The Lavender Scarce

Following the change of charges in the course of February 1950, anti-communist Joseph McCarthy chose to feed into homophobic policies and attitudes in the 1950s by making headlines that said the state department harbored 205 republic women’s group that was car carrying group(David 15).  His statement faced several denials, particularly from journalists who ended up swarming his office, and thus his department was forced to declare a reduction of journalist’s status to bad risks and their number to 57. Besides, McCarthy’s statement led to more mounting pressure on providing specifics about his statement of hysteria feed into homophobic where he ended up standing in the US Senate chamber’s well in February 20 evening and gave detailed information about submissive he had alleged to be still working in the state department in what was dubbed by a reporter as one of the historical spectacles maddest of representative government(David 16).

His statements about the state department led to several consequences; among them was the change in state department responses, where the vacillated between more vague pronouncements and clear denials. For instance, john Peurifoy issued a press release that denied the department had harbored any communist (David17). Besides, there was a consequence of red scare to the tinge of lavender that was the psychological maladjustment of people towards communism.

The history of lavender scare contributes to our understanding of civil war as a battle of ideas that are fought in our home front in the US as much as broad by showing how people clearly deny their pronouncements regardless of how much they cause controversies among their department as leaders. For instance, when john Peurifoy issued a press release that denied what anti-communist John McCarthy had previously reported concerning the state department. In his statement, he stated that the “department had not harbored any communist.” (David 17). Contrary to his statement, the department had admitted to had dismissed two hundred and two “security risks.” Following these incidences, Dean Acheson, the secretary of state, had to make his first public appearance on capitol hill to listen to senators’ allegations. Just like it is usual with them not only in the US but also abroad, they began questioning the secretary about his understanding of “security rights,” hoping for support, but upon listening and thinking about the issue, the secretary noted that the department considered other criteria when screening its employees just as McCarthy had stated.

Work cited

Johnson, David K. “America’s Cold War empire: exporting the lavender scare.” (2013): 55.

Gómez, Amanda María. “Cuban Heritage Collection Undergraduate Scholar Report.”