Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton by Jam Kirchick

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

Contents:

A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT

The New York Tim BtsellerA New York Tim Notable Book of 2022Named one of Vany Fair's “Bt Books of 2022”“Not sce Robert Caro’s Years of Lyndon Johnson have I been so riveted by a work of history. Secret Cy is not gay history. It is Amerin history.”—Gee StephanopoulosWashgton, D.C., has always been a cy of secrets. Few have been more dramatic than the on revealed Jam Kirchick’s Secret Cy. For s, the specter of homosexualy hnted Washgton. The mere suggtn that a person might be gay stroyed reputatns, end reers, and ed liv. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexualy beme tertwed wh the growg threat of ternatnal munism, leadg to a purge of gay men and lbians om the feral ernment. In the fevered atmosphere of polil Washgton, the secret “too loathsome to mentn” held enormo, terrifyg power. Utilizg thoands of pag of classified documents, terviews wh over one hundred people, and material unearthed om printial librari and archiv around the untry, Secret Cy is a chronicle of Amerin polics like no other. Begng wh the tragic story of Sumner Well, Frankl Delano Roosevelt’s brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of “the greatt natnal sndal sce the existence of the Uned Stat,” Jam Kirchick illumat how homosexualy shaped each succsive printial admistratn through the end of the twentieth century. Cultural and polil anxiety over gay people sparked a s-long wch hunt, impactg everythg om the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI to the ascent of Joseph McCarthy, the stggle for Black civil rights, and the rise of the nservative movement. Among other revelatns, Kirchick tells of the World War II–era gay spymaster who pneered sctn as a tool of Amerin pnage, the voted ai whom Lyndon Johnson treated as a son yet abandoned once his homosexualy was disvered, and how allegatns of a “homosexual rg” ntrollg Ronald Reagan nearly railed his 1980 electn victory. Magisterial spe and timate tail, Secret Cy will forever transform our unrstandg of Amerin history. * gay washington book *

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. 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.

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

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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.

SECRET CY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON

An excerpt om Jam Kirchick's ‘Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton’ reunts the story of polil strategist Terry Dolan. * gay washington book *

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. 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. 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.

“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.

BEG GAY WAS THE GRAVT S WASHGTON

"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. * gay washington book *

“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.

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

Begng wh the tragic story of Sumner Well, Frankl Delano Roosevelt’s brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of “the greatt natnal sndal sce the existence of the Uned Stat, ” Jam Kirchick illumat how homosexualy shaped each succsive printial admistratn through the end of the twentieth century. Cultural and polil anxiety over gay people sparked a s-long wch hunt, impactg everythg om the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI to the ascent of Joseph McCarthy, the stggle for Black civil rights, and the rise of the nservative movement. Among other revelatns, Kirchick tells of the World War II–era gay spymaster who pneered sctn as a tool of Amerin pnage, the voted ai whom Lyndon Johnson treated as a son yet abandoned once his homosexualy was disvered, and how allegatns of a “homosexual rg” ntrollg Ronald Reagan nearly railed his 1980 electn victory.

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

Much like the gay muny self, the book ntas people om every social class, lor, personaly, and profsn, om disabled and impoverished veterans to the untry's send most powerful preachy, self-nsc, or borg, Secret Cy has raised the bar for the genre, portrayg s subjects and their cy all s ntradictns. In this spellbdg journey om the New Deal to the end of the Cold War, Jam Kirchick draws to the mimon of Gay Washgton: a dangero world swirlg wh rmers, sndal sheets, blacklists, clanste works, and brave fighters for equaly.

Lovers of Washgton lore will enjoy the pictn of gay life the natn's pal when was entirely unrground, and lovers of jtice will take pleasure the fact that some of the most repulsive characters morn polil history who ed so many liv and reers are brought to jtice the only way they n be now: the historil rerd. From World War II until the end of the Cold War, untold thoands of gay men and women were eher purged om ernment service or nied employment altogether, solely bee of their sexual the same time, some of the most important prerequis for succs the natn’s pal—the abily to work long hours on a low ernment salary, a willgns to travel at a moment’s notice, prrizg reer over fay—are more easily attaed by those whout a fay to support, a set of circumstanc that ma Washgton an pecially attractive place for gay people, gay men particular.

