What Happened When a Gay Communist Wrote to Stal

Contents:

• THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT AND GAY RIGHTS: THE HIDN HISTORY
• TOWARDS A GAY COMMUNISM
• “FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM”: HAS THE TIME FOR UNIVERSAL BASIC INE FALLY COME?
• FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM
• WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A GAY COMMUNIST WROTE TO STAL
• WHO IS JOSEPH ZIEGLER, THE GAY IRS WHISTLEBLOWER HUNTER BIN PROBE?
• GAY SOCCER PLAYER JOSH CAVALLO TO JUDGE RUPL’S DRAG RACE DOWN UNR
• FALGSC: FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM

THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT AND GAY RIGHTS: THE HIDN HISTORY

In the last year, the Cuban health mistry unfurled an enormo rabow flag to mark Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, and former print Raúl Castro clared that nontg homophobia remaed one of the ernment’s chief some Amerins, the velopments might seem to fly the face of the untry’s munist history.

In her memoir, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, perhaps the most famo trans woman German history, remembered gog to lively hoe parti Berl full of queer East the 1970s, a group of gay men and lbians began to meet East Berl, termed to rve out a public space for themselv.

TOWARDS A GAY COMMUNISM

It did so, part, bee activists had been adamant about amg their requts terms of the needs of socialism, emphasizg that creatg greater opportuni for queer East Germans would only strengthen their mment to short orr, the dictatorship promulgated a slew of liberal polici, om allowg queer people to serve the ary to equalizg the age of nsent to missng new books and movi about homosexualy. Burecrats and policians argued that dog so would strengthen socialist society by better tegratg queer people to and dismantlg social a rult, the 1980s were a tly remarkable time for queer East Germans, what one of my terview partners lled “the most betiful gay time.

That might sound like a big claim to make, but was Communist iology and polil strategy that provid the theoretil and practil archecture of the earlit effort to w gay equaly the Uned Stat—the Mattache Society, a group whose ias unrpned all the stggl and victori the untry that have been won over the past half century. The notn of gays as an opprsed mory culture was a takeoff om the Marxist analysis of the opprsn of Ain Amerins and other groups as “natnal mori, ” a ncept wh a long pedigree Marxism-Lenism but which was particularly strsed after the Sixth Congrs of the Communist Internatnal 1928.

“The Homophile mon psychologil make-up manifts self a muny of culture so phenomenologilly remarkable that transcends the mechanil barriers of formal language by creatg an ternatnal behavral language of s own, addn to sharg the pestrian language of each parental muny.

“FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM”: HAS THE TIME FOR UNIVERSAL BASIC INE FALLY COME?

From that pot on, there would of urse be setbacks, reversals, and ternal battl, but, the words of Timmons, the Cultural Mory this beme “the implic mo of self-unrstandg and muny anizatn of Lbian/Gay muni wherever they exist, ” even if s Marxist roots typilly went unacknowledged.

Even though circumstanc and prejudic did not allow them to be the Communist Party proper, Hay, Rowland, and other Mattache activists were dog munist work and attemptg to lk up the homosexual cultural mory wh others who were opprsed by palism and had an tert fightg . Sce he striv to approach this qutn om a Marxist viewpot, the thor of this letter believ that the cree ntradicts both the facts of life self and the prcipl of is a summary of the facts that are discsed tail the attached letter: On the whole, the ndn of homosexuals unr palism is analogo to the ndn of women, the loured rac, ethnic mori, and other groups that are reprsed for one reason or another; The attu of bourgeois society to homosexualy is based on the ntradictn between: palism’s need for “nnon fodr” and a rerve army of labour (leadg to reprsive laws agast homosexualy, which is regard as a threat to birth rat); the ever-growg poverty of the mass unr palism (leadg to the llapse of the workg-class fay and an crease homosexualy).

Dear Comra Stal:Although I am a foreign munist who has not yet been promoted to the AUCP(b), [later to be renamed the CPSU, Communist Party of the Soviet Unn] I neverthels thk that will not seem unnatural to you, the lear of the world proletariat, that I addrs you wh a requt to shed light on a qutn that, as seems to me, has huge signifince for a large number of munists the USSR as well as other qutn is as follows: n a homosexual be nsired someone worthy of membership the Communist Party? Consequently, they should be nsired even ls worthy to be members of the AUCP(b) I have a personal stake this qutn sofar as I am a homosexual myself, I addrsed this qutn to a number of ras om the OGPU and the People’s Commissariat for Jtice, to psychiatrists, and to Comra Borod, the edor--chief of the newspaper where I work. A photograph of homosexual and cross-drsg Rsians, prr to 1917 / Image: public domaAll that I managed to extract om them was a number of ntradictory opns which show that amongst the ras there is no clear theoretil unrstandg of what might have served as the basis for passage of the given law.

FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM

Somewhat earlier, when the arrts of homosexuals had only jt begun, Comra Borod was que discled to view me as a potential crimal; he did not regard me as a bad munist, and this was nfirmed by the fact that he promoted me at work by appotg me head of edorial staff, which is the hight-rankg supervisory posn wh the exceptn of members of the edorial board. On the other hand, however, after the law was issued on March 7, I had a nversatn the OGPU which I was told that the law would be strictly applied to each se of homosexualy that was brought to nnectn wh the lack of clary that exists this matter, I turn to you the hope that you will fd the time to give me an me to expla to you this qutn as I unrstand and foremost, I would like to pot out that I view the ndn of homosexuals who are eher of workg-class orig or workers themselv to be analogo to the ndn of women unr the palist regime and the loured rac who are opprsed by imperialism. This ndn is likewise siar many ways to the ndn of the Jews unr Hler’s dictatorship, and general is not hard to see an analogy wh the ndn of any social stratum subjected to exploatn and persecutn unr palist we analyse the nature of the persecutn of homosexuals, we should keep md that there are two typ of homosexuals: first, those who are the way they are om birth (moreover, if scientists disagree about the precise reasons for this, then there is no disagreement that certa ep-seated reasons do exist); send, there are homosexuals who had a normal sexual life but later beme homosexuals, sometim out of vicns, sometim out of enomic for the send type, the qutn is cid relatively simply.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A GAY COMMUNIST WROTE TO STAL

" / Image: public domaJt as the women of the bourgeois class suffer to a signifintly lser gree om the jtic of the palist regime (you of urse remember what Len said about this), so do natural-born homosexuals of the domant class suffer much ls om persecutn than homosexuals om the workg-class i. Capalism, which needs an enormo rerve army of labour and nnon fodr orr to flourish, regards homosexualy as a factor that threatens to lower birth rat (as we know, the palist untri there are laws that punish abortn and other methods of ntraceptn) urse, the attu of the bourgeoisie to the homosexual qutn is typil hypocrisy.

Th the fact of [Astor’s nvictn] beme known thanks to ntradictns wh the domant to s wealth, the bourgeoisie n avoid the legal punishment that scends all s severy on homosexual workers wh the exceptn of those s when the latter have prostuted themselv to members of the domant class. But at the same time, by worseng the livg ndns of workers, palism produc the objective ndns for an crease the number of homosexuals who take to this way of life by virtue of material ntradictn is reflected the fact that fascism, which employed the perast [Mar] van r Lubbe as a weapon s provotn, at the same time btally supprsed the liberal-telligentsia “liberatn” movement of homosexuals led by Dr. However, bee fascism stroys the workg-class fay and furthers the impoverishment of the mass, sentially stimulat the velopment of the send type of homosexualy I have scribed — that is, [homosexualy] out of only solutn to this ntradictn is the revolutnary transformatn of the existg orr and the creatn of a society which the absence of unemployment, the growg prospery of the mass, and the liquidatn of the fay as an enomic un secure the ndns which no one will be forced to perasty out of necsy.

Te, Comra Degot om the People’s Commissariat of Jtice said that the reason for the law was that homosexualy was a form of bourgeois specialist psychiatrist wh whom I spoke about this matter refed to believe the existence of such a law until I showed him a py of . Comra Borod poted out to me that I should not attach too much signifince to the article on homosexualy the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia bee (he said) s thor was a homosexual himself and the article was published durg a perd when a number of viatns had still not yet been exposed.

WHO IS JOSEPH ZIEGLER, THE GAY IRS WHISTLEBLOWER HUNTER BIN PROBE?

I took this step spe the fact that I did not know whether ntemporary rearchers had succeed tablishg the te nature of homosexualy and the possibily of nvertg homosexuals to heterosexuals — that is, to people who engage the sexual act only wh members of the oppose sex. This should be kept md, and seems to me that one should refully weigh the dangers of sexual levellg precisely for this branch of Soviet culture, for at prent we do not as yet posss a sufficiently scientific explanatn of image is a Che Communist Party propaganda poster, celebratg the relatnship between Mao's Cha and the USSR, regim which homosexuals were severely opprsed. )It seems to me that this excerpt om Comra Stal’s report has a direct bearg on the qutn that I am is important, however, is that even if one pursu this levellg the prent, is impossible to achieve eher wh medil or legislative both psychiatrists whom I vised were forced by my sistent qutns to nfs that s of curable homosexualy exist, I fally tablished my own attu to the should regnize that there is such a thg as eradible homosexualy— I have yet to enunter facts that would refute this— and hence as a nsequence, seems to me, one should regnize as evable the existence of this mory society, be a palist or even a socialist society.

