Rusty Brown (b. circa 1920) was a machinist, a civilian employee at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and a drag king at Coney Island. This interview was conducted by Len Evans of the San Francisco GLBT History Society in 1983. While she heard about the Lavender Scare during her time with the Navy, it was not until Brown worked in entertainment that she saw it firsthand.
LE: Let me ask you, were you aware of the anti-gay aspects of, of McCarthyism?
RB: Oh, definitely, oh, definitely. . . One word against the government, and you were automatically classified as a communist. And if you were a communist, you had to be a homosexual . . . But there were careers ruined, not just political careers, but there were more actors and actresses whose careers in Hollywood were ruined because of him. Some committed suicide. Quite a few committed suicide, they just couldn’t take it. Oh definitely, there was definitely a [homophobia] attached to that, that . . . and I never figured out how he equated homosexuality with communism. . .
LE: [D]id that worry you that you might be found out in the Navy because of what was happening with McCarthy?
RB: Well, when he was honing in on any members of the military, it was predominantly those in Washington. . . . actually what he was going after was the higher up in the hierarchy of the military, the commanding officers, not anything below. There were millions of us, Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force. And that was a comedy, that was really was making us laugh. Here he is, all this to do about being a homosexual in Washington and there’s millions of us wearing the military uniform. . . .
LE: When you got back to New York, was there any talk of it there or any fear of it?
RB: Oh, there was a lot of fear of it in New York in certain areas, particularly among people that were in show business. And they were scared stiff because we knew a lot of men and women in show business that were gay, especially quite a few ballet dancers. Not all, naturally, not all. . . . They were scared of who they talked to, who they went out with. Producers got scared of who they hired in a show. Cameramen were afraid of losing their jobs or the guy, the producer or the director would ask certain pointed questions of just ordinary stage hands, for fear that if there was a stage hand that was caught, it could reflect on them because they hired them. It was this sort of phobia.
LE: And this was, this was about being homosexual?
RB: Yeah, homosexual or being, well homosexual or communist, ‘cause he equated the one with the other. . . . I was really shocked at the phobia in the United States among show people. It was weird the questions they would ask an ordinary stage hand before hiring him. Before there was no question. You were a good stage hand, you had references, you had good references, you were hired. But it reached a point where . . . in fact there were very few shows even being put on for that very reason. Producers, directors, cameramen, actors, actresses, they were all so uptight, they were afraid to talk to each other. Oh it, it really reached proportions that would be hard to understand. And not just in show business. It reached into areas of radio. Of course, there wasn’t TV then or it was just beginning to come in but it wasn’t really an “in” thing then, but even in radio, among radio announcers and newspaper men and everything else. So, it really was one hell of a phobia.
Citation: Lee Evans, “Rusty Brown Oral History,” San Francisco GLBT History Project, July 7, 1983, GLBT Historical Society Oral History Collection (GLBT-OH), Courtesy of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.