With the Employment Non-Discrimination Act crawling its way through the Land of Misplaced Bills known as Congress, The Lavender Scare puts the bill’s importance in perspective.
Based on the book by historian David K. Johnson, the documentary chronicles a ruthless campaign to track down and fire every suspected homosexual employed by the federal government during the 50s and 60s.
Though thousands of thousands of people lost their jobs, the government’s attempts to purge itself of the homosexual menace “stirred a sense of outrage and activism that helped ignite the gay rights movement.”
The Lavender Scare is currently in production and has started a Kickstarter to help cover the costs of finishing it. They’re less than $6,000 away with only 15 days to go. Here’s hoping they finish in time for a screening at Congressional movie night.
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the other Greg
And yet they could never manage to “purge” J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson?
Sounds like a great, if depressing, subject for a documentary. I’ve noticed people who really should know better (e.g. Larry Kramer) piously declaring that the drag queens at Stonewall were fighting for marriage rights (!), which is a weird rewriting of history. Employment is at the heart of everything.