A review by finnthehuman217
Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, from FDR through Clinton by James Kirchick

informative slow-paced

2.5

I never thought I would find a book that made my love of queer history seem like it was a lie. The point of the book was to deliver a nonpartisan narrative but it was heavily slanted right. And I like the way the author basically tried to humanize Reagan saying his speech writer was at fault for his not empathizing with the queer community, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE BROTHER OF HIS OTHER SPEECH WRITER DIED OF AIDS. Like that idea that the onus is on the inner circle is just fundamentally untrue. Yes, the right has a way of being fake as fuck. But he deserves his own place in hell for the things he did during his presidency. This book was such a weird way of talking about the history of the government and actively leaves out the trans community out of all the content. Not even a single mention of trans people. 
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