Gay communist

August Bebel, leader from to of the German Social Democratic Party, the largest socialist party in Europe, was a forceful proponent of legalizing homosexuality. Join us to learn more about the past, now. The middle of the 20th century, however, witnessed a backlash.

In looking back on the history of what we today call the struggle for Gay Rights or Gay Liberation, the Communist and Socialist contributions to that struggle are deserving of both recognition and analysis. Learn More. But other early leftists were not so dismissive.

Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Sign up for the HNN Newsletter. The modern movement for queer liberation—or gay liberation to use the as-yet less inclusive terminology of the s and ’70s—wouldn’t exist without the Communist Party USA.

In transgressing gender and sexual norms, they also fit poorly with the increasingly macho ethos within communist parties and regimes. Centering only the homophobic elements in communism, this rhetoric ignores the truly impressive advances made by some communist regimes on queer rights and papers gay communist long histories of intolerance of LGBTQ people in non-communist countries.

Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. It has been common for U. But doing so flattens the historical relationship between queer politics and communism. Features Book Excerpts About Submissions.

Queer life in the : Communists believed that homosexuality was evidence of bourgeois decadence among the aristocracy and

Communist partisans also came to see accusations of homosexuality as a convenient way to smear their right-wing enemies. Gay men and lesbians were not only convenient targets, whose persecution allowed communists to cast themselves as morally superior to their foes.

In the s, communist and socialist parties were often proponents of legalizing same-sex acts. A more careful examination of this history shows us that communism and queerness might actually belong together. Weekly Feature.

Cuba is considering a new family code that could allow marriage equality for the first time in the communist nation. What they did was contemptuous. Follow Us:. Communist attitudes towards LGBTQ rights have evolved radically in the 21st century.

Weekly Roundup.

In the 19th and 20th century, communist parties and Marxist–Leninist states varied on LGBTQ rights; some Western and Eastern parties were among the first political parties to support LGBTQ rights, while others, especially the Soviet Union, some of its Eastern Bloc members, and the Communist East Asian.