On 27th April 1953, at the height of the “Red Scare”, President Eisenhower issued Executive Order #1040 which expanded the criteria for determining who and what posed a security risk. Previously, the focus was on divided loyalty, such as affiliation with a subversive organization; 1040 broadened the scope to include all federal employees and members of the military and “any criminal, infamous, immoral or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction or sexual perversion”. The fact that many members of the administration, including Eisenhower’s closest advisor, plus senators and congressmen, fell under one or more of these provisos did not prevent 1040’s zealous implementation. Thus the ongoing, parallel “Lavender Scare” received the imprimatur of the executive branch and a city, once dubbed “the capitol of Fairyland, USA” in the interwar years, turned on a significant part of its population. The State Department became a particular focus, but more than 5,000 federal employees overall lost their jobs under suspicion of homosexuality, outstripping by far those fired for Communist sympathies from 1947-1961.
This is the context for the human drama of Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers whose action is bookended by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1953 wedding and his funeral four years later. State Department employee and ambitious Washington insider Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller approaches recent Fordham graduate, and cub reporter, Timothy Laughlin. As he circles the park bench, teasing Laughlin, his predatory instincts become clear. He leaves, then secretly arranges an interview for a speechwriter vacancy on the staff of Senator Potter, an ally of Tim’s idol, Senator McCarthy. In gratitude, Laughlin buys a book which he delivers to Hawkins’ office, where he meets his assistant, Mary, and Miss Lightfoot, his secretary. That evening Hawk swoops down on his apartment and an affair begins between two people who turn out to be fatally incompatible. Hawk, above all, wants to maintain his perch in the DC pecking order; Tim, whom Hawk infantilizes with the nickname “Skippy”, discovers himself and truly desires a life together. That tension drives the narrative and leads to an act of betrayal so despicable it places Hawk foremost amongst the rich roster of cads in opera: After being accused and exonerated himself, he denounces his lover whose application for an important position at State is then rejected. The final scene returns to the same park bench with Tim about to leave Washington for good. Hawk, now married, is ultimately left alone to consider what he has lost and that the 1950’s dream of a devoted spouse and house in the suburbs just might be a closeted man’s worst nightmare.