lavender moral panic lavender Lavender Scare http://homosaurus.org/v2/lavenderScare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_scare https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2896360 A moral panic during the mid-20th century about homosexual people in the United States government and their mass dismissal from government service. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign known as McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. Gay men and lesbians were said to be national security risks and communist sympathizers, which led to the call to remove them from state employment. It was thought that gay people were more susceptible to being manipulated, which could pose a threat to the country. The Lavender Scare – the federal government's official response to both a visible lesbian and gay community and a perceived homosexual menace – normalized persecution of homosexuals through bureaucratic institutionalization of homophobic discrimination policy. lavender scare The A – Z of Gender and Sexuality: From Ace to Ze Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History