Comment on this story</tle><path d="M14 14V2H2v9.47h8.18L12.43 13ZM3 10.52V3h10v9.23l-2.5-1.66Z"></path></svg></button><span aria-hidn="te" class="wpds-c-fBEbFG">Comment</span><span class="wpds-c-fOvfhP wpds-c-fOvfhP-kshkDy-isCommentType-te none" aria-hidn="te"><span class="ment-unt font-xxxxs sc-ral-unt"><span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="teaser-ntent grid-center"><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><i>In Staff Picks, Book World edors and wrers share what they’ve been readg off the clock. We hope you’ll be spurred to read some of the books, and turn, we’d love to know what you’ve enjoyed lately so we n add to our pil.</i></p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div class="db dn-ns mr-neg-gutter ml-neg-gutter mb-md hi-for-prt" data-qa="subscribe-promo"><div data-orientatn="horizontal" role="separator" class="wpds-c-dbVHzF wpds-c-dbVHzF-hDkAcj-variant-flt"></div><a class="pt-sm pb-sm flex ems-center bold font-xxxs font-xxs-ns jtify-center" href=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="lor:#166dfc;borr:none"><svg class="ntent-box" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns=" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img"><tle>Wp</tle><path d="M11.055 8.728l-1.018-1.019-.782.782v6.292l1.782 1.564.018-.019v-7.6zm-4.11.236L5.674 7.71l-.836.855v6.237l1.545 1.327.564-.636V8.964zm2.656 9.074l-2.528-2.182-1.927 2.182-2.619-2.255v-3.564h-.509c-.454 0-.672.273-.745.636H1.09a2.89 2.89 0 0 1-.091-.69c0-.473.2-1.71 1.527-1.71V7.691c0-1.073-.709-1.127-.709-2.054 0-1.037.982-2 2.782-2.637l.164.145c-.6.291-1.09.655-1.09 1.437 0 1.2 1.163.89 1.163 2.782v.727l2.127-2.236 2.237 2.2 2.109-2.2 2.036 2v6.728l-3.745 3.455zm11.108-9.625l-1.073-.982-.964 1.018v6.6c.855.11 1.491.4 2.019.964l.018-.018V8.413zm-2.382.418l-.528.545v10.237l.528.492V8.83zm1.49 9.055c-.308-.382-.69-.709-1.145-.836v3.782l-.036.018-1-.927-2.11 1.945-.036-.018V16.96c-.636.145-1.327.545-1.854 1.2l-.146-.091c.127-1.4.818-2.436 2-2.837v-3.545h-.382c-.527 0-.89.363-.963.763h-.219c-.054-.145-.127-.381-.127-.836 0-.891.6-1.564 1.582-1.564h.11V8.085l-.655-.582-.51.51-.254-.237 2.018-2.073 1.71 1.564V9.05l.527-.564v-2.09h.345v1.727l2.273-2.419L23 7.576v7.91l-3.182 2.4z" fill-le="evenodd"></path></svg><span class="mr-xs ml-xs gray-darkt flex ems-center">Get the full experience.<span class="ml-xs subs-theme blue">Choose your plan</span></span><svg class="ntent-box" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 16 16" xmlns=" style="fill:#166dfc" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img"><tle>ArrowRight</tle><path d="M7.664 1.25l6 6a1 1 0 010 1.414l-6 6L6.25 13.25 10.499 9H2V7h8.585L6.25 2.664 7.664 1.25z" fill-le="nonzero"></path></svg></a><div data-orientatn="horizontal" role="separator" class="wpds-c-dbVHzF wpds-c-dbVHzF-hDkAcj-variant-flt"></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-CPHZMVIDWVAP5N56XDBYXDNLXU-0"><div id="list-headle-CPHZMVIDWVAP5N56XDBYXDNLXU-0" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Properti of Thirst,’ by Marianne Wiggs (2022)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Nora Kg, </b>edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">I was lucky enough this summer to have a longtime librarian as a hoe gut. Who better to offer a book remendatn (other than the ntributors to this lumn)? So, I asked my iend: What’s the bt book you have read this year? Whout skippg a beat, he answered: “<a href=" target=_blank>Properti of Thirst</a>,” by Marianne Wiggs, which me out paperback May. Conveniently, this book was already on my TBR pile. In fact, I had wanted to wre a feature about bee of s amazg backstory. Wiggs was nearly fished wrg the book when, 2016, she had a massive stroke. The Pulzer falist (and ex-wife of Salman Rhdie), now 75, not only lost the abily to wre but fot what she had already wrten. She enlisted the help of her dghter, Lara Porzak, to help her plete the 517-page novel. In the afterword, Lara scrib the experience poignant tail: Over the urse of several years, she read the book aloud to her mother multiple tim, until the characters me to feel like Lara and Marianne’s fay. Mother and dghter chatted “about their daily shenanigans and potential adventur, anythg to brg them back to the fabric of Mom’s memory.” Through this “powerful alchemy,” Lara wr, “art happened: the procs of fishg the novel shifted om beg an impossible burn to the very life-affirmg thg that helped to heal.” I am only about 50 pag to this sweepg, poetic novel — about a California rancher and his fay fightg, among other enemi, Los Angel over water rights — and I am already hooked.