Washgton, D.C.'s hidn gay history is unvered 'Secret Cy'

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

” 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. 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. 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.

THE U STREET CORRIDOR FALLY HAS A GAY CLUB AGA

“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.

SECRET CY: BEHD THE UNTOLD GAY HISTORY OF DC POLICS

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. 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.

WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'

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.

A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT

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. Bt-known for beg forced to rign amid a sex sndal while on the brk of succeedg Newt Ggrich as Speaker of the Hoe durg the impeachment of Bill Clton, Livgston 1980 beme nvced that the gay men legimately workg for Ronald Reagan were fact a sister bal secretly ntrollg him.

Kirchick entw this lurid tale, which fueled an effort to scuttle Reagan’s 1980 printial nomatn, wh a number of gay nspiracy theori attached to the Reagan admistratn (cludg one that Reagan himself had sex wh another man). Regardls of all the trigue, Kirchick also reports that Reagan’s admistratn proved to be “the gayt of any printial admistratn yet”, monstratg two pots central to Secret Cy: the growg acceptance of gays throughout the 20th century and their great value ernment, even a macho, hard-right one like Reagan’s. It is an irony mon to stori of LGBTQ+ rilience that the very thgs that opprsed gay and lbian dividuals – such as the need to lead a double-life, or the isolatn that me om not beg permted to marry – were ma advantageo both to the pursu of their liberatn and their polil reers.

“In the perd documented this book, ” Kirchick said, “closets were good at producg gay people wh skills that ma them preternaturally equipped to functn Washgton – they were good at keepg secrets, had no fay life to distract them, and they were more loyal to people power. ”Throughout Secret Cy, Kirchick do a masterful job of nveyg the flavor of homophobia each historil era, while g impecble rearch to vividly characterize the dozens of var dividuals at play the stori.

WHAT MA WASHGTON, D.C., THE “GAYT AND MOST ANTIGAY CY AMERI”

This is a book not jt about how polil power was brought to bear on the liv of gay men and women; even more, nveys the texture of an ever-evolvg world that nstantly kept gay people check. It shows how social forc shaped gay liv through nstant implic and explic threats, the very language that homosexuals had to scribe their inty and experience, and stern ntrol over the ways they uld accs the sexual practic that were ma so central to their inty as human Hudson wh Nancy and Ronald Reagan 1984 Photograph: Courty Everett Collectn/REXBee of this rich attentn to tail, Secret Cy also offers a vivid chronicle of the wav of liberatn and backlash that characterized the growg acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights the 20th century. As Kirchick shows, the send world war beme a natnal g out of sorts, wh gay people meetg the armed forc unprecented numbers.