Engaging in any sort of sexual or romantic activity caused fears that one would be exposed and expelled.Īccording to Albertario, this coincided with “the first time that you saw gay and lesbian groups. This fostered a culture of mistrust and isolation among those who were gay on campus at this time. Even the Student Health Clinic, which was itself a key participant in the purge, condemned these two men and the CSCA for hostile and aggressive interrogation tactics, corroborating victims’ statements that they were coerced into naming names or admitting to “immorality.” Rordam for interrogation before facing a panel from the CSCA.
If a student was suspected of homosexual activity, he would be brought before Dean Zillman or Det. Annette Washburne, Dean of Students Howard Zillman and Detective Peter Rordam of the Department of Protection and Security. In 1950, a Senate committee formed to investigate “the employment of homosexuals and other sex perverts in the government,” stating in their report that “one homosexual can pollute a government office.” Events like this directed public sentiment toward hatred and distrust of homosexuality.Īmid this growing attitude held by the public, UW-Madison began to identify and eliminate gay students systematically in 1962. Washburne would later be instrumental in spearheading the 1962-63 Gay Purge.Īlbertario explained that anti-gay attitudes reached a fever pitch partially due to a concerted effort to root out anyone suspected of being a homosexual in government, dubbed the Lavender Scare of the 1950s. The CSCA deemed this an “excellent report” and adopted it as their official guide to addressing homosexuality. In 1948, she wrote a report encouraging the Committee of Student Conduct and Appeals (CSCA) to find and expel homosexual students so they could not “contribute to the delinquency of others.”
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Annette Washburne, the first woman to be made a full professor at UW-Madison, began her efforts to remove gay students from the university throughout the 1940s. Some of the men, as enrolled UW students, faced expulsion for their “misconduct,” and others faced prison sentences or fines of $100 - the equivalent of about $1,200 today.ĭr.
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The years leading up to this event, particularly following World War II, saw increased tension and contempt towards sexual behaviors deemed “immoral.”įor instance, the Wisconsin State Journal reported the arrest and trial of 12 men accused of sodomy in 1948. The Gay Purge is an example of a calculated and institutional attack on the university’s queer population, but it is far from an isolated incident. She stated that it is sometimes enough to simply “acknowledge that there is harm done, but there comes a point when you've done such significant harm that you need to do active measures of reparations to resolve that harm.” Juliana Bennett, a UW-Madison student and the alder for District 8, condemned the university’s tendency to acknowledge past atrocities without putting in the work to rectify them.
The university stated on Twitter that it has no plans to do so, and did not address this statement in a request for comment. The Public History Project article urged the university to provide financial compensation to the victims and their families, many of whom faced a lifetime of repercussions academically, professionally and emotionally. during the two decades after World War II, many of which have not been uncovered.” Tyler Albertario, an LGBTQ+ historian from New York who studied political science at Binghamton University, stated that it is likely that these purges occurred at “every public university system in the U.S.