The Lavender Scare (2017) User Reviews

urage...gri and determination

[jakob13 · 7/10 · 8 June 2019]

'The Lavender Scare' comes out in a small, art cinema in Greenwich Village (where else during 50 anniversary of Stonewall?). Almost 70 years ago the red and lavender scare broke out on the American body political. The US broke out in a fever that saw a Red (Soviet) agent under one's bed; and an easy targets for blackmail as Eisenhower announced to a joint session of the Houses of Congress, were homosexuals, perverts and other odd sexual birds. And this began a 'scandal time', as the playwright Lillian Hellman succinctly named it. The FBI ruthlessly ferreted out, in the thousands, 'deviants', who were forced to resign, not to make waves as they were forced from the government force. The Red scare attacked the State Department, mainly for losing China; but the larger blood letting in the diplomatic corps fell on homosexuals (male or female) ; the scientific community wasn't spared, nor the economic branches of the economy nor the postal services and, of course, the military. They adopted quietism as a defense as they tried to go on with their lives. The more frail psychologically took to suicide. These victims faded into the woodwork. The documentary has historical footage and interviews of victims now in the twilight of life; they created new lives. And since the 1960s breathing easier thanks to Gay Liberation and the shifting in social attitudes of the large society. Still, those cashiered out of governmental service never had status 'rectified' until teh Clinton presidency. Many by then had died, nursing a a deep hurt. The narrative comes to life with the 'grandfather of the gay movement' in the person of Franklin E. Kameny, Harvard Ph.D. in astromy. He had dreams of being an astronaut, but the 'thought police' quashed that. But Dr. Kameny was made of different mettle; he refused to take this bitter medicine that kept him from a life-time in astronomy. Two feet planted firmly on the ground, steeled in determination, he challenged the government: he wrote letters, seized the courts, wrote newspapers, and never denied he was a homosexual. And then he joined the Mattachine Society, and founded the Washington Chapter, infusing it with grit and determination. At first few in number, he drew up models of conduct: white shirts, ties and suits for men aznd dresses and pumps for women. Why? His idea was to show that homsexual looked and acted like everyone else, but their love desire was the same sex. And this on the eve of the tumultuous '60s and war in Vietnam and revlution ins sexual behavior. Pining the tail on the government's donkey, he and a handful of Mattachine poicketed the White House, calling for recignition and scotching the dread 'Lander rules' that automatically axes government employees. The Mattachine Society, under Kameny, vocal and never slack in his determination in his belief that if the government had to come to him by changing rules and attitude. During the Vietnam War say the Mattachine Society provided a way out of the draft, as many young homosexual came out in numbers, therby being rejected by draft boards. After Stonewall, and coming out decade before AIDS, the newly liberated younger, 'hipper' gays criticized the Mattachine Society as throwbacks. But Kameny kept to his goal in couseling and fighting for purging of records and restoring dignity to thos wilfully fired by the uS government services. A long, uphill struggle under Clinton signed a proclamation. And the gay movement got sense in recignizing the determined struggle of Kameny before and after Stonewall. And the crowning achievement came under obama when Franklin Kameny was welcomed in the Oval Officc. Truly after almost 60 years..it was a moment that showed if the prohet wont' come to the mountain, the mountain would come to the prophet. (He died at the age of 86 in 2011, as resolutely in his opinions as he was as a newly minted Harvard Ph.D., who never denied ot himself, his parents nor in his life that he was a homosexual. A man of boldness and coyrage who carried on the good fight.

Essential Documentary for U.S. History Classes

[sobaok-211-4669 · 10/10 · 4 November 2017]

I found this to be a riveting account of the purge of gays and lesbians from employment in the U.S. government. Many committed suicide. This purge went on from the 1950's-1990's. At one point, the push to eliminate gays, became more important than Joe McCarthy's "Red Scare".

Excellent cross-section of interviews with men and women who lost their livelihood from the machinations of government officials (who also participate in the narration).

High school and college history classes should have Lavender Scare as part of their curriculum. Our evolution into a real Democracy, has left a bloody path, indeed.

An astounding warning for our times--and for all times

[perryjonat · 10/10 · 29 November 2017]

This film is beautifully constructed, with a strong narrative through-line composed of innovative and multi-faceted elements. Moreover, its subject-matter could hardly be more timely and relevant for today's LGBTQ community—and far beyond that, as it can be appreciated by any group that has been placed under the inquisitors' lens at any moment in history. The most creative aspect of this highly original production is the focus on the collateral damage of this governmentally directed purge—in the forms of shattered careers and, especially, broken families. It is a rare storyteller who can focus on the missed opportunities for career advancement as a significant loss for these individuals and for our country generally. (It would be really interesting, I think, to follow up this documentary with another that could assess the damage of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' on US national security in the past few decades, as, for one example, the firing of dozens of gay military linguists specializing in Arabic and Farsi in the years immediately preceding and following 9/11.) The film reaches its emotional height in the gripping stories of the suicide, likely as a direct result of a homophobic investigation, of Drew Ference, and then of the devastating toll this loss took on his family. The witness of Jen Stotka, Ference's niece, proves that the effects of this witch hunt have continued to ripple through the lives of thousands of American citizens, up to the present day of supposed 'equality'. The film concludes with a direct and prescient warning about the potential backlash facing this community in today's America, namely the removal of Secretary of State Kerry's apology to those damaged by the Lavender Scare from the Department's website within the first week of the Trump presidency. This move comes in the same year as Prime Minister Trudeau's formal apology and offer of compensation to Canadian citizens who were similarly targeted in his country. This breathtaking and bracing film perfectly demonstrates the validity of a statement on Peggy Guggenheim's property in Venice: "Savor kindness, because cruelty is always possible later."

A Warning Indeed For The Future

[jromanbaker · 10/10 · 16 August 2023]

This very good documentary is already history, as it was made or should I say released in 2017. The landscape in the USA has changed considerably since then, and in watching this film I realised with a chilling feeling that history changes, and can reverse a lot of the good done and replacing it with the outright bad. Returning to the content of the documentary I was moved to tears by the individual stories that were told of innocent people losing jobs simply because of their ' threatening ' sexual orientation; the consequences being heartbreak to families, suicide and also the bravery of one man who stood up to his country's persecution and won. But I asked myself, how long can this winning last before the interrogations begin again ? Aside from that I have a few criticisms; one that the documentary did not have a wider scope on the lives of those who implemented these laws and that in my opinion the film should have not had a musical score, which I found often saccharine given the facts exposed. This in no way detracts from the full ten this film deserves, and I only wished it had been twice the length.