THE ULTRANSERVATIVE BROTHERS PULLED STRGS REAGAN’S WASHGTON. THEN ONE OF THEM WAS OUTED AS GAY

The cy has long attracted the archetypil “bt ltle boy the world, ” the thor Andrew Tobias’s term for a certa type of gay young man who diligently channels the adversy engenred by his secret to amic pursus, so many of whom have ma their way to Washgton bee of s peculiar appete for the skills that secret Kirchick: The stggle for gay rights is overBob Waldron was one such man.

Waldron’s experience, ptured now-classified ernment rerds and told full here for the first time, reveals jt how much the gay Amerins sacrificed—and how even someone unwavergly loyal to one of the untry’s most skillful policians was vulnerable to the fall of 1963, Johnson had cid to brg Waldron onto his executive-branch staff. Phillips seemed to take the matter stri, as evinced by his cisn to stay at Waldron’s home, and sleep Waldron’s bed, for the rt of the A glimpse to 1970s gay activismIn reuntg the experienc to the ernment vtigator, though, Phillips imbued them wh a forebodg he had not seemed to feel when they occurred. “I believe that he is very much a loyal Amerin cizen, and even though he has homosexual tennci, I would still remend him for a posn volvg natnal secury on the basis of his past rponsible ernment work and other personal characteristics.

But while he was helpg Johnson assume the rponsibili of lear of the ee world, a group of men a buildg a few blocks away were pilg a report that would throw his life to the urse of nductg s background check, Space Council Executive Secretary Edward Welsh told the longtime Johnson ai Walter Jenks, the CSC disvered that Waldron had participated “homosexual activi. The “Lavenr Sre, ” the purge of gays and lbians om the feral ernment that had begun the early 1950s, was still grdg on well to the followg ; jt a few months after Waldron was jettisoned om the Whe Hoe, the State Department announced that had fired 63 people as “secury risks” the prev year, 45 of them on acunt of a wele prence Washgton’s most exclive salons and at the apex of Amerin polil power, Waldron was now persona non grata.

‘THE REAL VILLA IS THE CLOSET’: A NEW HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON DEALS WH SOCIETY AS IT TLY WAS

Scerely, Bob WaldronIronilly, the man rponsible for rryg out Waldron’s dismissal, Walter Jenks, himself beme the subject of a gay sndal when, three weeks before the 1964 electn, he was arrted for solicg another man for sex the basement bathroom of the YMCA around the rner om the Whe Hoe. Jt a few months later, nnectn wh a Senate Internal Secury Submtee vtigatn that lled more than 100 wns and generated some 20, 000 pag of ttimony, a senr State Department official asserted that “homosexualy is the most disturbg secury problem” the agency faced.

He unted among his clients a diplomatic register full of ambassadors, the Organizatn of Amerin Stat, the Johnsons after they left the Whe Hoe, and numero other proment Washgtonians and storied stutns—a tribute to his genuy and perseverance, perhaps, but also a utnary tale for any gay person wh polil ambn. In 1995, at age 68, Waldron died of AIDS, another agent of stctn agast gay his anguished 1964 letter to Phillips, Waldron explaed that, once intified, homosexuals were “marked by our society—which do not perm a return. 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.

‘WILL I SEE A GAY PRINT MY LIFETIME? ABSOLUTELY.’

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. 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. C., was “simultaneoly the gayt and most antigay cy Ameri, ” a place which queer people were omniprent—but so, too, was the risk of you went lookg for the prototypil queer staffer among the book’s st of characters—Kirchick helpfully lists the dramatis personae at the ont of the book—you might settle on Carmel Offie, who, spe a most background, got a job wh the Ambassador to Honduras when he was jt twenty-two, the early neteen-thirti.

A lleague of Offie’s once lled him “as homosexual as you n get, ” and Kirchick reunts mors that Offie, who reportedly scribed his bedroom as “the playg fields of Eton, ” had a romantic relatnship wh William Bullt, the Ambassador to the Soviet Unn, for whom he eventually went to work. Though not que to the level of a “homosexual rg, ” a notable ntgent of high-level gay iends and staffers worked for Reagan, for stance, and queer people ma up a signifint share of other Admistratns throughout the middle and latter parts of the twentieth century.

