Season 6 Ep 4: Executive Order 10450 and The Lavender Scare

On April 27th, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, a quiet but devastating policy that institutionalized fear, fueled decades of discrimination against LGBTQ people, and erased countless lives from public service. Our host, Kathleen Barker, will unpack the context that led to this order, how it impacted generations of Americans, and why understanding this history matters more today than ever.

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Transcript

Deb Fowler: Hello, and welcome to UnErasing LGBTQ History and Identities: A Podcast. I’m Deb Fowler, co-founder of History UnErased. 

In this episode, we’re diving into Executive Order 10450, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in April of 1953—this was a quiet but devastating policy that launched the “Lavender Scare,” allowing the federal government to fire or deny employment to anyone suspected of being, using the language of the time, homosexual. It institutionalized fear, fueled decades of discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and erased countless lives from public service.

Our host, Kathleen Barker, will unpack the context that led to this order, how it impacted generations of Americans, and why understanding this history matters today more than ever.

Take it away, Kathleen! 

Kathleen Barker: Although presidents cannot create new laws (only Congress has that authority) executive orders can influence how existing laws are enforced. These orders do not exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by the politics and culture of the era in which they are created. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1942 Executive Order 9066, for example, was issued when the United States was at war with Japan, and it led to the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II. Fear, racism and a perceived threat of attack led Roosevelt to make this inhumane decision. Some executive orders, however, pave the way for progress, such as Harry Truman’s executive order 9981, which ended racial segregation in the United States Military. This 1948 order was an important step on the path to greater civil rights for African Americans. 

To understand the Lavender Scare and Executive Order 10450, we have to consider the context. In the 1950s, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full swing. America was nervous—afraid of spies, nuclear war, and the spread of communism, and events at home and abroad helped foster this fear. In 1948, Alger Hiss, a high-ranking U.S. government official who worked in the State Department during and after World War II, was  accused of secretly being a Communist and spying for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. In August 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb. The Chinese Revolution ended in October 1949, with the most populous country in the world now under a communist dictator, Mao Zedong. This fear of communism turned into paranoia, and the government began searching for any “threat” to national security.

Several months later, on February 9, 1950, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that he had a list of Communists who were working in the U.S. government. Suspected Communists were hunted, questioned, blacklisted, and even jailed—often with little or no proof. At the same time, a parallel attack was brewing… something quieter, but just as devastating. Instead of focusing solely on Communists and people with so-called “leftist” beliefs, people in power also began targeting another group they considered “dangerous”: members of the LGBTQ community.

This targeting of the LGBTQ community was known as the Lavender Scare. The term “lavender” was often used as a coded reference to homosexuality, and during this time, government officials claimed that members of the LGBTQ community were a security risk. Why? Well, officials believed that if someone was gay, they might be vulnerable to blackmail by foreign agents. The thinking was that if a person was hiding something – like their sexual orientation – they were susceptible to bribery by nefarious actors, including Communist agents. This logic was obviously deeply flawed—but widely accepted. There was zero evidence that this ever happened. But fear doesn’t always care about facts. In 1950, the U.S. State Department fired 91 employees because they were “homosexual” or suspected of being homosexual. In the next two years, nearly 200 more State Department employees were dismissed for the same reason. No actual breaches in security could be traced to any employee labeled “homosexual” before, or after, the State Department began its purges.

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, expanding the federal government’s ability to fire employees considered a threat to national security. This order allowed the federal government to fire employees or reject job applicants, not just for criminal behavior or disloyalty, but for anything seen as “immoral” or a “security risk.” On paper, it was about loyalty and safety—but if you read between the lines, you’ll see it was really about something else: sexuality.

Danny Roberts as President Eisenhower: Executive Order 10450--Security requirements for Government employment.

WHEREAS the interests of the national security require that all persons privileged to be employed in the departments and agencies of the Government, shall be reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and of complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States; …

Sec. 8. (a) The investigations conducted pursuant to this order shall be designed to develop information as to whether the employment or retention in employment in the Federal service of the person being investigated is clearly consistent with the interests of the national security. Such information shall relate, but shall not be limited, to the following:

(1) Depending on the relation of the Government employment to the national security:

(i) Any behavior, activities, or associations which tend to show that the individual is not reliable or trustworthy.

(ii) Any deliberate misrepresentations, falsifications, or omissions of material facts.

(iii) Any criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction, sexual perversion.

(iv) Any illness, including any mental condition, of a nature which in the opinion of competent medical authority may cause significant defect in the judgment or reliability of the employee, with due regard to the transient or continuing effect of the illness and the medical findings in such case.

(v) Any facts which furnish reason to believe that the individual may be subjected to coercion, influence, or pressure which may cause him to act contrary to the best interests of the national security…

KB: Executive Order 10450 labeled “sexual perversion” as grounds for dismissal. It effectively institutionalized discrimination across all federal agencies and even influenced state governments and private contractors. With this order in place, thousands of people were investigated, interrogated, and dismissed from their jobs—often in secret, with no chance to defend themselves. Just being suspected of being gay could end your career. The phrase “Sexual Perversion” became the government’s green light to target gay and lesbian federal employees, forcing thousands out of their jobs, careers, and communities. This campaign of fear became known as the Lavender Scare. The Order also used “illness, including mental condition” as a cause for investigation. In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as a “personality disturbance” in the first edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This added another potential avenue of persecution for the LGBTQ community. 

