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- Three Democratic representatives this week re-introduced legislation to correct the employment records of State Department employees who were terminated as a result of the “Lavender Scare” in the 1950s and 1960s.
- Under the measure, a report of the dismissals will be publicly available and include historical statements from department heads and members of Congress describing policies or actions related to the scare.
- The “Lavender Scare” was a period of around two decades during which between 5,000 and 10,000 U.S. government employees were ousted from their posts because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.
Three Democratic representatives this week re-introduced legislation to address past and present issues faced by LGBTQ+ government employees and U.S. diplomats.
The Lavender Offense Victim Exoneration (LOVE) Act, introduced Tuesday by Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), David Cicilline (D-Calif.) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.), would “correct historic injustices” by reviewing the dismissal of State Department employees who were fired during the Cold War because of their sexual orientation.
The legislation is named for what is now known as the “Lavender Scare,” a period of around two decades during which between 5,000 and 10,000 U.S. government employees were ousted from their posts because they were – or were perceived to be – gay, including an estimated 1,000 State Department employees.
The measure was first introduced in 2020 by Castro and Cicilline, but failed to advance out of a House committee. Similar legislation was introduced in the Senate in 2017.
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The measure would charge the Secretary of State with reviewing all terminations of State Department employees that resulted from the Lavender Scare and compile a publicly available report that includes historical accounts from department heads and members of Congress describing policies or actions related to the scare.
The LOVE Act would also establish a “reconciliation board” composed of federal officials and other members selected by the Secretary of State to correct the employment records of dismissed employees. An “advancement board” would also be created to address current issues faced by LGBTQ+ foreign service personnel and their families.
“Today, as the United States confronts renewed threats to LGBTQI+ rights at home and abroad, we need to remember the far-reaching consequences of institutionalized homophobia,” Castro, the bill’s primary sponsor, said this week in a statement. “The so-called ‘Lavender Scare’ handed power to blackmailers and homophobes, stripped thousands of hard-working Americans of their jobs, and weakened our national security.”
“As we celebrate Pride Month, I’m proud to introduce the LOVE Act, which is an important step forward to address the harms of the Lavender Scare and protect today’s State Department employees from discrimination,” Castro said.
In a statement, Cicilline, who chairs the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus, said the measure was an important step in ensuring history does not repeat itself.
“For too long, LGBTQ+ individuals serving this country were persecuted and wrongfully terminated by our own government for who they are and who they love,” he said. “As we work to correct the mistakes of the past and ensure equality and equity for those serving now, it’s long past time the government acknowledges and apologizes for the harm caused.”
Historians have tracked the beginnings of the Lavender Scare to 1946, when Congress gave then-Secretary of State James F. Byrnes broad discretion to dismiss workers deemed “security risks,” leading to the firing of 91 gay State Department employees.
Former Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin best known for launching a series of highly publicized probes into government agencies he believed to have been infiltrated by Communist spies, had drawn a nonexistent link between homosexuality and Communism, believing gay people were more easily manipulated.
Their employment in the federal government, he warned, could put the safety of the entire nation at risk.
Later, in 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which barred gay and lesbian Americans from working in federal service on the grounds that their sexual orientation made them more vulnerable to blackmail. Although the U.S. Civil Service Commission and the State Department each lifted the policy in the 1970s, Eisenhower’s order wasn’t officially repealed until 2017.
A portion of the order that restricted employment and national security access based on sexual orientation was repealed more than two decades earlier under President Bill Clinton.
Under the LOVE Act, a permanent exhibit on the Lavender Scare will also be erected at the Department of State’s National Museum of American Diplomacy, providing access to some of the collected information on each of the wrongful terminations.
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