In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that there were 205 communists working in the US State Department. It was the height of fear of an imminent attack by the USSR or the People’s Republic of China on the country.
On April 19 of the same year, Republican Party leader Guy George Gabrielson declared that “the sexual perverts who have infiltrated our government in recent years” could be “as dangerous as the communists themselves.”
Senator McCarthy hired lawyer Roy Cohn to be chief advisor to his Congressional subcommittee on a mission to ‘discover’ who LGBTQIA+ people were and fire them. They also enlisted the help of FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover.
Among the justifications: because they ‘had a double life’, ‘lived in the closet’, etc., homosexuals were easily blackmailed and in this way, they would be easy targets for collaborating with the communists.
Between 1947 and 1950, around 1,700 people lost their jobs in the US government on the grounds of homosexuality.
This period became known as The Lavender Scale. Understand: in the minds of homophobes at the time, lavender was the color that identified gays at the time.
In this scenario of prevailing paranoia, Hawk Fuller (Matt Bomer), an ambitious employee of the US Congress, meets young Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey), an admirer of Senator Joseph McCarthy. They get involved. They will live 30 years of a story surrounded by passion, sex, fear, lies, opportunism, selfishness, among others.
It’s the plot of the limited series (formerly known as miniseries).”Travel Companions”, which the Paramount+ streaming service aired on eight Sundays, ending on 12/17.
Travel Companions @ Disclosure
Based on the book of the same name by Thomas Mallon (not released in Brazil), the story moves through the 1980s, the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and quickly flirts with the Disco Era in the second half of 1970.
The showrunner is Ron Nyswaner, nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay for “Philadelphia” and also a screenwriter for the spy series “Homeland”.
In the current awards season, the series has earned two Golden Globe nominations, three Critics Choice and three Satellite Awards.
MONDO MODA is a Lifestyle Portal created in November 2007 by Journalist, Style Editor and Costume Producer Jorge Marcelo Oliveira. The objective is to inform, entertain and question about art, culture, architecture, beauty, decoration, gadgets, games, gastronomy, fashion, the LGBTQIAP+ universe, tourism, among others.