The Lavender Scare (Throwback)

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One day in late April 1958, a young economist named Madeleine Tress was approached by two men in suits at her office at the U.S. Department of Commerce. They took her to a private room, turned on a tape recorder, and demanded she respond to allegations that she was an "admitted homosexual." Two weeks later, she resigned.

Madeleine was one of thousands of victims of a purge of gay and lesbian people ordered at the highest levels of the U.S. government: a program spurred by a panic that destroyed careers and lives and lasted more than forty years. Today, it's known as the "Lavender Scare."

In a moment when LGBTQ+ rights are again in the public crosshairs, we tell the story of the Lavender Scare: its victims, its proponents, and a man who fought for decades to end it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A warning before we get started, this episode contains homophobic language and a description of suicide. On a hot day,
0:13.8	hot day, a lot, a young economist working at the Department of Commerce
0:29.2	named Madeline Tress was brought into a room with no air conditioning for an interview.
0:36.6	It wasn't done by Department of Commerce People.
0:39.8	It wasn't done by Department of Commerce people.
0:43.2	That's Madeline Truss's voice in an oral history interview
0:46.2	made decades after the incident.
0:48.8	She had incredible credentials.
0:49.9	She went to NYU.
0:52.0	She'd spent some time at the London School of Economics.
0:55.0	She'd worked really hard to get this job as an economist.
0:59.0	You know, so she's beginning this career in government service.
1:05.8	Madeline was wearing a pale blue suit and high heels,
1:09.1	the day of the interview.
1:10.4	The two investigators who called her in worked for the US Civil Service Commission.
1:15.0	They turned on a tape recorder.
1:18.0	They began by saying,
1:20.0	Ms Tress, your voluntary appearance here today has been requested in order to afford you an opportunity to answer
1:26.6	questions concerning information which has been received by the U.S. Civil Service Commission.
1:32.4	She's asked us where... the U.S. Civil Service Commission.
1:35.0	She's asked to wear an oath. And she realizes this is much more serious than she anticipated.
1:40.0	She asks if she can have an attorney, and they say, no, she can't.
	...

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