‘The Lavender Scare’ Film Review: Doc Explores Government’s Pre-Stonewall Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination

Powerful but occasionally muddled film delineates how gays and lesbians were unfairly treated as Cold War-era security risks

The Lavender Scare
Full Exposure Films

Just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots comes “The Lavender Scare,” a compact and fairly well-made documentary on the purging of homosexuals from government jobs; it began with an executive order from Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 — shortly after he was elected president — and only ended in 1995 when Bill Clinton signed an executive order to reverse it.

This is a movie with a clear hero: Frank Kameny, who was fired from his position as an astronomer in Washington, D.C. in 1957 and made it his mission to fight for the rights of homosexuals.

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