For years, the prs went along wh this discretn, but that mutually assured silence began to unravel durg Roosevelt’s third term, when a New York Post article that acced the Massachetts senator David Walsh of visg a “hoe of gradatn”—the Post never ed the word “homosexual”—gurated outg as a polil weapon. Kirchick posns “Secret Cy” as a lightly revisnist work, notg that “most narrativ of the movement for gay equaly” emphasize the Stonewall uprisg, the assassatn of Harvey Milk, and the mpaign agast the antigay activist Ana Bryant before sistg that “the spark for the revolutn was l, and s flame was tend, Washgton, DC. Kameny subsequently built up the cy’s first staed gay anizatn and is rightly regard as a pneer for equal the tth most clearly revealed by Kirchick’s foc on Washgton is one that queer historians have emphasized for years: that change was prompted not by those the halls of power but by activists workg well outsi of them.

IN 'SECRET CY,' THOR JAM KIRCHICK TRAC THE UNKNOWN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON

The high pot of his si fightg seems to have arrived 1982, when Dolan wrote to the Admistratn to cricize the Fay Protectn Act, which banned any anizatn that st homosexualy as an “acceptable life style” om receivg feral fundg, and a month later, when he apologized for g antigay language his N. In the new book Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton, thor Jam Kirchick expos how fears and prejudic around homosexualy shaped printial polics for s, om the Cold War-era purge of gays and lbians om every level of ernment to the rise of the nservative movement. Here, Kirchick trac the story of Terry Dolan’s posthumo outg a Washgton Post obuary, and Tony Dolan’s outraged rponse — cludg an alln to Post edor Ben Bradlee’s own gay brother — that subsequently ran the Washgton Tim.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY WASHINGTON BOOK

