Episode 6
“If we teach only about the Red Scare, we’re only telling part of the story of the Cold War.” Historian David K. Johnson explores the systemic firing of gay government employees and the consequences of a homophobic culture that still endure today.
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Resources and Readings
- Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students, Section III: Instruction
- National Archives: Prologue Magazine, “These People Are Frightened to Death”: Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare
- OutHistory.org, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
- PBS Frontline, U.S. Senate: Subcommittee Report, Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government (1950)
- U.S. Congressional Record, Homosexuals in government, 1950
- University of Chicago Press, An interview with David K. Johnson
- Daily Beast, California Leads the Way Teaching LGBT History to Schoolchildren
David Johnson
- History, University of South Florida
- Co-editor with Robert P. Ingalls, The United States Since 1945: A Documentary Reader
- Author, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
- Author, The Lavender Scare (documentary film)