One of Roy Cohn’s major controversies was his involvement in the Lavender Scare of the 1950s. For those unfamiliar with the Lavender Scare, it was a policy against the gay community, claiming that those who identified as a homosexual were potential threats in government positions because they were allegedly more susceptible to being scammed out of information. Senator Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, and yes, Cohn led this movement. The three of these men were responsible for the firing of hundreds of individuals.
In total, the State Department fired 425 individuals who were accused of being gay. The discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community was controversial on its own, but Cohn specifically received heat for his role in the firings because of his own sexuality.
For years, Cohn was accused of being gay, but never admitted it. However, many of the lawyer’s partners have come forward about their relationship with the big shot. Wallace Adams, one of Cohn’s boyfriends, told Matt Tyrnauer, the director of “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” (via Politico), “Even at the end, he refused to admit that he was gay.” Many close to the lawyer knew about his romantic life, but Cohn seemed to keep it extremely under wraps. His lies continued, as he denied having AIDS, which really killed the lawyer, instead of the liver cancer he claimed to have. Still, many can’t wrap their heads around the fact that the businessman persecuted the LGBTQ+ community, despite the knowledge that he was gay.
