BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org
PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:Indybay-18849925
SEQUENCE:19011715
CREATED:20220523T163100Z
DESCRIPTION:HYBRID EVENT: "The Hidden History of Gay Washington"\n\nSPEAKER: James 
 Kirchick\n\nTICKETS: FREE; book copies available for purchase in-person or 
 online\n\nRSVP: 
 https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2022-06-13/james-kirchick-hidden-history-gay-washington\n\nThis 
 event has 2 ticket types (online & in-person); you must pre-register to 
 receive a link to the live-stream event. We invite you to make a donation 
 during registration to support the production of our online 
 programming.\n\n\nFor decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted 
 Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed 
 reputations, ended careers and ruined lives. \n\nAt 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” held enormous, terrifying 
 power.\n\nUtilizing thousands of pages of declassified documents, 
 interviews with more than 100 people, and material unearthed from 
 presidential libraries and archives around the country, James Kirchick's 
 Secret City 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,” Kirchick 
 illuminates how homosexuality shaped each successive presidential 
 administration through the end of the 20th century. \n\nCultural and 
 political anxiety over gay people sparked a decades-long witch hunt, 
 impacting everything from the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI to the 
 ascent of Joseph McCarthy, the struggle for Black civil rights, and the 
 rise of the conservative movement. \n\nAmong other revelations, Kirchick 
 tells of the World War II–era gay spymaster who pioneered seduction as a 
 tool of American espionage, the devoted aide whom Lyndon Johnson treated as 
 a son yet abandoned once his homosexuality was discovered, and how 
 allegations of a “homosexual ring” controlling Ronald Reagan nearly 
 derailed his 1980 election victory.\n\nJoin us for a talk with author James 
 Kirchick and the story that could transform our understanding of American 
 history.\n\n\nABOUT: James Kirchick \n\nJames Kirchick has written about 
 human rights, politics and culture from around the world. A columnist for 
 Tablet magazine, a contributing writer to Air Mail, and a nonresident 
 senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, he is the author of The End of 
 Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age. Kirchick’s work 
 has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street 
 Journal, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and the Times Literary 
 Supplement. A graduate of Yale with degrees in history and political 
 science, he resides in Washington, D.C.\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/05/23/18849925.php
SUMMARY:"The Hidden History of Gay Washington": Book Talk w/ Author, James Kirchick (hybrid event)
LOCATION:In-person (FREE): The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, 
 Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105\n\nOnline via livestream 
 (FREE)
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/05/23/18849925.php
DTSTART:20220614T010000Z
DTEND:20220614T030000Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR