Aligning Time

Aligning Time

There were many important historical moments during the Cold War and LGBTQ+ history, which have influenced the fictional events Thomas Mallon described in his novel and composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce adapted into the opera Fellow Travelers.

1892 The words “bisexual” and “homosexual” are used with the modern definition for the first time in Charles Gilbert Chaddock’s translation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis.

1938 House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) is formed, seeking out alleged Communist spies and sympathizers.

1942 Psychiatrists in the U.S. military develop guidelines for recruiters to identify and exclude gay men from service.

1947 March - President Truman passes the Truman Doctrine, calling for containment of Communism using military intervention. This doctrine was the basis for American Cold War policies. • The State Department begins firing suspected homosexuals under President Truman’s National Security Loyalty Program.

• The U.S. Park Police initiates a “Sex Perversion Elimination Program” in Washington D.C., that targeted gay men on park property for arrest and intimidation.

1948 The high-profile Alger Hiss trial convinces people of the necessity of HUAC. • Kinsey’s study of sexuality in the U.S. reveals that 50 percent of American men and 28 percent of American women have “homosexual tendencies.”

• Congress passes an act “for the treatment of sexual psychopaths,” which allows for arrest and punishment of people who act on same-sex desire.

Alger Hiss at his trial with HUAC, New York World Telegram and Sun, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, 1950.

1953 • June - American citizens Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for espionage--an accusation still contested today.

• March - Joseph Stalin, ruler of the Soviet Union, dies and is replaced by Nikita Khrushchev.

• September - Hawkins Fuller and Timothy Laughlin meet on a park bench in Dupont Circle • July - Korean War ends after 3 years.

• December - Mary warns Hawkins at The Hotel Washington Christmas party that he is becoming “reckless” with Timothy. Whispers about Roy Cohn’s “numbered days” and more cases of “exposed” homosexuals are heard around the party.

Fellow Travelers Timeline LGBTQ+ History Timeline Cold War History Timeline

• April - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order #10450 that bans homosexuals from working for the Federal government, saying they are a security risk. Many local governments follow suit.

• Senator Clyde Hoey’s (North Carolina) subcommittee concludes after three years, releasing a final report Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government, summarizing its findings and recommendations. The report cites that during the past three years, 5,000 homosexuals had been detected in the military and civilian workforces. The report concludes that gay people should not be employed by the Federal government because they are “generally unsuitable” and constitute “security risks” due to their supposed vulnerability to blackmail and weak “moral fiber.”

• One, the first openly lesbian and gay national publication in America, puts out its first issue.

One magazine. 1953. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

1954 • Summer - The Geneva Accords ends Vietnam’s war with France, and divides Vietnam into communist North, led by Ho Chi Minh, and U.S-friendly South.

• March - U.S. tests a hydrogen bomb while developing nuclear weapons.

• The Adams Chronology reveals that Senator McCarthy used unethical tactics and he is censured by Congress.

• July - Roy Cohn resigns. March - Senator Potter warns McCarthy that Roy Cohn will be his downfall after it is revealed Cohn threatened the U.S. Army into giving his friend, David Schine, special treatment.

Photograph of The Geneva Conference convening. 1954.

Fellow Travelers Timeline Cold War History Timeline LGBTQ+ History Timeline

1955 May - The Warsaw Pact is signed, binding Central and Eastern European countries in the Soviet sphere of influence: East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. September - The first known lesbian rights organization in the United States forms in San Francisco, The Daughters of Bilitis.

1956 • October -The Hungarian Revolution begins against Communist rule in the capital Budapest. Hungary falls to Communism in November. Two years have passed and Timothy has been stationed in France with the U.S. Army. Hawkins is married to Lucy now, and lives in the suburbs. African-American novelist and intellectual, James Baldwin publishes Giovanni’s Room, a gay love story.

1975 The Civil Service Commission states people can no longer be barred or fired from Federal employment because of their sexuality.

1964 Title VII Civil Rights Act passes prohibiting employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, or religion.

Fellow Travelers Timeline Cold War History Timeline LGBTQ+ History Timeline

1957 • President Eisenhower enacts the Eisenhower Doctrine, committing military aid to Middle Eastern countries threatened by Communist aggression.

• May - Senator Joseph McCarthy dies of liver failure. May - Hawkins and Timothy reconnect, and just as quickly, say goodbye when Hawkins reveals he has given Timothy’s name to the U.S. government as a homosexual. • A Navy report concludes that there is no evidence that “homosexuals cannot acceptably serve in the military,” or that they are security risks. The report will not be released for a decade.

• The American Civil Liberties Union declares that, “homosexuality is a valid consideration in evaluating the risk factor in sensitive positions,” even advising lesbians facing discrimination to

TODAY Even though the CSC ended their ban on employing people who identify as homosexual in the Federal government, there is currently a case before the Supreme Court to determine whether Title VII applies to LBGTQ+ employees.