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-3GBE2C6DWJFAFKY4MALQQL5STI-1"><div id="list-headle-3GBE2C6DWJFAFKY4MALQQL5STI-1" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equaly,’ by Sarah McBri (2018)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Becky Meloan,</b> edorial ai</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Readg The Post’s <a href=" target="_blank">recent survey of trans Amerins</a> got me thkg about a powerful book — “<a href=" target="_blank">Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equaly</a>,” by Sarah McBri. Now a Delaware state senator and recently announced <a href=" target="_blank">ndidate for the U.S. Hoe</a>, McBri wrote her life story before she was elected to office. Interted polics om a young age, and also eply certa she would someday need to tell her parents that she wasn’t a boy like they thought she was, she grew up believg that eventually g out as a trans woman would make impossible to pursue her polil ambns. Beg unable to live the world the way she saw herself fally beme unbearable durg her senr year of llege. Takg baby steps, she me out to iends, fay, classmat and mentors, and fortunately found the rpons varied but affirmg. As she me to terms wh her inty, she ntued down the polil path she had always dreamed of — mpaigng for Be Bin Delaware, and workg to pass LGBTQ legislatn Delaware and later the Obama Whe Hoe. Her <a href=" target="_blank">ndid, down-to-earth memoir</a> is a gift to those who seek to unrstand more about the personal and public journeys trans people face today’s world.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-UDAI7GXWTVGMTMYRKENRAIN7MY-2"><div id="list-headle-UDAI7GXWTVGMTMYRKENRAIN7MY-2" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘The Lonelit Amerins,’ by Jay Caspian Kang (2021)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Sophia Nguyen, </b>news and featur wrer</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">A ltle after 10 a.m. on June 29, I download the PDF of the Supreme Court’s opn on affirmative actn — was long, and a lot of people were dog exactly the same thg, so took awhile — and then CTRL-F’ed for “Asian.” Is strange to say that I got more hs than I’d expected? The se, and the nversatn surroundg , theoretilly ncerned Asian Amerins; yet they (I suppose “we”) felt peculiarly cintal. Readg the ter that day felt like beg stuck traffic on the eeway: loud, tense, unmovg but somehow ducg motn sickns.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">In other words, felt like the right time to revis Jay Caspian Kang’s bracg 2021 book, “<a href=" target=_blank>The Lonelit Amerins</a>.” Lacg reportg wh polemic, ’s almost the oppose of a racial explaer: It’s rtls, cranky, a rare batn of nceptually rigoro and journalistilly cur. It’s the kd of book you thk wh and argue about, and that mak you feel — maybe foolishly — fally, we’re gettg somewhere.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-24T42633PVADXBAF4ZLVBEJBKA-3"><div id="list-headle-24T42633PVADXBAF4ZLVBEJBKA-3" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Juno Lov Legs,’ by Karl Geary (2023)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Ron Charl, </b>fictn cric</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">A few weeks ago <a href=" target=_blank>our ee Book Club newsletter</a>, I asked for exampl of cur differenc between U.S. and Brish book jackets. When a rear directed me to Karl Geary’s new novel, “<a href=" target=_blank>Juno Lov Legs</a>,” I uldn’t rist lvg beneath s ver(s). This is the story of Juno, a sharp-wted Irish girl the 1980s who’s too fiant to fd peace her dysfunctnal home or her btal Catholic school. “I was a lot,” she adms. “I was too much.” But her alholic father and toxic neighborhood would be too much for anyone. Deprsed by poverty and social isolatn, Juno experienc moments of peace by buryg herself the woods wh flowers and pretendg to be ad. She fds refuge only her iendship wh another young misf, a gay classmate she nicknam Legs. “We uldn’t be hurt,” she says, “not when the other was there.” Alas, that’s not entirely te. The trop of Irish tragedy arrive wh predictable regulary the pag, but the raw, liltg poetry of Juno’s voice provis a seri of heartbreakg revelatns.