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c0.403-0.41103,0.403-1.06897,0-1.48c-5.94937-6.28852-5.94937-16.12948,0-22.418c0.40365-0.41115,0.40365-1.06985,0-1.481 C6.05723,1.43741,5.46058,1.40189,5.07066,1.74798c-0.028,0.02485-0.05449,0.05135-0.07934,0.07934 c-6.65509,7.1508-6.65509,18.2282,0,25.379C5.17852,27.39687,5.43054,27.51003,5.69732,27.52333z"></path><path d="M27.88032,1.82833c-0.40419,0.41093-0.40419,1.07007,0,1.481 c5.94824,6.28858,5.94824,16.12842,0,22.417c-0.4304,0.36687-0.4819,1.01318-0.11502,1.44358 c0.36687,0.4304,1.01318,0.48189,1.44357,0.11502c0.02892-0.02465,0.05645-0.05089,0.08245-0.0786 c6.65498-7.19124,6.65498-18.29276,0-25.484C28.86527,1.38444,28.25111,1.43058,27.88032,1.82833z"></path><path d="M10.73632,6.07033c-0.33433-0.38991-0.92145-0.43497-1.31136-0.10064 C9.38889,6.00061,9.35524,6.03426,9.32432,6.07033c-4.33435,4.79731-4.33435,12.09669,0,16.894 c0.33348,0.38991,0.91991,0.43566,1.30983,0.10218c0.03666-0.03136,0.07082-0.06552,0.10217-0.10218 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"/></picture><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">In 1979, thoands s march down Pennsylvania Avenue to dramatize their plea for equal rights. </figptn></figure></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--ntent hang-punctuatn article-sectn--first article-sectn--centered article-sectns"><p class="">Post-World War II, there was somethg seen as even worse than beg a munist U.S. polics: <a href=">beg gay</a>.</p><p class="nt-medium">"Beg gay was the <a href=">worst possible thg</a> you uld be Amerin polics. It was worse than beg a munist," thor Jam Kirchick says.</p><p class="">As a rult, some high rankg members of ernment were nied natnal secury clearanc.</p><p class="nt-medium">"The belief was that bee this was so terrible ... the homosexual would go to any lengths to keep his secret a secret, and if that meant betrayg his untry ... he would do ," Kirchick says.</p><p class="">But history shows the fears were unfound.</p><p class="nt-medium">"The Defense Department did a study the 1990s where they looked at over 100 s of pnage, of people givg ernment secrets to foreign powers," he adds.</p><p class="nt-medium">"There's not a sgle example of a gay person dog bee they were blackmailed to dog ."</p><p class="">Today, <em>On Pot</em>: How reers and liv were lost through s of bipartisan homophobia.</p><span><h3>Gut</h3></span><p class=""><a href="><strong>Jam Kirchick</strong></a>, thor of <a href=">Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton</a>. He's also a lumnist for Tablet magaze, wrer-at-large for Air Mail, and a nonrint senr fellow at the Atlantic Council. (<a href=">@jkirchick</a>)</p><span><h3>Interview Highlights</h3></span><p class=""><strong>On the unknown history of gay Washgton</strong></p><p class="nt-medium">“The skills or the tras that make you succsful Washgton, thgs like discretn, beg able to keep secrets, beg able to work long hours for a boss. Maybe to pick up that phone ll at 2 a.m. and, you know, sh over to the Capol to attend to whatever he needs. The are the sorts of thgs that durg this era of the '40s to the '90s, I thk that gay people and really gay men particular, bee let's not fet, this was an era when men led Washgton. There were very few women any sort of posns of fluence. The are the sorts of jobs that that gay people, I thk were sort of uniquely able to do, bee when you're livg the closet, you have to be able to master the sorts of tras.</p><p class="nt-medium">"You also don't have a fay to take re of. And so you n vote more time. You n work longer hours. And so particularly wh the New Deal and the rise of the feral burecracy, you had lots of gay people movg to Washgton, particularly om ral areas, tryg to pe perhaps more nservative small town life, and seekg a life the big cy, which really is the story of gay people 20th century Ameri, leavg small towns and g to big ci.</p><p class="nt-medium">"So that's why I would say was often the gayt place Ameri, the gayt cy Ameri. But there's this paradox. It is also the most anti-gay cy Ameri bee the feral ernment don't allow gay people to work the jobs officially. And so you have lots of gay people hidg. They're forced to nstct the closets that they live . And sets a very high amount of tensn for them workg Washgton.”</p><p class=""><strong>On Washgton D.C.’s gay history, om FDR to Bill Clton</strong></p><p class="nt-medium">“Homosexualy has been nmned sort of Wtern civilizatn or Juo-Christian civilizatn and certaly Ameri for hundreds of years. And you n jt go back and read the laws that were imposed by the Amerin loni. And homosexualy was illegal all 50 stat, and was nsired a medil ndn. But I thk what happens around the World War II or around the late FDR perd, is that homosexualy go om beg jt a s or a medil ndn to beg a natnal secury threat. And the reason is bee of secrecy, really, the tle of my book, and that the Uned Stat needs to build a natnal secury burecracy for managg secret rmatn, nfintial rmatn.</p><p class="nt-medium">“And this notn of natnal secury be a primary ncern Washgton. And the fears that gay people or, you know, homosexuals wh the term that was ed at the time are really sexual viants or perverts, that they have the worst possible secret imagable and that they would go to any length to keep . And that therefore, that mak them very sceptible to blackmail. And so 's not until the Roosevelt admistratn that we see a ernment official beg hound out of office, a high rankg one, actually. Sumner Wells, the Unr-Secretary of State. This is the openg chapters of my book.