U.S. Government Versus Homosexuals:1950-1955

A sampling of news stories from the years 1950 to 1955 conveys the mood created by the antihomosexual, anti-Communist witch-hunts occurring during that period and continuing for some time after.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

In the early 1950s, the fledgling homosexual emancipation organization, the Mattachine Society, was just getting started in los Angeles, with a number of left-wing homosexuals prominent in the leadership. To understand the earliest years of the Mattachine movement it is essential to know about the simultaneous witch-hunting of "perverts" and "subversives" then taking place.

On March 1, 1950, the New York Times reports that John E. Peurifoy, in charge of the State Department security program, was asked by a Senate committee how many department employees had resigned while under investigation as security risks since the beginning of 1947. "Ninety-one persons in the shady category," replied Mr. Peurifoy. "Most of these were homosexuals."97

On March 9, the Times reports a Senate subcommittee inquiry into Senator Joseph McCarthy's charges that the United States government employed "red sympathizers." McCarthy was the first witness, and homosexuality as well as Communism was an issue.

McCarthy had earlier declared in the Senate that a "flagrantly homosexual" State Department employee, discharged as a security risk in 1946, had had his job restored under "pressure" from a "high State Department official." McCarthy refused demands by Democrats th,at he state the name of the official. Later, the Times reports, McCarthy told reporters he did not know the name of the official, but asserted it was in the files and could be found by the subcommittee.98

On March 15, the Times reports McCarthy's testimony about another government employee:

A former State Department official, whose name he withheld, was reported in the Washington police files to be homosexual and had been allowed to resign from the State Department in 1948 only to find employment in a "most sensitive" place, the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. McCarthy gave his name privately to the subcommittee. It was an "important" case, he asserted, because perverts were officially considered to be security risks because they were "subject to blackmail."99

On March 20 the Times reports that Representative John J. Rooney, Democrat of New York, had accused the Commerce Department of laxity in weeding out homosexuals and praised the State Department for vigilance in that regard.100

On April 19, a Times news story is headed:

=PERVERTS CALLED GOVERNMENT PERIL=

==Gabrielson, G.O.P. Chief, Says They Are as Dangerous as Reds==

...Guy George Gabrielson, Republican National Chairman, asserted today that "sexual perverts who have infiltrated our Government in recent years" were "perhaps as dangerous as the actual Communists."

He elevated what he called the "homosexual angle" to the national political level in his first news letter of 1950, addressed to about 7,000 party workers, under the heading: "This Is the News from Washington."

Giving National Committee support to the campaign of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin, against the State Department, but without mentioning him by name, Mr. Gabrielson said: ...

"Perhaps as dangerous as the actual Communists are the sexual perverts who have infiltrated our Government in recent years. The State Department has confessed that it has had to fire ninety-one of these. It is the talk of Washington and of the Washington correspondents corps.

"The country would be more aroused over this tragic angle of the situation if it were not for the difficulties of the newspapers and radio commentators in adequately presenting the facts, while respecting the decency of their American

audiences. "101

On April 25, the Times reports a Republican demand

that an inquiry to determine whether "disloyal" persons were employed, be expanded

to encompass the subject of sexual perversion within the Govemment.102

On April 26, the Times reports:

Senator Kenneth S. Wherry of Nebraska, the Republican floor leader, told the Senate that he had just been advised by "the head of a Government agency" that a man accused by Senator McCarthy of being a pervert, though not a Communist, had resigned.

The Times continues:

The identity of this person was not disclosed .... Senator Tydings had just stated that he had personally investigated the episode and was turning over "important matters" about it to his subcommittee. Tydings then asked his Republican critics:

up to page 93 in Katz, GAH