In the early years of the Cold War, the U.S. government embarked on a sweeping purge of federal employees deemed “security risks.” While the more widely known Red Scare targeted suspected communists, a concurrent yet lesser-known crackdown known as the Lavender Scare led to the mass dismissal of gay and lesbian federal workers, especially within the State Department.
Under the pretext that their sexual orientation made them susceptible to blackmail and disloyalty, thousands of government employees were investigated, fired or forced to resign.
Seventy years later, echoes of the Lavender Scare are reverberating through the halls of federal agencies as the president and his allies work to undercut agency programs that focus on recruiting and retaining members of marginalized communities.
Under President Donald Trump, the actions to dismantle these various diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts in the federal ecosystem are also casting a wide net into the nation’s intelligence community and Defense Department. The consequences of these actions are escalating into a multi-layered threat to national security, sources for this story argue, and comes at a time when foreign adversaries are ramping up espionage, data theft and cyber operations against the nation. It also comes amid public calls from Trump’s national security officials to boost its efforts to hamstring foreign adversaries.
In cybersecurity — a major area of concern among intelligence chiefs — diversity elements are essential, one former senior White House cybersecurity official said.
Cybersecurity requires addressing not only technical, but also human and cultural factors, the ex-cyber official said. By understanding how people’s behaviors and societal dynamics interact with technology, the U.S. can better identify risks and craft effective solutions, they added.
“If DEI-focused staff and programs don’t create pathways for people from rural communities, women, people of color and other underrepresented groups into national security spaces, we lose out on the benefit of the innovation and increased effectiveness that comes from differing viewpoints and lived experiences,” said the former official. “Having a diverse team is the best way to see beyond ‘normal’ behavior.”
Across Washington’s national security nexus, the efforts to oust DEI-related activities are unfolding fast. In the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that a new task force would work to slash already existing task forces focused on areas like DEI and gender ideology.
The Air Force has also eliminated working groups focused on creating opportunities for disabled, Hispanic, Black, LGBTQ+, Native American and female servicemembers. Later, the Air Force removed training videos with footage of the WWII-era Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots — that decision was soon reversed.
A recent Defense Intelligence Agency memo said that staff will have pause activities and observances related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, Pride Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day, among several others. And on Sunday, the National Security Agency’s National Cryptologic Museum said it corrected a mistake after an image circulated showing portraits of famous cryptographers — notably women and people of color — being covered up. A Christian resource group for the State Department diplomatic corps was also shuttered, The Guardian reported Monday.
One internal message that made its way online came from within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the nation’s various spy agencies and their programs. It said the Office of Personnel Management had “been made aware of alleged activities by [intelligence community] officers to subvert the presidential direction given to the federal workforce in executive orders, presidential memorandums, and other guidance documents.”
It added that these alleged actions went beyond “unintentional missteps” and that any reports of this nature sent to OPM “will be referred to the IC Inspector General for immediate investigation and possible disciplinary action, including termination.” A person with knowledge of the matter said the memo was authored by Acting Director of National Intelligence Lora Shiao, and was issued in reference to moves inside intelligence agencies to rename DEI programs with the hope that they wouldn’t be noticed by Trump’s OPM leaders.
An ODNI spokesperson confirmed the intelligence directorate “established a channel for officers to report information, including classified information, for further evaluation in accordance with OPM’s message to the federal workforce regarding DEIA.” The spokesperson did not say if Shiao authored the staff notification.
“I think what we’re seeing now is just too hard of a swing of the pendulum,” said Mark S. Zaid, a renowned national security attorney. “What’s happening now is devastating to morale and so harmful to national security because it’s hurting the individuals inside the agencies.”
Being an outsider in the national security establishment is extremely challenging, one former Pentagon official and member of the LGBTQ+ community described. In that ex-official’s first year on the job handling communications for a former defense secretary, they described colleagues being “incredibly brusque” with them.
“I got a lot of comments that boiled down to ‘my wife’s hair dresser is a homosexual,’ or ‘my cousin’s a homosexual and interior designer,’” the former official said. “Ok, cool. Are you also going to tell me that your accountant is a Jew or that your dry cleaner is Chinese?”
For them, the purge of DEI initiatives means a backwards shift into the monoculture of the U.S. armed forces from nearly a century ago, noting that “it’s raising the premise that if you’re not a straight, white man … you should not in fact be there.”
“The military is a great socialist institution in the United States,” they added. “But it also means that society changes around them, and that they necessarily haven’t changed with it.”
In 1950, around 93% of veterans were white, according to Census Bureau data published in late 2023. That figure is now around 74%.
One former State Department official described the moves as “corrosive” to the reputation of the nation on the world stage because it doesn’t demonstrate a willingness to value contributions of people with heritage from other nations and cultures.
Moreover, they added, there’s an underlying propaganda risk that might come from Americans’ negative reactions to the removal of the diversity programs: Foreign adversaries could latch onto headlines about the DEI program removals to undermine U.S. credibility on human rights and portray American institutions as hypocritical on issues of equality and inclusion.
The former State official referenced when the Soviet Union used images of racial discrimination in America — notably police brutality against Black civil rights activists in the 1960s — and framed them as evidence showing that the U.S. was hypocritical in its promotion of democracy.
“We provided the truth that [the Soviets] used against us in many parts of the world from the treatment of some Americans. This will do the same,” said the ex-State official.
One former member of the intelligence community who is LGBTQ+ emphasized the importance of having diverse employee resource groups available to help retain staff.
They argued that support programs are needed for retaining employees in government service, adding that — depending on the intensity and sensitivity of the work one does — it can be difficult to want to stay in their position. The person added that eliminating these programs will likely lead to significant attrition, as employees may feel unsupported and choose to leave.
“[My identity] wasn’t even a consideration when I was hired,” that former intelligence community member said. “The reality of the situation is that if you want to be competitive in a global world, you need to find people who have an understanding of backgrounds, languages, customs and cultures. You can’t build an intelligence community that’s capable of recruiting assets in different countries by being isolationist and xenophobic.”
Participation in offerings like employee resource groups can grant opportunities for leadership, skill development and networking, which can in turn enhance career advancement and reduce turnover, according to data compiled by the U.S. Commerce Chamber.
“Historic cultural affinity groups are really important inside the agencies and other organizations. As humans … it helps us develop security, one-on-one, of being able to talk and associate with like-minded people,” Zaid said.
He said those groups are especially important for agents working on a non-official cover basis — used to describe operatives who work undercover without official ties to their government — meaning that they have especially intensive jobs with highly classified markings whose details can’t even be shared with close family or a therapist.
A homogenous national security workforce would severely hamper U.S. intelligence operations in several other ways, the former officials said. In the field, spies would struggle to blend into diverse populations, compromising their ability to gather crucial information. Recruiting or retaining linguists with native-level fluency in nuanced languages like Russian or Chinese — often cultivated in specific cultural contexts and family settings — would become a major obstacle, these people add.
There’s a morale risk too. The moves against DEI initiatives will negatively impact the workforce dedicated to protecting the nation. By limiting diverse perspectives, the quality of work in intelligence and defense environments will likely suffer, and distrust will grow among personnel who have made significant sacrifices.
Ultimately, the expulsion of these initiatives will narrow U.S. understanding of global challenges and hinder effective foreign policy strategies, they argued.
The White House did not return a request for comment asking if it has weighed these concerns in its decision to slash these programs when President Donald Trump entered office last month.
