From: NewNowNext
Often overshadowed in history books by the communist witch-hunt, the McCarthyist era’s “Lavender Scare,” a period in which thousands of gay men and women were outed and fired from US government jobs, is set to be the subject of a new opera.
“Fellow Travelers,” which will premiere June 17 at Cincinnati Opera, will throw a spotlight on this dark period in LGBT history, in which Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy waged a vicious campaign against purported subversives, most famously through his Communist blacklist.
The opera charts the furtive and thrilling romance between a young newspaper intern Timothy Laughlin and a dashing State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, both of whom have to come to terms with their sexuality while attempting to navigate the upper echelons of Washington society in the 1950s.
“It’s just a story that hasn’t been told,” director Kevin Newbury said after a preview of “Fellow Travelers” in New York on Sunday.
“There are all sorts of dramatic works on stage or on screen about the Red Scare or about communism but the Lavender Scare has received relatively little attention.”
Historians estimate that as many as 10,000 government employees were outed and fired during this period, with many driven to suicide.
Although popular opinion quickly turned against McCarthy, it wasn’t until a 1995 ruling under President Bill Clinton that the United States government lifted its ban on LGBT government employees.
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