The Lavender Scare

Foreign Policy magazine published a great article in their May issue (link here) about how 18 Democratic senators have introduced a bill to require the State Department to address past and future LGBT discrimination.

This measure is intended to address, finally, what happened and why during the so-called Lavender Scare of the 1950s and 1960s when LGBT State Department personnel were persecuted and, in some cases, prosecuted because of their sexual identity. Some committed suicide as a result.

Sadly, in all candor, we have to expect this measure will go nowhere in the Senate. Not a single Republican has signed on to sponsor the bill, and given the GOP holds a slim Senate majority and that the measure would address discrimination perpetrated by Republicans, they'll want to table the measure until the end of time.

On the slight chance that it would pass, what are the chances that it would be signed into law by Donald Trump, who has claimed to be pro-LGBT but his presidency has shown that to be a lie? Not very good. This will likely not become law until Democrats once again control both houses of Congress and the White House.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia -- Trump's mentor early in his career was Roy Cohn, who was one of the prime instigators of the Lavender Scare back in the day. Cohn, of course, was also a gay man himself, but that didn't stop him from persecuting people like himself.