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-HZHP4E4E4BHULK57DQSQK5RI3Q-4"><div id="list-headle-HZHP4E4E4BHULK57DQSQK5RI3Q-4" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘The Rabow,’ by D.H. Lawrence (1915) and ‘Dpair,’ by Vladimir Nabokov (1937)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Bec Rothfeld, </b>nonfictn cric</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">In high school, I loved the novels of D.H. Lawrence. I am generally not much of a re-rear — I am too plagued by anxiety that, on my ath bed, I will regret havg read “<a href=" target=_blank>Lola</a>” four tim when I have yet to read “<a href=" target=_blank>Middlemarch</a>” even once — but I do make a pot of returng to books I was too young to appreciate when I first happened upon them. For no reason other than hunger for an Unrtakg and the vague spicn that his unabashed sensualy mak him summery, I set out to read all of Lawrence’s novels, begng wh “<a href=" target=_blank>The Rabow</a>.” Do the prose hold up? In a way, holds up all too well. It is exactly the sort of thg I loved when I was a teenager, full of unmigated sex, ath and profundy. The wrg is betiful, but is also surgg, and I am no longer an appropriately ecstatic mood.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">So I fected to an thor for whom I am always the mood. My personal email addrs volv Nabokov’s name, and I cid to read all his novels. I started wh “<a href=" target=_blank>Mary</a>,” his but, which is about a Rsian exile pg for his first love and his homeland as he languish Berl; is not Nabokov’s bt, but is already lovely, nse wh lhly redolent scriptn. Next I turned to “<a href=" target=_blank>Dpair</a>,” his seventh novel, which is unmistakably the work of the master. The narrator is a classilly Nabokovian trickster, a supercil and schemg athete prone to dark sexual fantasy and meta-textual forays. It is well worth readg, but I know that the bt is yet to e. Let hot Nabokov summer mence!</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="gift-share-le" data-ttid="gift-share-le" class="PJLV PJLV-ilotWTr-css hi-for-prt"><button aria-haspopup="dialog" aria-expand="false" aria-ntrols="gift-share-drawer" role="button" tabx="0" aria-label="Share this article" id="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-le" data-ttid="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-le" class="wpds-c-PJLV wpds-c-gsmDXe wpds-c-gsmDXe-goNocI-placement-Inle foc-highlight"><div data-ttid="gift-share-terstial-trigger" class="wpds-c-kPqOkS wpds-c-kPqOkS-jtSXsT-hasSubsText-false"><span class="wpds-c-hBJqc"><span class="wpds-c-dzSncg">Share this article</span></span><span class="wpds-c-eCvK"><span class="wpds-c-enedHQ wpds-c-enedHQ-cCdK-isShown-false">Share</span><svg xmlns=" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fBqPWp wpds-c-fDHGth"><path fill="currentColor" d="M8 .6v3.8h.1c-4.4 0-7.3 4.5-6.9 8.8.1.8.2 1.2.2 1.2l.2 1 .4-1.3c.8-2 2-4 6.2-3.9H8v4l7-6.9L8 .6Zm1 11.3V9.3h-.9c-3 0-4.8.5-6.2 2.9.5-3.3 2.7-6.8 6.2-6.8H9V3l4.5 4.4L9 11.9Z"></path></svg></span></div></button></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-PHER3JLZK5HLRN6Y5B5RVYH2CA-5"><div id="list-headle-PHER3JLZK5HLRN6Y5B5RVYH2CA-5" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘The Atheist the Attic,’ by Samuel R. Delany (2018)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Jab Brogan, </b>edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">As Julian Lus wr a <a href=" target=_blank>magnificent recent New Yorker profile</a>, Samuel R. Delany begs his days wh an “atheist’s prayer, hailg faraway celtial bodi wh a lany spired by the seventeenth-century philosopher Bach Spoza.” It’s an apt nnectn, bee Spoza, our greatt thker of the relatnships between bodi — the way they ph and pull one another, but also the way they rs and spire — has long been a rource for the queer imagatn. And Delany, who is bt known for his often-experimental science fictn novels, has spent his long and very queer reer imagg the many ways that bodi of all kds n e together.