JOHNSON, David K.

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Northwestern University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

CAREER: University of South Florida, visiting assistant professor in history. Historian with History Associates Inc., Rockville, MD; member of faculty, Roosevelt University and Northwestern University.

WRITINGS:

The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution ofGays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2004.

Contributor of articles to the Washington Blade.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Researching the history of the Mattachine Society of Washington.

SIDELIGHTS: Historian David K. Johnson is the author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. In the book, Johnson details how gays and lesbians were considered as much of a threat as communists during the McCarthy era of the 1950s, with then President Dwight Eisenhower even issuing an executive order that added "sexual perversion" to a list of behaviors disqualifying federal employees as potentially untrustworthy. Gathering information for his book from newly declassified documents, research into the U.S. National Archives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and interviews with government employees, Johnson describes the gay subculture that flourished in the New Deal-era, the ultimate purge of gays and lesbians from government jobs, and the impact this purge had on people's lives.

In an interview on the University of Chicago Press Web site, Johnson said his book is "a cautionary tale, one that documents the extreme measures the federal government has taken in the not-too-distant past against innocent citizens who were perceived, without any evidence, to pose a threat to national security." Writing in Choice, R. J. Goldstein called the book a "well-written account" that provides details about what the reviewer called "one of the many neglected aspects of the post-WW II Red Scare." Corporate Counsel contributor Kenneth Jost called the author's effort the "first book-length examination of this antigay campaign" and noted that although "the end product is instructive and insightful, though incomplete," Johnson's book serves as "a first but not final account of the damage done to thousands of loyal civil servants, as well as the government."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, October, 2004, R. J. Goldstein, review of TheLavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, p. 356.

Corporate Counsel, March, 2004, Kenneth Jost, review of The Lavender Scare.

ONLINE

Sodomy Laws Web site,http://www.sodomylaws.org/ (December 15, 2004), Raj Ayyar, "Historian David K. Johnson: Exposes the U.S. Government's Anti-Gay Crusades."

University of Chicago Press Web site,http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ (December 15, 2004), interview with Johnson.*