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.
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
- ‘THE REAL VILLA IS THE CLOSET’: A NEW HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON DEALS WH SOCIETY AS IT TLY WAS
A HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON THAT LETS HOMOPHOBIA STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT
"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. * secret city the hidden history of gay washington *
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTJam Kirchick’s new book talli the st of homophobia on liv and reers Washgton, D. 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.
WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
* secret city the hidden history of gay washington *
“Secret Cy, ” by Jam Kirchick, is a sprawlg and enthrallg history of how the gay subculture Washgton, D. )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. A homosexual was forever tated.
SECRET CY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON
” 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. ”)Kennedy’s and Reagan’s first ladi were both tightly encircled by gay urtiers, though loyalty both directns uld easily waver.
‘THE REAL VILLA IS THE CLOSET’: A NEW HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON DEALS WH SOCIETY AS IT TLY WAS
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. And Kirchick seems to n out of gas toward the end, as the gay suatn improv. 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. Edgar Hoover (who Kirchick curly avoids intifyg as homosexual), McCarthye and Tmp mentor Roy Cohn, and famo New Right lobbyist Terry Dolan.