Secret city : the hidden history of gay Washington
James Kirchick (Author)
"For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers, and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to a purge of gay men and lesbians from the federal government. In the fevered atmosphere of political Washington, the secret "too loathsome to mention" paradoxically held enormous, terrifying power. Utilizing thousands of pages of declassified documents, interviews with over one hundred people, and material unearthed from presidential libraries and archives around the country, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, from FDR through Clinton is a chronicle of American politics like no other. Beginning with the tragic story of Sumner Welles, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of "the greatest national scandal since the existence of the United States," award-winning journalist and author James Kirchick illuminates how the idea of homosexuality shaped each successive presidential administration, impacting everything from the creation of America's earliest civilian intelligence agency to the rise and fall of McCarthyism, the struggle for African American civil rights, and the conservative movement. Celebrating the men and women who courageously decided that the source of their private shame could instead be galvanized for public pride, Kirchick offers a reinterpretation of American history told from the perspective of the citizens who lived in its shadows. Sweeping in scope and intimate in detail, Secret City will forever transform our understanding of American history"-- Provided by publisher
Print Book,English, 2022
First editionView all formats and editions
Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2022
History
xviii, 826 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm
9781627792325, 9781250871466, 1627792325, 1250871468
1293451114
Dramatis personae
Introduction: Comrades
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. "No comment"
"Worse than a murderer"
Senator X
Patriotic homosexuals
"The greatest national scandal since the existence of the United States"
Harry Truman. The concealed enemy
"This moral leper"
Lavender lists
"A government within a government"
The homintern
Dwight Eisenhower. "No more Bohlens!"
The heterosexual dictatorship
Pixies on the Potomac
"We accuse..."
The hunted
John F. Kennedy. First friends
The group of the intrepid
"That old black fairy" - Lyndon B. Johnson. A long way from Arp
"A quite serious situation"
"Gone and forgotten"
The Fruit Loop
Scandal in Sacramento
The thrill of treason
Richard Nixon. "Destroy your opponent"
Fags
"We are impatient"
The city of conversation
Gerald Ford. The ultimate democracy
"Too good an opportunity"
Jimmy Carter. Out of the closets, into the White House
Code breakers
Ronald Reagan. "The homosexual thing"
The Manchurian Candidate
An enclosed and enchanted garden
Sodom-on-the-Potomac
"I don't have it, do you?"
"Them" is "us"
"Our Sebastian"
Mr. Green
The wonderful, the creative, and the brave
George H.W. Bush. Naming names
Bill Clinton. A profoundly important strength
Conclusion: The gay century