The Lavender Scare:

Cold War Hysteria​​​​​​

         In 1947, a time of paranoia struck the U.S and its people. The government declared a possible communist threat and President Eisenhower ordered a fortified military to be assembled. The “democratic, capitalistic, Christian” society feared the “communistic, totalitarian, atheistic Soviets and Chinese” (Brennan, 115). This fear of communism was known as the Red Scare. Homosexuality was widely viewed as an immoral sin, which created an “antagonistic attitude toward homosexuals” (Ridinger, 34). The public hysteria worsened when Senator Joe McCarthy stated there were Communists within the State Department. People feared communist spies working in their government and this distrust spread to many outlier groups. This era of the Cold War was a particularly hard time in history for homosexuals and yet also ignited activist groups who fought for their civil rights.​​​​​​​