In a New Century: Essays on Queer History, Politics, and Community Life

12. The Lavender Scare in Chicago

143 k 12 The Lav­ en­ der Scare in Chi­ cago If ­ you’ve ever taken a US his­ tory ­ course, ­ you’re bound to have spent some­ classes on the Cold War and McCarthy­ ism. It was a par­ a­ noid time. Hav­ ing just de­ feated fas­ cist pow­ ers in Eu­ rope and Asia, US lead­ ers grew fear­ ful of an im­ a­ gined Com­ mu­ nist ­ threat. The very ­ phrase “Cold War” sug­ gested that peace was an il­ lu­ sion, that the coun­ try al­ ways had to be ready for war. For the first time, the ­ United ­ States built a large per­ ma­ nent mil­ i­ tary. Mil­ i­ tar­ ism be­ came so pow­ er­ ful that even a for­ mer gen­ eral like Pres­ i­ dent Ei­ sen­ hower told ­ Americans to be­ ware of “the ­ military-industrial com­ plex.” To many pol­ i­ ti­ cians and jour­ nal­ ists, the Com­ mu­ nist men­ ace was much­ closer than the So­ viet Union. Jo­ seph ­ McCarthy, a sen­ a­ tor from Wis­ con­ sin, built his ca­ reer ­ around ac­ cus­ ing govern­ ment em­ ploy­ ees of being dis­ loyal. But ­ McCarthy was not alone in this. Lots of pub­ lic fig­ ures to­ gether ­ helped make the hunt for Com­ mu­ nists and their sym­ pa­ thiz­ ers a na­ tional cam­ paign. In the pro­ cess, pre­ cious free­ doms of ­ speech and as­ so­ ci­ a­ tion were com­ pro­ mised, and lives were ­ ruined. What most his­ tory ­ courses don’t tell you, how­ ever, is this: dur­ ing the­ McCarthy era, the witch hunt­ ers ­ ousted a lot more gay men, les­ bians, and bi­ sex­ u­ als from govern­ ment jobs and the mil­ i­ tary than they did po­ lit­ i­ cal rad­ i­ cals. David John­ son, a his­ to­ rian who stud­ ied at North­ west­ ern and now­ teaches at the Uni­ ver­ sity of South Flor­ ida, has writ­ ten a very grip­ ping book This essay first ap­ peared in Windy City Times, No­ vem­ ber 5, 2008. Part III: Local Stories 144 ti­ tled The Lav­ en­ der Scare. He of­ fers a close look at life in Wash­ ing­ ton, DC, in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, when the ­ purges of “sex per­ verts”—as gays, les­ bians, and bi­ sex­ u­ als were la­ beled—were at their ­ height and the per­ se­ cu­ tions most in­ tense. He ­ paints a ter­ rify­ ing por­ trait of govern­ ment in­ ves­ ti­ ga­ tions, se­ cret sur­ veil­ lance, and po­ lice abuse. Women and men lived in fear. Co­ work­ ers and neigh­ bors spied on one an­ other and be­ came in­ for­ mants. FBI and mil­ i­ tary in­ ves­ ti­ ga­ tors en­ gaged in chill­ ing inter­ ro­ ga­ tions of sus­ pects. Thou­ sands and thou­ sands of folks lost jobs or were ex­ pelled from the mil­ i­ tary. Many oth­ ers were cut off from pros­ pec­ tive em­ ploy­ ment. Some ­ packed up and left town; oth­ ers took their own lives. While John­ son nat­ u­ rally fo­ cused his story on Wash­ ing­ ton, DC, read­ ing his book made me cu­ ri­ ous as to ­ whether there was a Chi­ cago angle to the Lav­ en­ der Scare. Of ­ course, many fed­ eral em­ ploy­ ees lived in the city, from­ postal work­ ers to those who ­ staffed var­ i­ ous fed­ eral of­ fices, and they were sub­ ject to the ban on the em­ ploy­ ment of les­ bians, gays, and bi­ sex­ u­ als. But I won­ dered how or even ­ whether the in­ ves­ ti­ ga­ tions and ­ purges were cov­ ered by the local press. Even if most of the ac­ tion was in the ­ nation’s cap­ i­ tal, did local news cover­ age bring the story into ­ Chicago’s homes? Did ­ queers in Chi­ cago know about what was hap­ pen­ ing? What im­ pres­ sions about gay men and les­ bians did the press per­ pet­ u­ ate? Sure ­ enough, the Trib­ une gave prom­ i­ nent cover­ age to the issue. The story broke early in 1950 when a State De­ part­ ment of­ fi­ cial men­ tioned in pass­ ing that a num­ ber of fired se­ cur­ ity risks were homo...