But the watchmen are about the city.
If they find us together, they’ll smote us.
Wound upon wound my dove, my beloved
they’ll take you from me.
I charge you, O daughters of the revolution,
when you find the Patriarch,
tell him I am sick of his laws.
---from Song of Charon

This Top Secret Defense of Marriage Dossier, dedicated to John Ashcroft and J. Edgar Hoover, explores the boundary between private and public. In this work, images of gay and lesbian couples (and singles-who-are-looking), are exposed to public scrutiny. Taken out of the proverbial closet despite the prevailing government mandate “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, such private images cross over into the very public realm of sexual politics. At a point in history when even heterosexual top secret intelligence agents become “fair game” for exposure, it is up to ordinary queer folk to step forward to reaffirm the inalienable right to choose how and with whom to pursue happiness---in private and in public.