Queer identities and Communism
Debunking a global myth
It has always been said, from people everywhere, on all political sides, that Communism and LGBT cannot go together. In honour of pride month I would like to write and disprove of the fact that you cannot be a gay communist.
From Anti-Communists
The so called ‘fact’ that you cannot be a gay communist has always been spread around by the most staunch anti-communists. It is they who raised up the myth. Their logic and backing up of their incredibly weak point is usually “Stalin and other communists were homophobes.” This is true, and I doubt any queer communist supports the Soviet Union’s actions against gay people. Something people do not seem to realize is one person and their actions do not make up an entire ideology. Communism is for the people, for the liberation of all oppressed people and workers. This liberation does not stop at queer people. Most ‘communist parties’ today do not support the social conservatism of the past Parties like the CPUSA, which calls themselves communist, has begun to support queer people and their struggle ever since 2004 in a political article, endorsed LGBT Rights in a 2005 statement, and reaffirmed this position in 2006 in honour of pride month.
More so, not just parties but countries that proclaim themselves socialist such as Cuba and the German Democratic Republic have long ago supported gay people and trans people. Cuba has had LGBT rights legal since 1979, over four decades ago! Which in comparison to the United States - which has completely legalized homosexuality in 2003 - is much earlier. As most Americans say, Cuba is a Socialist country, and Cuba alone should prove that the idea of Communism and Socialism is not inherently against LGBT. In addition, There is a 1 year blood donation deferral in the USA and no protections against LGBT employment discrimination while in Cuba there is no blood ban and there are protections against all queer people. What about transgender people and gender identity? The right to change legal gender has been legal since 2003 in Cuba and does not require surgery, contrary to the USA, which has been illegal until 2011, and makes it so it is very hard to get surgery to change ones gender. Furthermore, as we know, if we passed our basic world geography classes, the USA is a federal government while Cuba is a unitary one. Not all US states are created equal. So a state like California is much more LGBT friendly than states such as Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, and Ohio. Regardless, California pales in comparison to Cuba’s LGBT laws which are arguably the best in the Americas. Finally, in Cuba popular opinion of Queer people is very high.
“But what about behind the Iron Curtain?” some might ask. I am here to say that by 1985 the GDR had one of the most LGBT friendly laws in the old world.
While Cuba has laid the foundation for communists all over the world to recognise not only the oppression of trans people, but that these rights are integral under any communist society and must be acknowledged by all communist parties. It is then essential to note that Cuba is not an abnormality with its recognition of the trans struggle and trans rights. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) also saw the integral importance of these rights that afforded oppressed people the right to self-determination, providing free healthcare for trans people. ‘As it stands now in East Germany, men and women 18 years and older have been able to receive government-sponsored sex reassignment surgery, get married and adopt children.’ (Lou Sullivan, FTM Newsletter 1990) The GDR even influenced Cuba’s more progressive policies towards LGBT people with its legalisation of homosexuality in 1968. When Germany was unified, however, these and many other rights as well as more progressive ones such as abortion were lost. Capitalists rejoiced in the fact that socialism had been overcome, but women in the GDR — overnight — lost reproductive and employment rights that guaranteed them autonomy. (Lewis Hodder “Inside the last days of the CPGB-ML”)
The GDR was viewed as a very progressive state by many compared to the socially conservative policies of states such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as the Khrushchevites in the USSR (which ‘cracked down’ on homosexual and queer activity harder than Stalin ever did.) As said in the quotes above, The GDR was more progressive than the FGR where a few people even questioned in the GDR ‘if unification would hurt transsexual rights.’ Despite certainly viewed as more progressive than other states then and now The GDR, obviously was not ideal for queer people. This was a problem by the SED and ruling officials who did not act out progressive enough. To say the least, “this is just how people thought and lived at the time” as these people grew up with different morals from a bygone era. This isn’t exclusive to the GDR but this also applied to many other European nations specifically ones dominated by church influence. States in Europe that were very dominant by the churches influence had a generally more conservative populace, like Poland or Russia/USSR. A vice versa can be seen as well. An example: The rights of women in Socialist Albania were much greater than the GDR because the PLA and the people of Albania were one to push for progressive movements. In addition, Denmark and France for example are more progressive than a other states primarily, but not limited to because, of their lower church dominance.
I don’t support romanticizing the GDR, but lets jump to the present Now we see that the FGR has arguably the most queer friendly laws in Europe. What happened? The Reunification of Germany is what happened. The SPD and popularity of it improved greatly for a short time ever since 1985, and because of early progressive laws in Germany, it is elected officials who voted in laws to improve laws for queer people in the nation in the late 20th century and very early 21st century. Nowadays, many communist organizations in Germany do support the struggle of queer people, and it would be incorrect to say that the former citizens of the GDR had no influence in current German queer laws.
I would like to emphasize that the GDR and the Eastern Bloc nations are long gone, and it is much more important to focus on the modern day communists who are overwhelmingly more supportive to queer issues than the right wing and communists of the past, who either treat gay and trans people as if they don’t exist or actively harm them by writing, supporting, and passing anti queer laws and anti trans laws or shooting down proposals and bills that would give more support and protections to queer people. There are so many queer communists in the modern day its almost idiotic for a right winger to condemn all queer communists for being contradictory. A queer person who says they support capitalism and bourgeoisie ‘democracy’ is infinitely more ironic than a queer communist, as it is impossible to support democracy and system where the bourgeoisie dictatorially own the means of production.
In conclusion, the idea of communism and being queer is not something that is mutually exclusive to one another. Cuba proves this, the GDR proves this, the fact that in the modern day communists are more friendly to queer issues than right wingers proves this, and queer communists in the past prove this. And finally, why do right wingers care about queer people and if they like communism or not? Don’t *all* of you right wingers — from Adolf Hitler to Joe Biden — ‘hate the gays?’
