Harlan Greene’s The Real Rainbow Row and Jamie Kirchick’s Secret City excavate hidden LGBTQ+ histories in Charleston and Washington respectively. Harlan Greene traces 350 years of suppression as well as unacknowledged contribution to the life of the city. “He unearthed Charleston’s queer history with a novelist’s eye for color and drama and a historian’s reverence for truth” (Armistead Maupin). Jamie Kirchick’s landmark book, a spellbinding journey from the New Deal to the end of the Cold War, opens the closet door on Gay Washington. They discuss why both books are not just LGBTQ+ history but American history with Bill Goldstein, author interviewer for NBC’s Weekend Today, currently writing the biography of Larry Kramer.