10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked | Southern Poverty Law Center

Contents:

• YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF THE RED SRE, BUT THE LSER-KNOWN, ANTI-GAY 'LAVENR SRE' IS RARELY TGHT SCHOOLS
• LAVENR SRE: THE GOVERNMENT’S GAY WCH HUNT
• THE LAVENR SRE: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S ANTI-GAY PURGE
• THE ERA WHEN GAY SPI WERE FEARED
• I'M AAID THAT I'M GAY
• GAY HISTORY: 9 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT ‘THE LAVENR SRE’
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF THE RED SRE, BUT THE LSER-KNOWN, ANTI-GAY 'LAVENR SRE' IS RARELY TGHT SCHOOLS

Known as the “Lavenr Sre, ” the policy was based on the unfound fear that gay men and lbians “posed a threat to natnal secury bee they were vulnerable to blackmail and were nsired to have weak moral characters, ” says historian David K. Joseph McCarthy’s fear-mongerg “Red Sre” mpaign the early 1950s, which targeted alleged subversive munists workg the feral ernment, thoands of ernment employe were forced out of their jobs as a rult of the anti-gay policy.

Johnson timat that somewhere between 5, 000 and 10, 000 people lost their jobs as a rult of the Lavenr Sre, although is difficult to know the te number of people affected, as the policy acted as a terrent to any gay man or lbian woman who would have been prospective ndidat for ernment jobs. Acrdg to a 1983 oral history terview wh drag kg Rty Brown, who served the Navy, the fear went even beyond Washgton, permeatg the entertament dtry Hollywood and the bars and nightclubs New York Cy, as people were aaid they would be fired if their employers found out they were gay.

LAVENR SRE: THE GOVERNMENT’S GAY WCH HUNT

And although 1975 the Civil Service Commissn announced new l that meant gay people uld no longer be barred or fired om feral employment bee of their sexualy, discrimatn ntued other agenci where employe had secury clearance, like the NSA, where Shoemaker worked. And although Pete Buttigieg was recently announced as print-elect Joe Bin’s pick for Transportatn Secretary, which would make him the first openly gay Cabet member, discrimatn agast members of the LGBTQ muny is still prent current U. Kameny wasn’t the only person galvanized by the public targetg of LGBT people— 1969, the Stonewall Rts ma gay rights a ont-page issue, and the movement Kameny helped start and the Lavenr Sre helped foment has flourished ever sce.

Only the 1970s was the ban on gay telligence muny members relaxed, and took until 1995 for another executive orr, signed by Print Bill Clton, to explicly state that the ernment may not discrimate based on sexual orientatn when to grantg accs to classified rmatn. The term Lavenr Sre refers to the intifitn and firg of some 5, 000 homosexual people om the US ernment between 1950 and Lavenr Sre was nnected to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Red Sre heargs tend to purge munists and munist sympathizers om ernment. Though most feral agenci reversed their polici on LGBTQ discrimatn employment after the 1973 urt orr, the FBI and Natnal Secury Agency ntued their bans agast homosexuals until Print Clton overturned them 1995.

THE LAVENR SRE: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S ANTI-GAY PURGE

In 2009, Frank Kameny returned to the Whe Hoe, this time at the vatn of Print Barack Obama for a ceremony observg the signg of an executive orr extendg the rights of gay feral employe to receive full feral benefs. Jt over a week later, Deputy Unrsecretary of State John Prifoy, ttifyg before a submtee of the Senate Commtee on Appropriatns, revealed that the State Department had oted 91 homosexual employe as secury risks.

In rponse to Wherry and Hill's remendatns, rolved on June 7, 1950, to unrtake a thorough, prehensive vtigatn of "the alleged employment by the partments and agenci of the Government of homosexuals and other moral perverts. The staff first ntacted a wi range of feral agenci to ascerta the number of spected homosexuals vtigated or removed om employment and to quire about the agency's related polici and procr and s general stance on the suabily of gay employe.

"Sce is possible, acrdg to our unrstandg of medil and psychiatric opn on the subject, for a homosexual to lead a normal, well-adjted life, we do not nsir that such a person necsarily nstut a bad secury risk.