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“<a href=" target=_blank>The Atheist the Attic</a>,” a novella that may be his fal work of prose fictn, is a strange but ftg artifact the arc of his reer. It claims to be a seri of diary entri by the mathematician and philosopher Gottied Leibniz documentg his (wholly imaged) vis to the home of Spoza. At s heart is a dizzyg nversatn between two of history’s greatt mds a way that uld have been renred only by one of our most brilliant livg wrers.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">It is a challengg book the way that visg Delany himself — an experience that Lus perfectly ptur his profile — n be. But as is often the se wh Delany’s wrg, s rewards lie stg wh those challeng. (Those new to Delany’s work may want to stead beg wh “<a href=" target=_blank>Nova</a>,” “<a href=" target=_blank>Trouble on Tron</a>” or my favore, “<a href=" target=_blank>Tal of Nevèrÿon</a>.”) As Delany has Leibniz observe, “Well, thkg about what’s not supposed to require thkg, that <i>is </i>philosophy, no?” Havg spent s thkg about topics once emed below nsiratn, Delany has given ample reasons to go on philosophizg, endlsly and expansively.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-EC2T7CG3HNDHPJJFJ35BXZNTNU-6"><div id="list-headle-EC2T7CG3HNDHPJJFJ35BXZNTNU-6" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Blood, Bon & Butter: The Inadvertent Edutn of a Reluctant Chef,’ by Gabrielle Haton (2011)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Jill Pellettieri, </b>edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">I ok more the summer, so seemed like the perfect time to turn to <a href=" target=_blank>Haton’s book about her life and reer</a>. I enjoyed a meal at Haton’s now-shuttered rtrant Pne almost a and a half ago, and I n still remember the succulent pork belly I ate, a food that I’d never liked much before and that I’ve never liked much sce. Pl, a good food memoir is almost always my thg. But Haton’s book is not jt for lovers of the genre. The book has the same zy timacy as her rtrant. Haton v rears to her life experienc, scribg the relatnships that shaped her wh the same re and precisn she brgs to her okg. She wr of her mother: “So what is there to make of the simplistic thg I’ve e to utter explanatn, which is so drab, so monochromatic, so water on top of ice even though ’s the most direct, most distilled path om my heart to my mouth: I feel better whout her.” Her scriptns of food are so strikg she n make even the most dited rnivore salivate for a 35-cent t of sard. Pne may have closed, but thankfully rears n still revel Haton’s artistry through her wrg.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-4FBGP2ZKBJAKXJCOAX5ZVUZBKI-7"><div id="list-headle-4FBGP2ZKBJAKXJCOAX5ZVUZBKI-7" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Thunr at Twilight: Vienna 1913-1914,’ by Freric Morton (1989) and ‘1913: The Year Before the Storm,’ by Florian Illi (2013)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>John Williams, </b>Book World edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">I have a cent-size shelf of acclaimed books about World War I at home, a few of which I’ve even read, and yet the full motivatns and ntours of the epochal nflict — te to s reputatn — still elu my unrstandg. I have my sights set for soon on a uple of other big acunts of the era, cludg Barbara Tuchman’s “<a href=" target=_blank>The Guns of Augt</a>,” but for now I’m readg about one of history’s great unknowg prologu, the year before the war. Freric Morton’s “<a href=" target=_blank>Thunr at Twilight</a>” tak to Vienna the months before the assassatn of Franz Ferdand Sarajevo. We get energetic narrative portras of Ferdand and his polil rivals; of Frd and Jung; and, wh ep forhadowg of the send global taclysm that would e, of Stal and Hler. Florian Illi’s “<a href=" target=_blank>1913</a>” is a more tentnally agmented, imprsnistic diary of sorts, proceedg through the year month by month and focg more on artistic figur (Kafka, Pisso, Klimt, Stravsky …) than polil on. Each book might make history too digtible by (at least) half, but when to a time that sent the world to a sensels spiral of horrors, ’s hard to md.