</p><p class="nt-medium">"He's a very talented diplomat, a iend of the Roosevelt fay. But his enemi, his rivals wh the admistratn, obta rmatn that he's gay. And they try to e this and they e succsfully to get him out of ernment. And I don't thk that if this had happened the 1920s or 1930s, I'm not sure that would have risen to the level that did. But wh Ameri enterg the world as a global superpower, they uld e this argument that, well, Wells is a homosexual. He's therefore sceptible to blackmail by foreign powers. So that's why the book begs wh World War II.”</p><p class=""><strong>On unverg Washgton D.C.’s hidn gay history</strong></p><p class="nt-medium">“I'm gay, and I thk as a gay person, we don't have a way of learng our history through, you know, olr relativ or fay. It's not like if you're Ain Amerin and you n learn the history of slavery through your anctors, or if you're Jewish, you learn the history of your people at the Passover Ser table. If you're gay, you don't have that generatnal nnectn to other gay people. You have to disver for yourself. And so that's what really motivated me to pursue this project.”</p><p class=""><strong>On the Reagan admistratn and the AIDS crisis</strong></p><p class="nt-medium">“One of the thgs, or I would say them that I disvered this book, is that there's a real sense of trangement and fear around the Reagan people. Ronald Reagan himself, his wife, Nancy, his top advisers, of beg seen as gay. And then there's the sense that bee he om Hollywood, he's an actor who om an actor's background, that he may himself be perceived as gay. And there's actually a le one of his top ai, Lyn Nofziger's books, his memoir, that they were ncerned when he was nng for ernor 1966. That bee of his Hollywood associatn, he might be perceived as gay.</p><p class="nt-medium">"And Reagan's memoir that he published 1965, before announcg his n for ernor, he's talkg about one of the films that he was makg 1939, Dark Victory wh the actrs Bette Davis. And he's basilly playg her gay bt iend. And of urse, they uldn't be explic about this. Bee you uld not portray homosexualy explicly the movi. There was a , the MPAA agast s portrayals of homosexualy. But the director was givg Reagan stctns. And this is the way that Reagan reunts . He says, he wanted me to play the role as if I was the sort of fellow who uld s the girls drsg room and dish wh the ladi while they were gettg drsed. Which is a very long, sort of phemistic way of scribg a gay man.</p><p class="nt-medium">"And he's very put off by this and offend and upset of havg to play a role this way. And so even beg an actor and even portrayg a gay character on screen mak him unfortable. And then 1967, the first year of his ernorship, he's rocked by a gay sndal. When a newspaper lumnist alleg that there was a rg of gay men workg his gubernatorial office Sacramento, and that they had had an y at a timhare hoe Lake Tahoe.</p><p class="nt-medium">"And this is published newspapers across the untry. And Reagan is fur about this. He's fur that this be public. And then 1980, one of the thgs that I unvered, really one of the big sops the book, is that a group of Republins, actually morate Republins, brg new accatns of gay advisers surroundg Ronald Reagan to the Washgton Post.</p><p class="nt-medium">"They allege that there's a work of right-wg homosexuals basilly ntrollg Ronald Reagan as if he were a manchurian ndidate. This is actually, you know, a memo that one of the ngrsmen wrote. And I found . And they brought to Ben Bradlee, the legendary executive edor of the Washgton Post. And he gets his bt team of reporters to vtigate this. And then, of urse [Ronald and Nancy Reagan] had a lot of gay iends. I mean, Nancy, particular, there's a a page my book. And the serts, the photo serts, over the entire page lled All the First Lady's Men. And 's photos of Nancy wh all her gay urtiers and hairdrsers and fashn signers. So there's this ra of gayns around the Reagans.</p><p class="nt-medium">"I don't know how else to scribe . And I thk that, upled wh the fact that he had this new block of voters who were supportg him, evangelil Christians, they're a new force Amerin polics. They don't emerge until the late 1970s, and they really propel him to office. And I thk there's jt this hancy and this fear of beg seen too close to anythg gay. And so when you play that tape of that prs nference, and you hear the lghter and the sense of distancg and jt, you know, there's no one here this buildg that has this disease. I thk reflects that. I would also pot out, by the way, 's not jt ... the Reagan admistratn that's treatg this disease as sort of a joke.</p><p class="nt-medium">"You n listen to all those reporters lghg about . You know, the entire prs room was lghg, was lghg at this qutn. And fact, the reporter who asked the qutn about AIDS, tells you a lot about the tim. It was a man named Lter Ksolvg who was a kd of crank, right wg nspiracy theorist. And so he was the guy askg about AIDS. No mastream journalist was even botherg to ask about this disease that was killg, you know, disproportnately gay men. That was the state of the nversatn Ameri at that time.”</p><p class=""><strong>On lsons om Washgton D.C.'s hidn gay history</strong></p><p class="nt-medium">“I fely thk that to be a powerful person Washgton this perd, was impossible to be gay or to be openly gay. And so that's certaly te. And therefore, was very rare or almost impossible to see an openly gay official, you know, posively phg for change. But I do thk that you have to look a ltle b lower down the burecratic ladr durg the power stcture. And you have to unrstand that 1975, the Civil Service Commissn lifted s ban on gay people beg able to work the civil service.