Two young gay men hide their sexuality in order to keep their government jobs and their reputations. Thomas Mallon set such a premise in 1950s D.C., but virtually nothing has changed since then.
Take this news bit worthy of celebration, for example: "…the Department of Defense no longer classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder." You'd think this action would've been taken back in the '70s when mental health professionals came to this conclusion. Sadly, this was reported less than a year ago.

In Mallon's novel, the earnest young government employees (gay and straight) believe in fighting the evils of communism. But there's still time to weed out the lavender along with the red. Just as now, while the entire world recognizes the growing danger of Al-Qaeda, our top officials will even torture innocent civilians all over the world to stop the enemy. But a gay co-worker? Our government just can't tolerate that. In fact (and this also happened just last year), the Pentagon fired seven Arabic translators for being gay. MSN reports, "Between 1998 and 2004, the military discharged 20 Arabic and six Farsi speakers." Brilliant move in the fight on terror.

Mallon's novel focuses only on government employees leading double lives. Our government isn't happy with just targeting their own. From 2005: "Pentagon anti-terror investigators labeled gay law school groups a 'credible threat' of terrorism." Even outside of D.C. and the military, Uncle Sam equates gays with actual terrorists who fly planes into sky scrapers.

Historical novels typically move me to think, "imagine living through this or that back then." Sadly, pathetically, unnecessarily, gay people are still living this. And for what?

Jennifer Leblanc