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-ZMKSNXRUB5HQFDBG6KPX5WYBZI-8"><div id="list-headle-ZMKSNXRUB5HQFDBG6KPX5WYBZI-8" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Last Post,’ by Freric Raphael (2023)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Michael Dirda, </b>lumnist</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Freric Raphael is a Brish novelist, sayist and screenwrer, whose films clu “<a href=" target=_blank>Darlg</a>,” starrg Julie Christie, for which he won an Amy Award. In recent years he’s been wrg var sorts of memoirs. The latt, the curly stctured “<a href=" target=_blank>Last Post</a>,” nsists of say-length letters addrsed to ad iends, mentors and enemi — the clu lerary cric Gee Steer, book edor Tom Maschler, poser and lyricist Llie Bricse, artist Michael Ayrton and many others. The “letters” are all sentially acunts of Raphael’s associatn wh the emenc, upled wh cril appreciatns of their achievements. Each addrs s recipient as though he or she were still alive, as the openg to that for director Stanley Kubrick: “Dear Stanley, Did I ever hear you lgh or see you se?” This send-person approach do take gettg ed to.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Two other thgs make Raphael’s piec remarkable. First, they are packed wh sndalo, sometim vengeful anecdot about Fleet Street, publishg, the London lerary scene and the ternatnal film world. Send, Raphael wr extravagantly pun-filled, alln-rich prose, as if S.J. Perelman had done really, really well classics at Cambridge.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">While the full dazzle of Raphael’s verbal fireworks requir extensive quotatn, he n also be wryly ncise. Of a celebry uple, he not: “If not yet married, you were certaly joed at the hype.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“Last Post” has been my bedsi book for the past week, and I’ve only begun to sample s dub pleasur.</p></div></div></div></div><div></div><div class="wpds-c-dhzjXW wpds-c-dhzjXW-iPJLV-css mt-md grid-center grid-body"><div id="gift-share-end" data-ttid="gift-share-end" class="PJLV PJLV-idiqKOk-css hi-for-prt"><button aria-haspopup="dialog" aria-expand="false" aria-ntrols="gift-share-drawer" role="button" tabx="0" aria-label="Share this article" id="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-end" data-ttid="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-end" class="wpds-c-PJLV wpds-c-gsmDXe wpds-c-gsmDXe-iIVoLq-placement-Shortcut foc-highlight"><div class="wpds-c-UazGY" id="gift-share-shortcut" data-ttid="gift-share-shortcut"><svg xmlns=" fill="var(--wpds-lors-primary)" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fVfumU "><path fill="currentColor" d="M8 .6v3.8h.1c-4.4 0-7.3 4.5-6.9 8.8.1.8.2 1.2.2 1.2l.2 1 .4-1.3c.8-2 2-4 6.2-3.9H8v4l7-6.9L8 .6Zm1 11.3V9.3h-.9c-3 0-4.8.5-6.2 2.9.5-3.3 2.7-6.8 6.2-6.8H9V3l4.5 4.4L9 11.9Z"></path></svg><div class="PJLV wpds-c-kwcHlj">Share</div></div></button></div><div class="wpds-c-hcekgi"><div class="mb-lg-mod" data-qa="ments-btn-div"><button aria-label="Scroll to the ments sectn" data-qa="ments-btn" class="wpds-c-kSOqLF wpds-c-kSOqLF-SQjOY-variant-sendary wpds-c-kSOqLF-eHdizY-nsy-flt wpds-c-kSOqLF-ejCoEP-in-left wpds-c-kSOqLF-igqYgPb-css ments hi-for-prt"><svg xmlns=" viewBox="0 0 16 16" fill="currentColor" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fBqPWp "><path d="M14 14V2H2v9.47h8.18L12.43 13ZM3 10.52V3h10v9.23l-2.5-1.66Z"></path></svg><span></span> Comments</button></div></div></div><div class="grid-center grid-body"><div></div></div></ma></div><div class="grid-center grid-mobile-full-bleed"><div class="hi-for-prt ml-to mr-to mt-md pt-lg recirc" data-qa="recirc"><div class="flex-l jtify-center hi-for-prt"><div class="pr-sm ml-sm ml-0-ns b-l br-l bc-gray-darkt more-om-post"><div></div><div class="dn db-l pb-md pt-md"><div data-qa="newsletter" class="hi-for-prt relative"><div class="dib w-100"><div><div class="flex jtify-center align self-center center transn-all duratn-400 ease--out" data-qa="sc-newsletter-signup" aria-label=""><svg aria-labelledby="react-aria-1-aria" role="img" viewBox="0 0 100 80"><tle id="react-aria-1-aria">Loadg...

