Fear spread across the US like wildfire. Fear of them and fear of the consequences for being one of them. The time period was the 1950’s and 60’s. A lesser known event during the time of the Red Scare, the Lavender Scare. American politicians feared and persecuted gays and lesbians from their jobs in the Federal Government. American citizens thought of homosexuals as poorly, sometimes even worse than communists. Statistics show that although homosexuality was at one time considered on par with Communism, the fear of which has abated since the era of the Red Scare, it still remains a liability for American politicians. Although the Lavender Scare is not a well-known piece of history, it is an important one. The Lavender Scare was the government’s