.jkirchick talks with The Daily Beast about his new book “Secret City,” a sweeping, epic history of “Gay D.C.” 'Certainly during the period of time I cover in the book—from World War II to the end of the century—the worst thing you could be was gay.'
This interview has been edited for style, clarity, and length.
There’s been lots of books about the Red Scare and Cold War Washington in terms of the fear of communism, but very little has been done on this theme.This book is more than just a compilation of previously reported history, you actually uncovered some pretty big scoops. in my research was the existence of this aide who worked for Lyndon Johnson, Bob Waldron, whose 1,000-page FBI file I was able to get declassified. He was a very close adviser—almost a substitute son—to LBJ, who tried to bring him on staff when he was moving into the White House. They do a background check, they find out he's gay. It's a really sad, tragic story. Not even [LBJ biographer] Robert Caro knew about this.
After his arrest, two of [Sen. Joseph] McCarthy's allies in the Senate tried to use this to pressure him to resign his seat. And Hunt ends up killing himself. It's the first and only suicide in the halls of Congress. And it was one of several inspirations forGoing back to conspiracy theories about homophobia, it feels like there’s a modern-day version of this happening right now with the whole “groomer” panic.
And yes, this grooming discourse is definitely an example of that. I mean sure. Are there examples on Libs of TikTok that are disturbing? Yeah. I'm not going to deny that. But is this being taught in every single school across the country? That's what we're being made to think. And that's obviously bonkers.
Then you have Stonewall in 1969 and gay lib starting in the ’70s. A couple of years later, you have Anita Bryant and the Save Our Children campaign and the rise of the Christian evangelical right that sweeps Reagan into power. There was no one willing to do that for gay people. Even the ACLU! Not only was the ACLUE slow to defend gay people, the chief council of the ACLU, Morris Ernst, was the one leading this campaign against David Walsh, the senator associated in 1942 with the “Gay Nazi Brothel” scandal in Brooklyn. The [then] liberaland the general counsel for the ACLU were both pushing this campaign to out an isolationist, anti-FDR Senator. And it was because he was gay.
No, no one did. It was unfathomable that that would even be thought of. I write about Frank Kameny, who was the leader of theKameny was the first person who was fired by the government to challenge his firing. He was an astronomer, a PhD from Harvard, who worked for the Army map service—which is now the Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
Yes. They were extremely unpopular. It’s actually hard to think of a more unpopular cause than advocating on behalf of “sexual deviance.”Absolutely. Yeah. Look at the world we live in today. We owe a lot to him. And having a protest outside the White House—all these men and women dressed in business attire—[showed Americans] that gays don’t look like pedophiles or criminals. And it was modeled very much on the African American civil rights movement—respectability politics.Let’s talk about Reagan for a bit. I’m not sure how you politically identify these days…But you definitely have had some certain conservative leanings over the years.
And you found in his presidential archives evidence that he basically erased his and Nancy’s friendship with [the late actor] Rock Hudson.