The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government Audiobook (Free)

In Cold War America, Senator Joseph McCarthy enjoyed great support in the fight what he called atheistic communism. But that support stemmed less from his crazy charges about communists than his more substantiated fees that ‘sex perverts’ experienced infiltrated government companies. Although now kept in mind as an strike on suspected disloyalty, McCarthyism launched ‘moral values’ in to the American political arsenal. Warning of the spreading homosexual menace, McCarthy and his Republican allies learned how to win votes.

Winner of 3 book awards, The Lavender Scare masterfully traces the roots of modern sexual politics to Chilly War hysteria over country wide security. Sketching on recently declassified papers and interviews with previous government officials, historian David Johnson chronicles the way the myth that homosexuals threatened national security determined government policy for decades, ruined thousands of lives, and pushed many to suicide. As Johnson displays, this misconception not only outlived McCarthy but, from the 1960s, helped release a fresh civil privileges struggle.