(n.) A post World War II government-led campaign that believed that gays and lesbians were dangerous to national security because they could easily be blackmailed into giving up government secrets in order to keep their sexual orientation from being exposed. After Congressional investigations, no evidence confirmed that any gay individual had betrayed the government in this way. Still, hundreds of federal workers were forced out of their jobs. In 1953, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which made identifying and firing gay workers in all federal government agencies official policy until the 1990s.
