What Is The Lavender Scare In Fellow Travelers? The True Story Behind The Government’s LGBTQ+ Dismissals

Fellow Travelers depicts two men who fall in love when it was unacceptable (by the United States government’s standards) for people of the same sex to engage in a romantic relationship. Since the series draws inspiration from history, the Lavender Scare plays a prominent role in the show. The historical romance television miniseries is based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon and stars Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey as the couple. Their characters — Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller and Tim Laughlin — meet in the 1950s and commit themselves to a romance that spans some of the most tumultuous decades for the LGBTQ+ community in the United States.