book on gay washington dc

"Secret Cy," isn’t so much a gay history of D.C. as is a history of Washgton as experienced by s gay power players.

Contents:

NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER

A new nned cktail lled Gay Water is lookg to attract LGBTQ drkers and avoid the pfalls of Bud Light's disastro marketg partnership wh transgenr fluencer Dylan Mulvaney. * book on gay washington dc *

Published May 22, 2022Updated May 23, 2022When you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate CITYThe Hidn History of Gay WashgtonBy Jam Kirchick826 pag. )And yet the very skills gay people had to velop to survive — studns, partmentalizatn, discretn, erancy — ma them uniquely skilled, Kirchick pots out, to sensive tasks like pnage or high-level advisg. Fil, rrponnce, terview transcripts and prs clippgs — you n almost hear the old microfiche sheets tickg by — Kirchick holds the most dited persecutors, some of whom were themselv the closet, to sthg Morigi“Even at the height of the Cold War, was safer to be a Communist than a homosexual, ” he wr.

” Later, as tolerance grew (thanks part to the efforts of the Mattache Society, the gay rights anizatn whose evolutn is traced here), some nfirmed bachelors took the important seat once occupied by Perle Mta, the cy’s famed “hosts wh the mosts.

A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT

The ntroversial tle scrib genalia, gay sex and rmatn about the e of homosexual datg apps. * book on gay washington dc *

Kirchick wr of Nancy Reagan: “Her own persona is pably, irreprsibly gay, embodied by the retue that signed, drsed, rted, entertaed, flattered, hoed, humored, pampered, styled and tillated her.

