It's the middle of the night in Fairfax, Virginia, nine miles from the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Yesterday's clear blue skies have turned to midnight blue.

The stars shine bright. Pulling past the portico of the new

as yet unnamed headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, you park your car and rub the

sleep from your eyes. It's late, but this is the kind of job where

slumber is often disturbed. You walk towards security and head for your office.

It's just another night in 1962 and what you do in this

building is secret. Your whole job relies on secrecy and your life is led

with compartmentalized discretion.

Except for one thing, a lie you live with every day,

as dangerous to your career in government as any national security concern. It is the secret of your sexuality. Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman.

Washington, D.C. has so many tales to tell, of lawmaking, of warmaking, of political intrigue,

the whole civic management of a massive nation.

But for all its architectural grandeur,

its monuments of granite and limestone,

D.C. is, after all, through every administration and Congress

a teeming high of human activity.

It is people who make that capital work in their lives political and private give the place

an actual pulse.

This more intimate side of our capital city is the subject of an accomplished book released last year just now available in paperback entitled Secret City, the Hidden History of Gay Washington, which documents the culture of homosexuality in Washington, D.C. that has always existed, indeed thrived, despite decades and centuries of prejudice, threat, and rampant hypocrisy. The author of this book is journalist and historian James

Kircheck, and he joins us today. Hello, Jamie, great to have you on American history hit.

Thank you for having me. When we talk about homosexuality in America, it was difficult everywhere until the

...