With the ranks of "out" politicians increasing each year and gay marriage a starkly divisive political issue, homosexuality is entrenched in our mainstream political consciousness like never before. However, as historian David Johnson makes clear in his book The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government — which details the little-known McCarthy-era hounding of "subversives" — sexual orientation has operated as a political matter for more than 50 years. Tonight, Johnson joins Northwestern cultural historian and gay-issues expert Lane Fenrich to discuss the long history of gay and lesbian life in the political spotlight.