Michael Waters reviews Jam Kirchick’s book “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton,” which chronicl the panic over queer polil fluence Washgton, D.C., om the Princy of Frankl D. Roosevelt to that of Bill Clton.
Contents:
- BEG GAY WAS DC’S MOST SHAMEFUL SECRET DURG 20TH CENTURY
- THE U STREET CORRIDOR FALLY HAS A GAY CLUB AGA
- SECRET CY: BEHD THE UNTOLD GAY HISTORY OF DC POLICS
- WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
- A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT
- WHAT MA WASHGTON, D.C., THE “GAYT AND MOST ANTIGAY CY AMERI”
BEG GAY WAS DC’S MOST SHAMEFUL SECRET DURG 20TH CENTURY
“Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton” tails the brave and sometim salac characters of Washgton D.C.’s gay culture durg the 20th century. * dc secrets gay *
” Senator Joe McCarthy orchtrated the Lavenr Sre, an offshoot of his csa agast munism that monized gays and lbians workg for the U. … And now all of a sudn is, and there is no greater secret, more shameful secret than that one is a homosexual, ” Kirchick says. The “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton” explor what the thor lls the “specter of homosexualy, ” where beg gay was villaized.
THE U STREET CORRIDOR FALLY HAS A GAY CLUB AGA
* dc secrets gay *
And the reason he's lyg about Hiss beg a munist spy is bee Chambers is a spurned and vdictive homosexual, that he had lted after Hiss, and Hiss had rejected him.
… Homosexualy be one of the bogeymen for him alongsi radils and Jews and Blacks — there's this long list of enemi, groups of people. At the same time, Kirchick says Nixon’s chief speechwrer was Ray Price, who was a gay man, and was part of a gnive dissonance that existed among many Washgton policians.
“It's a recurrg theme this book that the prints — they're able to have close gay iends or gay advisors who play ccial rol their polil reers.
SECRET CY: BEHD THE UNTOLD GAY HISTORY OF DC POLICS
While the uple wasn’t totally fe wh queerns, Kirchick says they were most fortable around gay people than most Amerins, and pecially nservative, policians.
WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
“Beg a bachelor was a somewhat easier stat to mata, and you might draw ls attentn to yourself as a bachelor Washgton than you might other ci, certaly the small towns and many gay people were fleeg, ” Kirchick explas.
But terms of the spe of the book, terms of what I ll the ‘specter of homosexualy’ reigng over Washgton, really to an end the middle of the 1990s. In the past three years, all of the cy’s siar clubs have closed, cludg Cobalt, Secrets, DC Eagle, and the largt gay dance club D. This is te of Amerin polics, where the 20th century saw numero gay and lbian dividuals participatg at the hight levels of power, yet almost wholly effaced om the tellg of our natn’s history.
A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT
In the new book Secret Cy, historian Jam Kirchick attempts to scribe to the historil rerd the homosexual men and women who have served and ntributed to their untry Washgton DC, throughout the 20th century. “I want to tertwe the two threads – the mastream thread of history that we all read about, and this gay history that’s been siled and sequtered, ” he said. ”Kirchick first beme trigued by the ia of a gay history of Amerin power polics 2007, when he moved to DC and realized that was suffed wh a vivid gay cultural life and history.
WHAT MA WASHGTON, D.C., THE “GAYT AND MOST ANTIGAY CY AMERI”
As he began workg on the massive project, Kirchick started to believe that, as a gay man, he was uniquely equipped to wre Secret Cy.
Kirchick astutely pots out that the fear of homosexualy has been a driver of printial polics, functng siarly to other historilly regnized forms of prejudice like antisemism and purg of so-lled munists. This prejudice got kickstarted wh the revelatns of the Ksey Reports 1948 and 1953, when people sudnly realized that the gay populatn was far larger than anyone had gused. This fear of “the gay next door” fueled stereotyp of gays beg disloyal to the Uned Stat, as well as the belief that they were herently nspiratorial – “if you have three homosexuals the room, ’s tomatilly a nspiracy, ” said Kirchick.