Pride in Federal Service

Across human history LGBTQIA+ folks have always existed and been present.

In the United States, LGBTQIA+ people have been serving our country selflessly and with distinction, for the good of the country, despite a history that continues to throw up obstacles to our civil rights and civic participation.

World War II (US participation 1941-1945) created a major opportunity especially for lesbian and gay Americans, due to ongoing war efforts, to participate in meaningful ways outside of traditional cultural career expectations. People moved to larger cities and left behind small town ties and mores. Women were allowed into traditionally male-dominated roles and gained access to careers like mechanical repair and engineering that had previously been difficult to break into.

With men, including gay and bisexual men, joining the military and facing being sent to the front lines, practices of drag performance and same-sex courting became more common, accepted, and a core part of many a soldier’s military experience, though it was not talked about openly and hidden from many. LGBTQ historians have been documenting World War II as a pivotal moment in US history which allowed more freedom of expression for sexual and gender minorities, particularly for those who were serving in the war effort. LGBT service members were still persecuted and attempts were made to expel lesbians from the Women’s Army Corps; anyone exhibiting same-sex or gender transgressive behavior could be court marshalled or discharged dishonorably.

However, queer life still flourished, and paved the way for the emergence of the Homophile movement, the precursor to the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement emerging roughly in tandem with McCarthyism and the “Red Scare” and the coinciding Lavender Scare. The Lavender Scare was the notion that lesbian and gay federal employees posed a security risk and were emissaries of communist ideology.

Some aspects of this fear-mongering continue to be resurrected to prevent LGBTQIA+ federal employees from organizing and building community or promoting educational training for those who are unfamiliar with the queer community.

Fear of communism and the conflation of “deviancy” with sexual and gender minorities was, in part, a cultural backlash to the increased freedom and flexibility that many had been able to experience during the years of WWII. The post-war time period was especially perilous for LGBTQ federal employees, and those accused of being LGBTQ, as they lost jobs and faced investigations and vilification by the American public. And yet, still we persisted. Still we serve.

Check back for a list of recommended resources to learn more about the history of LGBTQIA+ folks and federal service.