Newspaper reports about the Lavender Scare were syndicated throughout the country, such as this article, which was carried by the Associated Press. In addition to the Decatur Daily Review, this article ran in many newspapers throughout the country in late May 1950. The title of the article was changed in different papers, some editors focused on a “homosexual problem” while other papers’ titles highlighted a supposed risk of LGBTQ+ people to national security. The article was intended to inform readers about a campaign against government employees who were suspected of being LGBTQ+, to teach readers what homosexuality was, and how to think about homosexuality.
Washington, May 25, (AP)—What makes a man homosexual and is there any cure for him?
This story will try to answer that, but only in a limited way. On this subject, medical science itself is limited.
American society condemns homosexuality. But it not only has not found a 100 per cent cure for it; it can’t even agree on the cause.
A homosexual can be a man or a woman. A homosexual is one whose sexual desires are for a person of the same sex.
A heterosexual is the normal man or woman whose sexual desires are for a person of the opposite sex.
Some people are both homosexual and heterosexual. They’re called bisexual. They have desires for the same sex or the opposite sex.
Two Republicans, Senator Wherry of Nebraska and Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin, have denounced homosexual [sic] among government employees.
Washington police estimate that there are 5,000 homosexuals in the capital and that about 3,750 of them work for the government.
Meanwhile, government agencies have been firing homosexuals anyway. The state department alone sacked 91, both men and women.
The state department figures that everything connected with its business does, or may, involve national security.
And, it thinks homosexuals are bad security risks, for this reason:
Homosexuals because of American society’s attitude toward them, don’t advertise their abnormality to their employers.
So a homosexual lives in constant fear of exposure, particularly when it may cost him his job.
Many homosexuals pay blackmail to people who have discovered the truth about them and demand payment under threat of exposure.
A state department homosexual, if he got into the hands of an enemy agent might be blackmailed into giving important information.
Citation: James Marlow, The Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, Illinois), May 24, 1950, 8, Copyrighted 1950, Associated Press.