One of those individuals who lost their job as a result of the Scare was Frank Kameny. 

Kameny was a Harvard-trained astronomer, and World War II veteran, working for the U.S. Army Map Service. In a 2003 oral history, now in the collection of the Library of Congress, Kameny recalled one particular question he had to answer on the day of his induction into the United States Army in 1943.

Frank Kameny: “Oh, yes. Because I remember very much, uh, mentioning to my mother just exactly this, when I came back and told her about signing up, and I said, "There was one question in there," we didn't explore it, and then the question didn't come up outside the family at all, but there was one question which said, "Do you have homosexual tendencies?" That was the way they worded it, and that to my best of recollection is a verbatim statement of what the question was. And, uh, knowing fully well that I did, I said "No." And, oh, and that was the end of the issue for the remainder of my Army career.” [This audio file is from the Library of Congress, 3:39 - 4:30. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.05208/]

KB: After serving with the 58th Armored Infantry Battalion in the European Theater during World War II, Private First Class Franklin E. Kameny returned home to pursue a doctorate in astronomy. In 1957, he was fired after the government found out he was gay. Just like that, his career in science was over. Did he know that this was a possibility when he went to work for the Army Map Service?

Frank Kameny: “Well, it was generally known, I mean, at this point I can sort of answer with a certain amount of legalistic precision. I couldn't then, and, but I simply knew that, that you would be thrown out. And of course nowadays, I mean, if it is, if it happens, you have a great many society defenses, societally and culturally and so on, it's not the kind of stigmatizing disaster anymore-it's bad enough, I'm not, I'm not making light of it but it's not quite the stigmatizing type of disaster that it would have been back then.” [This audio file is from the Library of Congress, 40:09 - 40:51. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.05208/]

KB: But unlike many others, Kameny didn’t go quietly. Instead of walking away, he fought back. He appealed his dismissal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court—becoming the first person to challenge a firing based on sexual orientation at that level. Although the Court refused to hear his case, it lit a fire in him that would burn for the rest of his life. 

Kameny quickly shifted from scientist to activist. He co-founded the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest LGBTQ rights organizations in the country. He helped organize the first public pickets for gay rights—including in front of the White House in the mid-1960s. These weren’t wild, chaotic protests—they were orderly, respectful, and very strategic. Participants wore suits and dresses to show the world that LGBTQ Americans were professionals, citizens, and people who deserved equal treatment. One of Kameny’s most powerful messages came in just three words: Gay is Good. Inspired by the Black pride movement, this slogan pushed back against the shame and stigma surrounding queer identity—and it became a rallying cry for LGBTQ activists around the country.

Despite the devastating damage it caused to thousands of lives, the Lavender Scare didn’t officially end with a big announcement. Instead, it slowly faded away, thanks to relentless activism and shifts in public opinion. But its impact lasted for decades. The federal government didn’t lift its ban on openly gay employees until the 1970s, beginning with the The U.S. Civil Service Commission in 1975, and the Department of State in 1977. Finally, President Bill Clinton's 1995 Executive Order 12968 ended discrimination based on sexual orientation in granting access to classified information. Additionally, Clinton’s 1998 Executive Order 13087 ended the limitations regarding federal employment and sexual orientation. It was a huge step forward, but even then, the fight for equal rights was far from over. The military's “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, implemented under Clinton in 1994, remained in place until 2011. It was not until 2017 that President Barack Obama explicitly repealed Executive Order 10450 with Executive Order 13764 allowing LGBTQ people to serve in the military. 

So why does learning about the Lavender Scare even matter today? It reminds us how fear can be used to justify injustice. How governments and societies can target people for simply being themselves. And how ordinary people, like Frank Kameny, can stand up and change the course of history. Kameny lived to see huge changes. In 2009, more than 50 years after he was fired, the government formally apologized to him. He even received a formal commendation from the Office of Personnel Management. He once said, “We’re the only minority that is required to be invisible.” And thanks to his courage and tireless efforts, that invisibility began to fade.

The Lavender Scare is also a reminder that rights can be taken away just as easily as they’re granted. Knowing this history helps us stay aware, stay active, and stand up for what is right—whether in school, in the workplace, or in the world at large.

DF: Kathleen Barker is History UnErased’s program director, library and information specialist, and public historian with over 20 years of experience as a museum and library educator. This podcast is funded by the New York City Council. It was developed by History UnErased and produced and edited by Dinah Mack, our podcaster and youth equity program director. And special thanks to our colleague, Danny Roberts, for being the voice of President Eisenhower. Our theme music is “1986” by BrothaD via Tribe of Noise.

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I’m Deb Fowler. Thanks for listening. And visit UnErased.org to learn how we are putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place - the classroom.

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