President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 on April 27, 1953. Effective May 27, 1953, it revoked President Truman's Executive Order 9835 of 1947, and dismantled its Loyalty Review Board program. Instead, it charged the heads of federal agencies and the Civil Service Commission, supported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the task of investigating federal employees to determine whether they posed security risks. It expanded the definitions and conditions used to make such determinations. The order contributed to the ongoing Lavender scare of the mid-1950s, barring thousands of lesbian and gay applicants from government jobs.
Comparison to the previous Executive Order 9835
Previously, the criteria used to define a security risk were largely political, that is, affiliation with suspect organizations or a clear demonstration of disloyalty. Executive Order 10450 added more general estimations of character, stability, and reliability. Its language was broad: "Any criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction, or sexual perversion." At the same time, the executive order's provisions contained advice on evaluating character problems, as in its provision that the medical valuation of a psychological problem should show "due regard to the transient or continuing effect of the illness."
Ban on lesbian and gay federal workers
Under the order, thousands of lesbian and gay applicants were barred from federal employment, and over 5,000 federal employees were fired under suspicions of being homosexual. It came as a part of the US "Lavender Scare" witch hunts which contributed to and complemented the McCarthyist Red Scare. From 1947 to 1961, the number of firings based on sexual orientation were far greater than those for membership in the Communist party. It was not until 1973 that a federal judge ruled that a person's sexual orientation alone could not be the sole reason for termination from federal employment, and not until 1975 that the United States Civil Service Commission announced that they would consider applications by gays and lesbians on a case by case basis.
Without explicitly referring to homosexuality, the executive order responded to several years of charges that the presence of homosexual employees in the State Department posed blackmail risks. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. explained that the new order was designed to encompass both loyalty and security risks and he differentiated between the two: "Employees could be a security risk and still not be disloyal or have any traitorous thoughts, but it may be that their personal habits are such that they might be subject to blackmail by people who seek to destroy the safety of our country." The executive order had the effect of banning gay men and lesbians from working for any agency of the federal government.
Prior influences on the order's construction
The Hoey Committee, an investigative committee created by a Democrat controlled Senate in 1950, was commissioned to investigate and receive testimony from various federal government agencies, the judiciary, and law enforcement officials in Washington DC. The purpose of the committee was "to count the number of homosexuals in these departments" and discuss the merits of their inclusion in them Notably, they did not talk to any LGBTQ+ people or groups. The findings of the Senate report, entitled Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government were that almost "5000 homosexuals were within the military and civilian work force." The report concluded that gay people should not be allowed in government work because of their susceptibility to seduction and communism making them a security risk. The report served as a key resource to the Eisenhower administration in the creation of Executive Order 10450. Thus, the Hoey Committee was one of the first steps of institutionalizing homophobia in government work in the United States, and served as a guide for future government officials to do the same, as the Eisenhower administration did two years later.
Other aspects of the order
The press recognized the revolutionary nature of the new executive order. The Washington Post said that it established not a loyalty test but a "suitability test." Some in government referred to their new "integrity-security" program. Some of those the press expected to be excluded from federal employment included "a person who drinks too much," "an incorrigible gossip," "homosexuals," and "neurotics."