Secret City: Hidden History of Gay Washington. A sprawling and enthralling history of how a gay subculture, long in the shadows, emerged into the lights. As an epic of the dark age, complex and shaded, Secret City is rewarding in the extreme. (per the New York Times). The specter of homosexuality haunted many in Washington D.C. and mere mention or hint wrecked careers and led to the “anti-communism” purges of men and women in the 1950s and targeting of people who had nothing to do with communism, but the believe they could be vulnerable to blackmail.