Book review of Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton by Jam Kirchick - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT
• WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
• SECRET CY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON
• BEG GAY WAS THE GRAVT S WASHGTON
• JAM KIRCHICK EXPLOR DC’S GAY HISTORY AN AMB NEW BOOK
• WHAT MA WASHGTON, D.C., THE “GAYT AND MOST ANTIGAY CY AMERI”
• THE ULTRANSERVATIVE BROTHERS PULLED STRGS REAGAN’S WASHGTON. THEN ONE OF THEM WAS OUTED AS GAY
• ‘THE REAL VILLA IS THE CLOSET’: A NEW HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON DEALS WH SOCIETY AS IT TLY WAS
• ‘WILL I SEE A GAY PRINT MY LIFETIME? ABSOLUTELY.’
• IN 'SECRET CY,' THOR JAM KIRCHICK TRAC THE UNKNOWN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON

A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT

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.

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.

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

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. 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.

SECRET CY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON

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. “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.

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.

BEG GAY WAS THE GRAVT S WASHGTON

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. 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 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.

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

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.

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

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. 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.

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

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. 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.

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

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. 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.

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

Dolan spent a lot of time at the templ of bodily self-perfectn (three hours the weight room every morng and sometim a quick rd exercise durg lunch) to mata his footg what thor Randy Shilts lled the “aristocracy of bety” that fed the 1980s urban gay male subculture.

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

One eveng, after addrsg a bs tra associatn at a Denver hotel, Dolan scend to the lobby for a night of prowlg the lol leather bar scene cked out the era’s “gay clone” uniform (tight jeans, leather wboy boots, flannel shirt, and studd leather wristband), the atten to whom he had, jt moments earlier, served up a genero helpg of right-wg rhetoril red meat none the wiser. Dolan’s anizatn, meanwhile, sent out fundraisg letters like the one signed by far-right Republin ngrsman Dan Crane, clarg, “Our natn’s moral fiber is beg weakened by the growg homosexual movement and the fanatil ERA phers (many of whom publicly brag they are lbians). ” At one pot before Terry’s ath, the brothers discsed the se of Father Charl Curran, a theologian who had recently been fired om a teachg posn at Catholic Universy over his qutng church doctre on homosexualy and other matters pertag to sexual ethics.

In Wgh’s novel, Sebastian leav the fay homtead to shack up wh a German serter om the French Foreign Legn Tangier — a statn popular wh generatns of gay European men search of sexual eedom — where he nearly di of pnmonia, which happened to be the leadg opportunistic fectn among AIDS victims. “I’m sure he ma some limp-wristed jok along the way, he’s a creature of his time, ” remembered Ted Gup, one of the Post reporters Bradlee assigned to vtigate a supposed “homosexual rg” ntrollg Ronald Reagan the summer of 1980.

The day after Terry Dolan died, an edor on the Post assignment sk told a reporter the Style sectn, Elizabeth Kastor, to start gatherg rearch materials for a possible story about the life and ath of a closeted gay nservative activist the age of AIDS. Dolan and Bradlee’s disagreement over the newsworths of Terry’s secret life boiled down to a set of issu — the boundary between the public and the private, the role of hypocrisy polics, the vastatg effects of an epimic — all stemmg om the creasg visibily of homosexualy Amerin life. Kastor quoted nservativ praisg Dolan as a passnate visnary, gay activists assailg him as a self-loathg hypocre, and others who, like the subject of the article, straddled the perilo space between the secret and open ci.