A Hidden History Comes Out of the Closet

In 1953, President Eisenhower declared gay men and lesbians a threat to the security of the country. As a result, thousands of homosexual federal workers were harassed, hounded, fired or denied employment. Now a PBS documentary, The Lavender Scare (June 18), narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Glenn Close, 72, and featuring the voices of David Hyde Pierce, 60, Cynthia Nixon, 53, Zachary Quinto, 42, and T.R. Knight, 46, sheds light on the “anti-gay” purge era of the early 1950s.