Category Archives: Week 3: Cold War Politics

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 dueContinue reading “Cold War Politics”

The era in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s where a fear of communism was to grasp the United States. Stirred up by the tensions between the Soviet Union and the US following the Berlin blockade and the declaration of the cold war through the Truman doctrine. Senator Joeseph Mcarthy was the figurehead behind theContinue reading “Homophobia and Anti-communism in tandem- The inversion of reaction”

In Andrea Friedman’s article, Smearing of Joe McCarthy, we see how homophobia was weaponized during the Cold War era, to disenfranchise figures like Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI) leading to his complete downfall from the political sphere. While McCarthy is remembered to this date as one of the faces of political repression, the article does claimContinue reading “Smearing of Joe McCarthy and the Politics of Fear”

Lavender is the new Red or something like that. In the 1950s communist purges were occurring throughout the United States. Whether from the blue-collar workers to the Hollywood stars if you were a red Joe Mccarthy was going to find you. Yet in the story of this man who headed up the red scare wasContinue reading “Well I Guess They’re Both Primary Colors”

During the Cold War, the “Lavender Scare” was when anyone who was a suspected homosexual, were found, detained, and dismissed from any government, political, or military job (Friedman). While the “Lavender Scare” was about finding homosexuals in the government and the “Red Scare” was about finding communists, they both compared how a homosexual or communistContinue reading “Domestic Cold War: Hidden Communists and their ties to sexuality”

The “Lavender Scare” refers to the widespread fear of gay people and homosexuality during the time of the Cold War. It is often compared to the “Red Scare,” as both homosexuality and communism were perceived by the populace as morally corrupt, dangerous, and akin to slavery. Additionally, Americans were scared of the two because ofContinue reading “The Red Scare and the Lavender Scare: Two Sides of the Same Coin”

The Lavander Scare was a fear among the United States people that there were homosexual people within our government. This is connected to the Red Scare during the Cold War because many people during the Red Scare were scared there were communists within our government and within the people of the United States. The connectionContinue reading “Lavander Scare”

In McCarthy’s era of politics, America was being united against a domestic foreign enemy; the fear of Communists and especially the idea of a neighbor working for the Russians. However, there’s one other domestic issue that was being tackled, the fear of homosexuality began to spread among the people in a fashion commonly referred toContinue reading “Chemicals In the Water: Homophobia in Cold War-era American Politics”

The Lavender Scare was a period of time in which thousands of people identifying as LGBT were forced to resign as they were believed to be a threat to national security. This relates to the Red Scare as it demonstrates the impact of moral panics. Anyone who identified in a way that “contradicted” American valuesContinue reading “Lavender Scare”

The Lavender Scare can be described as a period of moral panic about members of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically those identifying as gay or lesbian, holding roles in the United States government. What started as panic among the public quickly transformed into active repression against homosexual people. Specifically, thousands of federal government employees lost theirContinue reading “Paranoia, Persecution, and Politics Fueled by Sexual Innuendos”