Today, the Obama admistratn has clearly mted self to gay civil rights, and the purveyors of homophobic polics are on the fensive and fightg rear-guard battl, even though homophobic vlence by street thugs, police btaly, and multifaceted forms of social stigmatizatn rema a part of life for gay men and lbians those areas of the untry where polil and social "nservativ" wield power.

Gays have been volved the stggl for the emancipatn of the workg class as revolutnary agators, labor anizers, and partisans of socialist, munist and anarchist movements sce the days of the Paris Commune and the First Internatnal, when for many those three tegori were terchangeable. Sce homosexuals nnot be "found" om the rmatn on birth certifit or om circumcisns, etc., the way the Hler fascists hunted down people whom they fed as Jews, gay people had the "protectn" of wearg social masks or disguis, leadg double liv, and eher reprsg their sexual orientatn or livg an unrground or closeted existence.

GAY SOCCER PLAYER JOSH CAVALLO TO JUDGE RUPL’S DRAG RACE DOWN UNR

Although Hay's mment to gay anizg had led him to leave the CPUSA by a kd of mutual nsent, he and his ras ntued to e CPUSA anizg and tnal techniqu to velop the Mattache Society to an anizatn reprentative of gay people and a vehicle for achievg the goal of gay liberatn. Gays who sought acceptance wh the existg system - the oppose of everythg Harry and his ras stood for - took over the Mattache Society and turned to an anizatn of proper men sus and ti, holdg foms wh homophob and centrists and engagg very tame actns to seek greater "toleratn" for gays.

When the mass gay liberatn movement took shape after the Stonewall Gay Ghetto Rt of 1969, the Mattache Society was nsired by many gay activists to be an artifact wh tablishment pretensns, somethg like a nservative AFL bs unn to labor ants, or the Natnal Urban League to Black ants. Called before the Hoe Un-Amerin Activi Commtee (HUAC) 1955 (one should remember that homophobia was cultivated by McCarthy as a pann to their generic red-bag), he stood up to the mtee, treatg them wh the ntempt they richly served, although he felt bter that was difficult to get Left attorneys to reprent him bee of his open homosexualy.

FALGSC: FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM

Fearful perhaps of makg him to a martyr (McCarthy had been censured the prev year and McCarthyism s cst forms was cle), HUAC cled to ce him for ntempt and send him to prison, which had prevly done wh the Hollywood Ten and the 1960s, Harry joed Women Strike for Peace, an activist group cludg both former and ongog CPUSA members, and sought to velop alns wh the emergg gay rights, antiwar, and women's rights movements. To his last day, Harry Hay, who passed away 2002, fought agast the hatred that lg circl fomented agast gay men and lbians (as they do agast all other opprsed mory groups orr to divi and nquer), and rejected the self-hatred, which, for gays, is perhaps more tense than for any other opprsed group. Unfortunately, the Communist Party of the Rsian Feratn, which scrib self as the succsor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unn, has gone back time supportg the reactnary homophobic polici of the anti-Communist and anti-Soviet Put ernment, which claims to oppose.

However, I would remend the followg works: In Blasi and Phelan, eds., We Are Everywhere: A Historil Sourcebook of Gay and Lbian Polics (New York, 1997), the chapter on "The Emergence of a Gay And Lbian Polil Culture Germany" is valuable, as is Jam Steakley's The Homosexual Emancipatn Movement Germany (New York, 1975).

Dean, Imperial Brotherhood: Genr and the Makg of Cold War Foreign Policy (Amherst, 2001) Dean, after examg the "male bondg" ruals of the graduat of prep schools, ivy league lleg, and exclive aterni and clubs om whom foreign policy makers om both parti me, looks at the anti-Communist and anti-Gay purg the state partment and foreign service and their effects on all policy makers, both the purge victims and those who ntued their posns. In the 19th and 20th century, munist parti and Marxist–Lenist stat varied on LGBT rights; some Wtern parti were among the first polil parti to support LGBT rights, while others, pecially the Soviet Unn and s Eastern Bloc, harshly persecuted people of the LGBT muny (pecially gay men).