In 'Secret City,' author James Kirchick traces the unknown history of gay Washington. jkirchick joins OnPointRadio to discuss. Listen here:
“The skills or the traits that make you successful in Washington, things like discretion, being able to keep secrets, being able to work long hours for a boss. Maybe to pick up that phone call at 2 a.m. and, you know, rush over to the Capitol to attend to whatever he needs. These are the sorts of things that during this era of the '40s to the '90s, I think that gay people and really gay men in particular, because let's not forget, this was an era when men ruled Washington.
“And this notion of national security becomes a primary concern in Washington. And the fears that gay people or, you know, homosexuals with the term that was used at the time are really sexual deviants or perverts, that they have the worst possible secret imaginable and that they would go to any length to keep it. And that therefore, that makes them very susceptible to blackmail.
"And he's very put off by this and offended and upset of having to play a role this way. And so even being an actor and even portraying a gay character on screen makes him uncomfortable. And then in 1967, the first year of his governorship, he's rocked by a gay scandal. When a newspaper columnist alleges that there was a ring of gay men working in his gubernatorial office in Sacramento, and that they had had an orgy at a timeshare house in Lake Tahoe.
"I don't know how else to describe it. And I think that, coupled with the fact that he had this new block of voters who were supporting him, evangelical Christians, they're a new force in American politics. They don't emerge until the late 1970s, and they really propel him into office. And I think there's just this hesitancy and this fear of being seen too close to anything gay.
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