Ike's Secret Purge - April 27, 1953

On April 27, 1953, Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10,450, launching the Lavender Scare and authorizing the systematic purge of gay Americans from federal employment in the name of national security. The man who drafted the order was himself gay. The security threat it claimed to address was largely invented. And the persecution it unleashed helped ignite the modern gay rights movement. This is a story about fear, institutional power, and what happens when people refuse to accept the verdict their government hands them.