Today in 1950, the US Senate authorised an investigation of homosexuals ‘and other moral perverts’ working in national government. Republican senators Kenneth Wherry and Lister Hill formed a subcommittee to look into employment policy concerning homosexuals.
Their report concluded that ‘moral perverts [were] bad national security risks because of their susceptibility to blackmail and threat of exposure’. This eventually led in 1953 to Dwight Eisenhower’s executive order prohibiting the employment of gays and lesbians in federal government.
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