Episode 93: Lavender Scare

Criminal

Vox Media Podcast Network

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.7 • 38.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2018

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Helen James grew up in a military family - her great great grandfather fought in the Civil War, her father in WWI, and her uncles in WWII. So when she enlisted in 1952, she felt like she belonged. Shortly after, she realized something was wrong. Today we talk to one of the officers impacted by a campaign to remove gay and lesbian members of the US Army in the 1950s. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Helen Grace James.
0:04.0	I was born in 1927 in Scranton, Pennsylvania,
0:09.0	and I was raised on a dairy farm.
0:15.0	I was a very busy kid.
0:18.0	I worked on the farm.
0:20.0	I loved the animals.
0:22.0	I was dependent upon to do certain chores.
0:27.0	When I was old enough, I was milking cows.
0:30.0	I was driving the tractor.
0:31.0	I was helping with the harvests.
0:33.0	When she was old enough to drive,
0:35.0	she delivered orders from her father's butcher shop every Saturday.
0:39.0	It was a military family.
0:41.0	Her great-great-grandfather was a union soldier.
0:44.0	Her father was in World War I.
0:46.0	Her uncles in World War II.
0:48.0	Her cousins were in the Army in Navy.
0:51.0	So I liked the military
0:55.0	because I would talk to them.
0:58.0	It just seemed like a wonderful place to be,
1:02.0	to be helping our country.
1:06.0	As I thought of it, they were there to help fight the wars
	...

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