From ‘Communists'
Unfortunately, there are many communists who are very anti queer. They are very unaccepting calling it a “bourgeois influence” and a “mental illness" that “global south communist movements will never accept"
Let’s unpack all of this from a person who claims to be a Marxist yet condemns LGBT strongly. u/iron-lazar. I’m going to use his arguments as they wrap up every homophobic communist’s POV nicely (such as Paul Cockshott). First he says “[being trans and being gay are ideas] made up reactionary identities created by imperialists.” I assume this person has never ever heard of the lavender scare? Where the United States dismissed queer people from government service, terminated them, and attacked them? The lavender scare was heavily associated with the second red scare and McCarthyism. “Gay men and lesbians were said to be national security risks and communist sympathizers, which led to the call to remove them from state employment." It’s not surprise that these similar ideas have been kept around today as the united states doesn’t actually give a damn about queer people. The USA is not queer friendly: it’s populace is mostly homophobic and especially transphobic, there are no protection laws, many people have been killed for being queer, and many of the states have the “no propaganda law" that Russia has. (So maybe I think The USA should completely remove the anti propaganda law before criticizing the Russian Federation.) The United States Government “puts on a show" that they support queer people just like they put on that same show that “they support black people and BLM.” Cuba, a nation which Iron-lazar supports strongly, has a much better reputation for queer people than the United States ever had. Later u/Frogsknecht, a friend of u/Iron-lazar, says that LGBT is an extension of liberalism. Yeah! That’s totally why a third of communists on the internet are queer! That’s why former colonized nations like the Philippines have a queer and communist support base! That’s why so many trans people are incredibly radicalized and want to overthrow the USA and capitalism! That’s why Joe Biden doesnt actually care for queer people! This makes total sense for sure! LGBT is not and has not been an extension of liberalism. Especially when it comes to trans people.
Next, he says in a comment that “you shouldn’t criticize Peru and Castillo over not supporting gay people.” Astounding! Was it not Marx who said “I am referring to ruthless criticism of all that exists”? He then goes on to (correctly for once) say that the DSA is a social fascist organization, however he supports Castillo who is a social democratic presidential candidate for the Peru 2021 election. Hypocrisy incarnate from this man. As I said, he claims that “global south communist movements" will never accept queer people. Obviously, he supports social democrat Castillo and most likely Evo Morales and Fidel/Raul Castro. Remember that Cuba supports the LGBT movement and pride! Not only that but Morales created fundamental protection for queer people in Bolivia! So that’s that for the myth that global south movements will never support queer people. To make it even better if you disagree with him then you’re a “rabid disgusting homonationalist.” This is narrow-minded bigotry to me.
u/Frogsknecht (his post was supported by u/Iron-lazar) wrote an essay that is blatently against queer people and pride. Later on his user profile he argues that queer people should be assimilated and he also 'wants Jews to assimilate(!)' Ignoring that for now, in his essay i’m not sure I really understand the point trying to be made here. The article quite clearly associates the historical LGBT movement with pedophilia. But where exactly do we go from there? The modern LGBT movement overwhelmingly condemns pedophilia, so on what material basis does r/EuropeanSocialists oppose it? The only reason I can think of is the whole 'rainbow capitalism’ thing (which an overwhelming amount of queer people condemn), but that’s not a reason that the article gives. The LGBT movement, like any movement, is not static. Take socialism, for instance. Marx and Engels were friends with Moses Hess, a proto-Zionist who supported the idea of 'race conflict' over class conflict (for which they disowned him). Most modern socialists reject the idea of Zionism, even though, historically, there were many socialist proponents of it. What I’m saying is that historically, Zionism was heavily associated with socialism, but that in modern times, socialism and Zionism are generally considered to be separate (and, in fact, incompatible) movements (in part due to the acceptance of the Marxist idea of class conflict over race conflict). As such, socialism is not (and cannot) be judged in the same way that Zionism is. Similarly, the early LGBT movement may have been associated with pedophilia (but not intrinsically so), but the modern LGBT movement condemns pedophilia, and so it is unfair and idiotic to judge the modern LGBT movement in the same way as pedophilia. Pure mental gymnastics from our favourite queerphobic “socialists!"
Conclusion
Either it be killing queers or assimilating them, we can see anti pride movements around the world from communists and anti-communists alike. I have stated how it is possible and not contradictory to be a queer communist, but I want to quickly talk about how corporations take the meaning of pride, and throw it into a dumpster fire. As I said, pride month has lost its entire meaning as its all just "company changes logo for june but they lobby support for a homophobic and transphobic politican throughout the rest of the year" so its fucking pointless. the companies dont give a fucking damn about these people and only do it in areas it is profitable for them. Thats why you only see this rainbow capitalism in the western nations and not in any middle eastern nations or eastern nations because they might lose profits. That’s why I never see a rainbow Bethesda logo in Russia. If Bethesda actually did change their logo, then there would be a huge dip in profits. If Bethesda and other companies actually did care for pride they would at the very least support it in countries were queer people are most marginalized. However, they dont. Its just a big show and pride has lost its original meaning of being proud of being gay or trans and no longer having to fake being heterosexual and/or cisgender so you dont get sent into federal prison. Pride has been appropriated as something to do with corporations.
Its very important to revolutionize every queer person so that they can free themselves in the workplace and in society. None of that assimilation bullshit should be accepted. The Revolutionary potential of queer people is limitless. For a good article on revolutionary queer people, please check out the APL’s article here