</p><p class="nt-medium">"And this actually puts Washgton, D.C., far ahead most other stat the untry, which would take many years for the rt of the untry to adopt anti-discrimatn statut. And so this mak Washgton, D.C., mak the feral burecracy actually que advanced on the issue of gay cln. And so the end of my book, I say, you know, there are all the people whose nam we don't know bee they were ngrsnal staffers. They were people who worked at the Department of Labor or, you know, any of the ernment partments, you know, jt kd of regular burecrats.</p><p class="nt-medium">"I mean, that word has a lot of negative nnotatns, but they're jt thoands of gay men and women who got up every day and went to work. And that put Washgton actually far ahead of other stat and ci. And I thk that was actually really, really important. And they might not have been chiefs of staff. They might not have been senators. They might not have been the most important, powerful people Washgton. But you had this openns and this visibily Washgton among regular, normal people that was far ahead of s time.”</p><span><h3>Book Excerpt</h3></span><div id="iame-embed-1" class="article-sectn--embed article-sectn--scribd"><iame class="scribd_iame_embed" src=" data-to-height="te" data-aspect-rat="" scrollg="no" width="100%" height="600" ameBorr="0"></iame></div><p class=""><em>Excerpt om 'Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton' by Jam Kirchick. Reprted wh permissn. All rights rerved.</em></p><span><h3>Related Readg</h3></span><p class=""><strong>New York Magaze</strong>: "<a href=">The Long, Sordid History of the Gay Conspiracy Theory</a>" — "A specter is hntg Ameri — the specter of sexual generacy."</p><p class=""><strong>POLITICO</strong>: "<a href=">The Plot to Out Ronald Reagan</a>" — "A group of Republins tried to stymie what they alleged was a nefar homosexual work wh the mpaign of their own party’s standard-bearer. More than 40 years later, the story n fally be told."</p></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered"><p class=""><em>This program aired on June 2, 2022.</em></p></sectn></article><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered"><hear class="zone"><div class="zone-ner"><h2 class="zone-hdr">Related:</h2></div></hear><ul class="article-story-group"><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="Pop-Up Polics Podst: Same-Sex Marriage Before The Supreme Court" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href=">Pop-Up Polics Podst: Same-Sex Marriage Before The Supreme Court</a></li><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="How Print Bin's Views On LGBTQ Rights Have Evolved Over His Polil Career" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" href=">How Print Bin's Views On LGBTQ Rights Have Evolved Over His Polil Career</a></li><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="Supreme Court: 1964 Civil Rights Act Bars LGBTQ Discrimatn : The NPR Polics Podst" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href=">Supreme Court: 1964 Civil Rights Act Bars LGBTQ Discrimatn : The NPR Polics Podst</a></li><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="Host of 'Makg Gay History' reflects on g of age durg the AIDS crisis" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href=">Host of 'Makg Gay History' reflects on g of age durg the AIDS crisis</a></li></ul></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered"><div class="ntributor has-photo"><div class="ntributor-profile"><figure class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-photo"><a href="/si/staff/paige-sutherland"><picture><img src=" class="lazy rd-image" alt=""/></picture></a></figure><p class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-b"><a class="ntributor-name" href="/si/staff/paige-sutherland">Paige Sutherland</a> <span class="ntributor-tle">Producer, On Pot</span><br/>Paige Sutherland is a producer for On Pot.</p><p class="ntributor-more"><a class="ntributor-lk ntributor-b-lk" href="/si/staff/paige-sutherland">More…</a></p></div></div><div class="ntributor has-photo"><div class="ntributor-profile"><figure class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-photo"><a href="/si/staff/meghna-chakrabarti"><picture><img src=" class="lazy rd-image" alt=""/></picture></a></figure><p class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-b"><a class="ntributor-name" href="/si/staff/meghna-chakrabarti">Meghna Chakrabarti</a> <span class="ntributor-tle">Host, On Pot</span><br/>Meghna Chakrabarti is the host of On Pot.</p><p class="ntributor-more"><a class="ntributor-lk ntributor-b-lk" href="/si/staff/meghna-chakrabarti">More…</a></p></div></div></sectn><sectn class="sectn--bo sectn--bp"><div class="uw bp--rponsive"><div class="bp-ner"><p class="bp-label">Advertisement</p><div class="bp-ntent bp-ntent--centered"><div></div><div id="adslot-817856"></div></div></div></div></sectn><div></div><div class="global-d-ponents onmand--is-playg"><div class="global-player"><d preload="to"></d><div class="global-player-bar"><div class="global-player-bar-left"><button class="global-player-bar-ntrol"><i class="in-play in-play--global-player-bar in-play--psed"><span class="in-play-shape"><span class="in-label" data-note="for-screen-rears">Rume</span></span></i></button><div class="global-player-label global-player-label--live"><div class="global-player-channel"><span>Listen Live</span></div><div class="global-player-tle"><a class="global-player-label-lk" href="/">Loadg...</a></div></div></div><div class="global-player-bar-right"><div class="global-player-x"><svg class="in in-close" viewBox="0 0 24 24" aria-labelledby="tle"><tle id="tle">Close .

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