It would be bt read at the vlet hour wh a snifter of brandy a wood-paneled library, one of those wh a rollg ladr to brg down some of the fad midcentury bt-sellers rurfaced the pag, like Vidal’s “The Cy and the Pillar” — the narrative perks up nsirably whenever this ntent, urbane wrer arriv on the premis — “Washgton Confintial, ” by Jack La and Lee Mortimer (1951), wh s fabled “Garn of Pansi”; and “Advise and Consent, ” by Allen Dry (1959), which won a Pulzer and was ma to a movie by Otto ’s also a Baeker of important plac (map clud): the rollickg Chicken Hut bar where Teboe met his murrers; the “F Loop” of the Dupont Circle pickup scene that veloped the 1960s; the Cema Folli, the pornographic theater where ne men died a 1977 fire; the “gay rner” of the Congrsnal Cemetery; and, more hopefully, the Lambda Risg is overwhelmgly a gallery of the whe male gaytriarchy, wh lbians and people of lor mostly on the sil. A new nned cktail lled Gay Water is lookg to attract LGBTQ drkers and avoid the pfalls of Bud Light’s disastro marketg partnership wh transgenr fluencer Dylan Mulvaney.

WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

Jam Kirchick reunts the past and prent of gay rights "Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton," cludg DC's Stonewall equivalent. * book on gay washington dc *

He noted that the nctn aims “to stigmatize the word ‘gay’ by brgg reprentatn to spac that have not tradnally featured queer products, such as bars, liquor stor, grocery stor, rtrants, hotels and more.

He told CNN that he worked wh a queer signer to base Gay Water’s red, purple, green and orange lor scheme on pop art and 1990s televisn shows om Nickeloon, a ble work for children. “Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg. Wh his new book, “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton, ” Jam Kirchick tri to retrof the trope to a very specific subset of the District’s famoly diverse LGBTQ muny, ultimately verg a bewilrg amount of old ground whout offerg the rear much that n be lled new.

Apart om notable appearanc by a handful of otherwise unrexplored gay and lbian polis — scrappy CIA officer Carmel Offie, Office of Strategic Servic trailblazer Cora Du Bois and Kennedy nfidant Lem Billgs, among others — “Secret Cy” largely foc on the pa experienced by, and at the hands of, faiar gay men like FBI Director J.

JAM KIRCHICK EXPLOR DC’S GAY HISTORY AN AMB NEW BOOK

Kev Maxen, an associate strength ach wh the Jacksonville Jaguars, has bee the first male ach a major U.S.-based profsnal league to e out as gay. * book on gay washington dc *

Most gay voic, however, are drowned out by, even treated as ls credible than, those of homophobic straight people: Gossip lumnists, yellow journalists, embattled prints, nnivg senators, obsequ FBI agents and a rotatg st of ais all are relied upon as primary sourc a history that is not primarily theirs to tell. Prs rps, how such homophobia has long manifted as mor and nuendo (pag and pag of which are here reproduced), the fluence of such homophobia on an enormo st of almost exclively Whe gay men, and how more than a few of those men played not-signifint rol the GOP’s long march to the far are not unimportant topics.

At one pot, for example, Kirchick attribut a “lack of Black participatn” an early gay rights anizatn, at least part, “to the fact that Washgton’s Black rints were mostly lols … and associatg wh a gay anizatn was signifintly harr while livg the cy where one’s fay rid. Siarly, while “Secret Cy” has ltle to say about lbians, the thor attempts to expla the silence away wh qutnable, and ultimately unstaable, claratns of how “persecutn generally targeted male homosexuals more severely than female on, a nsequence, part, of patriarchal attus privilegg men over women.

Equally troublg is the book’s uneven approach to the plited polics of “the closet, ” lurchg whout warng om requise portrayals of survival-by-secrecy to scribg, language both hackneyed and harmful, the ne gay victims of D.

CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

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. * book on gay washington dc *

Riemer is a -thor of “We Are Everywhere: Prott, Power, and Pri the History of Queer Liberatn” and a -creator of the onle rource CyThe Hidn History of Gay WashgtonBy Jam KirchickHenry Holt.

A brief asi Jam Kirchick’s sweepg new book, Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton, reunts how a Dupont Circle der beme a midcentury gay haven: Two men were vertly holdg hands unr the table, and a bartenr me over to tell them they didn’t have to hi. Throughout Secret Cy, such tails bump up agast momento historil events: Kirchick trac how homosexualy affected the Alger Hiss trial and the Iran-Contra affair, while makg the se that Washgtonians were the vanguard of anizg for equal rights.

