" The Lavender Scare, the purge began the same year as the Red Scare, and in the same way: as a rumour about State Department infiltration that sparked a national moral panic. Between seven thousand and ten thousand federal workers lost their jobs in the 1950s alone because of suspicions of homosexuality. Many struggled to find work again, and there were many suicides. One of the most formidable components of the purge was Executive Order 10450, signed by Eisenhower on 27 April 1953, three months into his presidency. It barred homosexuals (‘sex perverts’) from federal employment, along with drug addicts, alcoholics, anarchists and anyone else bent on undermining the project of America. "

― Olivia Laing , Everybody: A Book about Freedom