THE ERA WHEN GAY SPI WERE FEARED

Staff vtigators wrote to and terviewed proment psychiatrists and other medil thori to ascerta whether homosexuals uld be tected through psychiatric examatn, whether and how they uld be cured, whether they lacked the emotnal stabily necsary for ernment service, whether they tend to sce younger men and women, and whether would be helpful to have psychiatrists on personnel boards charged wh intifyg homosexuals.

Acrdg to Thomas Qun, associate judge of the municipal urt, the Hoey mtee's Flanagan met early Augt wh Gee Barse, chief judge of the municipal urt, "wh regard to homosexual s, and wh particular regard to the matter of forfeur. " In his November 30 reply to Hoey, Ford ncurred wh the chairman's suggtn that, henceforth, FBI rmatn about any Hoe or Senate employee arrted on charg of homosexualy should be forward to the chair of that chamber's mtee on admistratn.

I'M AAID THAT I'M GAY

Although the "revolutn" was of a different sort than Ra (or McCarthy) imaged, Kameny and his fellow activists, unr the prsure of risg discrimatn, brought about their own kd of revolutn: a changed world for gay feral workers.

Charl, Hoover's War on Gays: Exposg the FBI’s "Sex Deviat" Program (2015); Lillian Farman, The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle (2015); Lda Hirshman, Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolutn (2012); and Michael G. And the ightened people he was referrg to were the men and women beg targeted as part of a mpaign now known as the Lavenr Sre, the systematic removal of at least 5, 000 spected homosexuals om their ernment jobs.

GAY HISTORY: 9 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT ‘THE LAVENR SRE’

At a time when homosexualy wasn’t wily accepted, McCarthy claimed that orr for a homosexual to keep their sexual orientatn private, they would reveal ernment secrets to those who were threateng to out them. Newspapers nounced Athet as effemate, not least one of the proment lears of the movement, Osr Wil, who equently remisced about his “purple hours” spent wh rent boys, and provoked a moral sndal wh the homoerotic them “The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Gay men Ameri were tnted for posssg a “dash” or “streak” of lavenr, thanks large part to Abraham Lln’s bgrapher Carl Sandburg, who scribed one of the print’s early male iendships as ntag a “streak of lavenr, and spots soft as May vlets. Lavenr sash and armbands were distributed to a crowd of hundreds a “gay power” march om Washgton Square Park to Stonewall Inn New York, to memorate the Stonewall rts that had jt taken place a month before. The lor, St Clair said, has been buoyed by the ton achieved by the LGBTQ muny recent years, cludg some untry’s mov to legalize same-sex marriage, and the US, gay mayor Pete Buttigieg’s printial n and last year’s Met Gala theme of “Camp: Not on Fashn.

” The “attacks on gay and transgenr civil rights by the current admistratn, ” she add, has also creased the spotlight on the muny, enuragg them “to rally around each other and explore and celebrate intifyg symbols that have been important to them the past.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

HOCD is not to be misnsted wh nial or sexual reprsn, as those who are reprsg their te sexualy know that they are attracted to the same sex but ph away, often due to shame that om livg a heteronormative and homophobic world. The realy is that we live a very heteronormative world, which is reflected through mastream media showsg heterosexual relatnships, lack of diversy polics, relig groups that nounce homosexualy and claim—wh zero evince—that gay folks will go to hell, and laws that enable discrimatn agast the LGBTQIA+ muny. A memo wrten to the Secretary of State 1950 stated that no evince had been found to support the claim that LGBTQ+ people were any threat to natnal secury, and yet “the tenncy toward character weakns has led to the ncln that the known homosexual is unsued for employment the Department.

The Mattache Society's missn was, “to ‘unify homosexuals‘ [and] to erase om our law books the discrimatory and opprsive legislatn…”6 The founrs also regnized that there was an LGBTQ+ culture that should be celebrated.

One article listed the pros of picketg as prott, statg: “For three years the CSC (Civil Service Commissn) had been explicly refg to meet wh spokmen for the homosexual muny… After the picketg the CSC agreed to a meetg.