Highsmith published The Price of Salt in 1952, and the story reflects the intolerance toward lesbians (and any person falling under the LGBTQ+ umbrella) during the mid-20th century. Carol tells Therese, “In the eyes of the world, it's an abomination” (176). Her statement reflects the norms of American society, where a lesbian or gay person could lose their family, job, freedom, or life if their sexual preference became known. In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association published the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which classified lesbian and gay sexualities as a “sociopathic personality disorder.” In the 1950s, officials and authorities routinely asserted that something was wrong with LGBTQ+ people, as if their gender and sexuality were a condition that required curing. As a result, LGBTQ+ people could be institutionalized, and lesbians were sometimes forcibly sterilized or subjected to female genital mutilation to “cure” their desire. In the novel, Carol loses custody of her child because her sexuality makes her unfit as a mother in the eyes of the law.

In response to this persecution, the first large and open LGBTQ+ civil rights groups emerged in the 1950s. The Mattachine Society, which focused on gay men’s rights, was founded in 1950.