric and narratives that propagated during the Lavender Scare, many contradictions are uncovered to reveal the complexities of homosexuality in society. Furthermore, the community occupies a special liminal space of contradictions. Ultimately, its inability to be defined is a testament to the fluid nature of sexuality.
Downloads
References or Bibliography
Primary Sources
Deran, Betty. “VOICES of the Oral History Project of GLHSNC.” By Len Evans. May 7, 1983. https://docs.glbthistory.org/oh/Deran_Betty5-7-1983_web.pdf.
Florida Legislature, Legislative Investigation Committee. “Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida, a report of the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee”. January 1964. https://archive.org/details/ReportJan1964/page/n9/mode/2up
“Hearings Held Before Investigations Subcommittee, Committee on Expenditures in The Executive Departments”. July 14, 1950. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28748700.
McCarthy, Joe. Homosexuals in State Department. Audio Excerpt. February 9, 1952. https://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/DC/JRM/JRM_1952_Wheeling_excpt.pdf.
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. White House Central Name File. Kameny, Franklin E. JFKWHCNF-1418-002. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKWHCNF/1418/JFKWHCNF-1418-002.
Rolfs, Ted. “VOICES of the Oral History Project of GLHSNC- McCarthy Era Project.” By Len Evans. 1983. https://docs.glbthistory.org/oh/Rolfs_Ted1983_web.pdf.
Steward, Samuel. “VOICES of the Oral History Project of GLHSNC.” By Len Evans. July 2, 1983. https://docs.glbthistory.org/oh/Steward_Samuel7-2-1983_web.pdf.
Subcommittee on Investigations. Committee on Expenditures in The Executive Departments. “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government”. December 15, 1950. https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:fd720pb8753/employment-homosexuals-serialset.pdf.
Tex or J.R. (pseud) “VOICES of the Oral History Project of GLHSNC- McCarthy Era Project.” By Len Evans. https://docs.glbthistory.org/oh/Tex_web.pdf.
Tress, Madeline. “VOICES of the Oral History Project of GLHSNC- McCarthy Era Project.” By Len Evans. April 16, 1983. https://docs.glbthistory.org/oh/Tress_Madeline4-16-1983_web.pdf.
Scholarly Secondary Sources
Adkins, Judith. “These People Are Frightened to Death”. Prologue Magazine, National Archives, (2016). https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html.
Baumgardner, Jennifer. Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, (2008).
Cuordileone, K. A. “‘Politics in an Age of Anxiety’: Cold War Political Culture and the Crisis in American Masculinity, 1949-1960.” The Journal of American History 87, no. 2 (2000): 515–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2568762?searchText=&searchUri=&ab_segments=&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default%3Afe6ff069ea5b56751f32141d258b3b52.
Dumančić, Marko. Review of Spectrums of Oppression: Gender and Sexuality during the Cold War, by Michael S. Sherry, Robert J. Corber, and Jennifer V. Evans. Journal of Cold War Studies 16, no. 3 (2014): 190–204. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26924508.
Hansen, Will. “The Cold War and the Homophile, 1953–1963.” Australasian Journal of American Studies 38, no. 1 (2019): 79–96. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26926689.
Heatley, Holly S. “‘Commies and Queers’: Narratives That Supported The Lavender Scare. August 2007. https://rc.library.uta.edu/uta-ir/bitstream/handle/10106/584/umi-uta-1787.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1.
Johnson, David K. The Lavender Scare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
“McCarthyism”. Britannica. Accessed April 30, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/event/McCarthyism.
“Red Scare”. History.com, accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare.
Shibusawa, Naoko. “The Lavender Scare and Empire: Rethinking Cold War Antigay Politics.” Diplomatic History 36, no. 4 (2012): 723–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44376170.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2023 Sophie Mo; Matt Edmonds
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
