15 June
'Mr Chairman, I realise that I am discussing a very delicate subject. I cannot lay the bones bare like I could before medical colleagues. I would like to strip the fetid, stinking flesh off of this skeleton of homosexuality and tell my colleagues of the House some of the facts of nature.' _ Congressman Miller of Nebraska, on the floor of the House of Representatives, speaking on homosexuals in government, 1950
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.
Red Pepper by email
Get the latest articles and updates in your inbox
Workers unite online
They're logging on to combat lagging labour laws, costly court proceedings, and outsourcing management, writes Gaia Caramazza
Review – Finding a Voice: Asian women in Britain
Finding a Voice: Asian women in Britain, by Amrit Wilson, reviewed by Maya Goodfellow
The political whiteness of #MeToo
We need to confront how the movement is shaped by the power of whiteness, write Alison Phipps
Brexit’s drug problem
For all the talk of free-trade, why is ‘Global Britain’ still behind on drug law reform? By Kojo Koram