Your book lays out an tertg ethil tensn between rpectg people’s personal privacy if they want to rema the closet and the tactil utily of outg gay people, generally to shame them for advancg an anti-gay agenda their profsnal life while beg secretly gay.

SECRET CY: BEHD THE UNTOLD GAY HISTORY OF DC POLICS

There’s also the moment your book when Harvey Milk outs Oliver Sipple, the man who saved Gerald Ford om an attempted assassatn, bee Milk wanted the public to see an example of gay heroism. But I thk I show the book that shame mak people do terrible thgs, so gay people those suatns are often victims, even if they’re also perpetrators, like Roy Cohn.

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

At the same time, 77 percent of Amerins say they are “extremely” or “very” ncerned by book rtrictns schools, acrdg to a March poll om Fox is also the se, said Skidmore College profsor Cathere Goln, who teach a class on 19th-century children’s lerature, that objectns are surgg bee the number of visual-rich picture books portrayg what ’s like to have gay parents or be transgenr has explod. 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.

JAGUARS ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU

”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. 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. 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).

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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. 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.

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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. Across the sweep of Secret Cy, we see homosexualy transform om an absolute reer-enr to somethg policians n be refully open wav ntue today Republin efforts to slanr LGBTQ+ people as “groomers” and erase the gas trans people have ma accs to medil re and social cln. Although Kirchick is well aware of the ugly polics of the prent, as well as the agily of the gas LGBTQ+ people have ma society, he ends Secret Cy on a note of triumph, celebratg the transformative acceptance of gay people as a “massive acplishment of the liberal society”, and a qutsentially Amerin succs story.

“Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton, " by Jam Kirchick, is a 654-page tome that took years of rearch and an exhstive vtigatn to printial archiv, historil terviews and once-classified ernment rerds. “I realized that all the stori I was readg, and the personali and phenomena, whether was McCarthyism or the Reagans, FDR or JFK, that there were the gay stori lurkg the background, ” Kirchick said. “It was the specter of homosexualy that provoked the first and only suici by a member of Congrs his Capol Hill office, ed Lyndon Johnson to et that his historil lead would evaporate, and seized the paranoid md of Richard Nixon send only to the plots of his ever-expandg enemi list, ” Kirchick wr.

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” Rumors of homosexualy were tastrophic to those who were acced of , but Kirchick also asks the rear to nsir the broar human and societal impact of such wch hunts on gay Amerins workg ernment.

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“To asss the full sle of the damage that the fear of homosexualy wrought on the Amerin polil landspe, one mt take to acunt not only the reers ed and the liv cut short, but somethg vaster and unquantifiable: the possibili thwarted, ” Kirchick wr. Although openly LGBTQ people have ma their way to the hight ranks of ernment today, was not long ago that spected homosexuals workg for the feral ernment were hunted down, publicly huiated and termated wh the full force of the ernment. There were whispers that Reagan was possibly participatg “homosexual nduct, ” and some Republins saw Reagan’s potential nomatn as a “danger to the Republin Party and the untry.

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The possibily that Kemp uld jo the ticket was evince that there was a “homosexual rg” around Reagan and that he was “the ventriloquized pawn of shadowy and sister forc, ” Kirchick wr. ” Wh those words, Clton would do somethg that would have seemed unfathomable to most, if not all, of his precsors: make an explic appeal to gay Amerins for their support a printial electn. Blick arrived to share telligence about a new threat, one that, he suggted, uld stabilize Amerin natnal secury om wh: the existence of gay staffers at the hight levels of began by explag that “a well-known pnage tactic” entailed lurg female ernment staffers “to the munist unrground by volvg them lbian practic.

Blick said that he had intified forty to fifty female ernment employe who had participated the “sex i, ” and that many more were likely to surface: five thoand homosexuals lived D. Blick kept the list locked a metal safe at police ’s gay list quickly took on mythic stat, a now largely fotten rollary to Joseph McCarthy’s famo “list of nam” of Communists the State Department.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* BOOK ON GAY WASHINGTON DC

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

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