During the cold war, homosexuality was a huge concern in America. “Lavender Scare” is what it is referred to, where it was believed that homosexual people were more susceptible to blackmail than others in the U.S. Because our main enemy in the war was the soviets and the communists, it made them a target due to the communist ideologies. Which caused the public to consider homosexual individuals as security risks.
Another popular event that scared the people of the U.S was known as the “Red Scare”. Which was a perceived threat of the rise of communism. There were two periods of history where this posed a threat to Americans, the first came during the first world war, and the second in the early years of the cold war. The fear of Communist espionage spreading throughout different countries including the U.S meant our security state could be compromised if the wrong information gets out.
The connection between the “Lavender Scare” and the “Red Scare” is the moral fear of our security state being compromised. The Red Scare has a direct effect on the lavender scare, because of the belief that homosexuals at the time were more susceptible to blackmail. Which made them targets of the communists. Because of this fear, it caused many government employees to be fired and laid off if there was suspicion of their sexuality.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was the spokesman of these beliefs. In the article it says “Senator McCarthy himself played a role in popularizing these antihomosexual purges” (Friedman) McCarthy had used the widespread fear of communism to target a minority group in order to push his own political views and remove people from places of power.
Sexual innuendos in politics are used to put an untrustworthy image on government officials. I believe that they are still commonly used today in politics, an example of this is pictures of the former president Joe Biden, when pictures of him with children were posted with little to no context to make him look bad in the public eye. I don’t believe that sexual innuendos are the right way to push an opposing candidate’s campaign, but it is something that will continue to happen to make government officials look bad.
Will Wright 
First of all, you did well summarizing what had happened during that era. I would like to add continuity to this essay: the fact that Joe McCarthy’s tactics were soon used against him. For instance, they accused him of being homosexual and put out his relationship with his assistant Roy Cohn under the media.
Second, I share the same opinion as you when it comes to sexual innuendos still being used in today’s world in more implicit ways. And a question for you: do you think that politicians care whether it is the right or wrong way to push an opposing candidate’s campaign? I think their main focus is the goal and the objective they are looking for, and the tools used do not matter as much.
LikeLike