Cities performed "sweeps" to rid neighborhoods, parks, bars, and beaches of gay people. State and local governments followed suit: bars catering to gay men and lesbians were shut down, and their customers were arrested and exposed in newspapers. Post Office kept track of addresses where material pertaining to homosexuality was mailed. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and police departments kept lists of known homosexuals, their favored establishments, and friends the U.S.
In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ( DSM) as a mental disorder, a classification which remained until 1974. Between 19, 1,700 federal job applications were denied, 4,380 people were discharged from the military, and 420 were fired from their government jobs for being suspected homosexuals. State Department on the theory that they were susceptible to blackmail. Gay men and lesbians were included in this list by the U.S. Anarchists, communists, and other people deemed un-American and subversive were considered security risks. government offices and institutions, leading to a national paranoia. Spurred by the national emphasis on anti-communism following World War II, Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted hearings searching for communists and other security risks in U.S. This environment was driven by several factors.
Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. Very few establishments welcomed gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Gay Americans in the 1950s and 1960s faced an anti-gay legal system.