National security expert says second Lavender Scare is here as gov't purges LGBTQ+ workershttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/12/national-security-expert-says-second-lavender-scare-is-here-as-govt-purges-lgbtq-workers/ 🔗Faefyx Collington (4 Dec 2025)
Lucas Schleusener, the CEO of Out In National Security, has warned that the current atmosphere around LGBTQ+ federal employees amounts to a return of the Lavender Scare and the anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments of the 80s and 90s. Suggesting that this goes beyond the well-known executive orders, Schleusener claims that there are teams conducting anti-LGBTQ+ witch hunts in the federal government and that MAGA influencer and Trump confidante Laura Loomer is the new Joe McCarthy.
"Like the original Lavender Scare, this is a manufactured moral panic weaponized through bureaucracy," Schleusener told the Washington Blade. "Back then, the State Department bragged about driving queer employees to suicide; now we're seeing trans service members taking their lives under the pressure of these policies. The difference today is that social media makes the harassment instantaneous and far-reaching, even as queer visibility also makes it harder to shove an entire community back into the closet."
There have been surface signs of the sort of harassment and discrimination that might be going on against federal employees. The temperature is clear from certain incidents that have been made public, like when an FBI agent was fired for having a Pride flag on his desk and the administration's decision not to commemorate World AIDS Day.
This isn't a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" situation, but a more active push to out LGBTQ+ federal employees, with Schleusener pointing to members of the Republican Party who are conducting "digital witch-hunts."
