Meet Bayard Rt, the gay socialist pacifist who planned the 1963 March on Washgton - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• MEET BAYARD RT, THE GAY SOCIALIST PACIFIST WHO PLANNED THE 1963 MARCH ON WASHGTON
• DAVID MCREYNOLDS, GAY SOCIALIST PACIFIST WHO TWICE RAN FOR PRINT, DI AT 88
• “THE GAY LEFT”: HOMOSEXUALY THE ERA OF LATE SOCIALISM
• GAY (MARXIST) LIBERATN
• AN INTERVIEW WH A GAY, RSIAN NEO-NAZI
• GAY ARYAN NATNS MEMBERS ARE THE FRGE OF THE FRGE
• MAN CHARGED THREATS TO GAY, SOCIALIST OFFICIALS

MEET BAYARD RT, THE GAY SOCIALIST PACIFIST WHO PLANNED THE 1963 MARCH ON WASHGTON

The journal first appeared the tumn/fall of 1975, though the members of the ial edorial llective had been meetg for a year before this discsg the project, and some of had been gay Marxist discsn and readg groups together for even longer than that. The first flh of gay liberatn energy had to a certa extent dispersed, but was a perd when gay ias neverthels were spreadg electrilly to a huge variety of areas – wrg, film, art, theatre, televisn, history, the amy, tra unns, tn, even mastream polics - the ntext of an unprecented explosn of the gay and lbian muny.

The opportuni seemed endls, spe, possibly bee of, the equent setbacks lbian and gay people enuntered For was also a perd of tense polil polarisatn, as the optimism of the prev harned to a grim rilience unr the impact of high flatn, growg unemployment, ternatnal tensn and a real sense of an end of an era. There was a feelg that this was a time to stand up and be unted, and for many of who had e of age the cultural revolutn of the 1960s and the early 1970s, and had seen our view of the world transformed by the explosive emergence of gay polics, that meant posng ourselv firmly wh the left.

DAVID MCREYNOLDS, GAY SOCIALIST PACIFIST WHO TWICE RAN FOR PRINT, DI AT 88

Five years later, as the edorial llective announced GL 10 a pse publitn to enable a thk about what we wanted to do next – 10 issu and an eded book (Homosexualy: Power and Polics published 1980) proved an exhstg if exhilaratg journey together – the climate had changed dramatilly, and fact we soon dissolved as a group. But what now strik me on re-readg the 10 volum for the first time a long time, is how well we ptured the dreams and reali, hop and tratns of gay and lbian liv durg the 1970s, and the extent to which you n see the pag the shape of the dramatic polil and cultural chang that cisively end the long 1960s, and brought about a new polil era.

Alongsi more historil articl like ‘Where Engels Feared to Tread’ (GL 1), which traced the evolutn of Marxist attus towards sexualy and genr, were articl on stggl the workplace like ‘Gays and Tra Unns’ GL 1, ‘The Gay Workers’ Movement’ (GL 2), ‘All Worked UP’ (GL 3), ‘Gays at Work’ (GL 6 and 7), and ‘Work Place Polics: Gay Polics’ (GL 10); and piec on the attus of leftist anisatns towards the gay issue, such as ‘A Grim Tale’, about the Internatnal Socialists’ Gay Group (GL 3) or ‘Communists’ Comment’ (GL 4).

Dpe this, what is not explicly addrsed the journal is what has now bee a domatg theme: the diversy of the lbian and gay world, and though the issue of rights was a key if implic ncern, we did not anticipate the rise of the disurse of human rights as ccial to ternatnal LGBT polics.

“THE GAY LEFT”: HOMOSEXUALY THE ERA OF LATE SOCIALISM

Gays film formed a ntuo theme followg a ground- breakg article by Richard Dyer GL 2, wh regular reviews (for example, of Fassbr GL 2), and verage of Ron Peck’s attempts to make his film, ‘Nighthawks’ (Ron was then a member of the llective and other members were volved the film makg). While there was barely a gay rights movement to speak of when Rt began his activism, toward the end of his life he beme more volved, sayg on one ocsn, "The qutn of social change should be amed wh the most vulnerable group md: gay he always risted the notn that his activism was driven by personal motiv. 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?

GAY (MARXIST) LIBERATN

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. 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. People who bee homosexuals by virtue of their pravy ually belong to the bourgeoisie, a number of whose members take to this way of life after they have sated themselv wh all the forms of pleasure and perversy that are available sexual relatns wh women.

AN INTERVIEW WH A GAY, RSIAN NEO-NAZI

" / 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.

" LGSM om the Uned Kgdom, which gay socialists supported the mer's strike, is a great example of this prciple practice / Image: simonm1965I had no tentn of turng this to a problem, of posg this qutn theoretilly and seekg a fe opn on this qutn om the Party. 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 .

GAY ARYAN NATNS MEMBERS ARE THE FRGE OF THE FRGE

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. 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. I have no tentn of fendg the absurd theory that homosexuals belong to a breed of superhumans, that homosexualy and geni are synonyms, that homosexuals will, allegedly, someday take their revenge on society for their suffergs by ung to nquer heterosexuals.

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.

MAN CHARGED THREATS TO GAY, SOCIALIST OFFICIALS

All the more so, bee palism, along wh the secularizatn of life and the opportuni to elu muny surveillance the ci, ma possible for a growg mory to live outsi the nuclear fay, earng pennt , as “homosexuals” — a term ed the 1860s to signate a new social inty. In an 1869 letter to Marx about Jean Baptiste von Schwezer, the gay lear of the rival Lassallean socialists, he joked arsely about the allegedly spreadg fluence of homosexuals wh the workers’ movement: “It is a b of luck that we, personally, are too old to have to fear that, when this party ws, we shall have to pay physil tribute to the victors....

In the late 1890s, a number of leadg German Social Democrats were won over to the theory, advanced by Magn Hirschfeld, that homosexuals nstuted a third, “termediate sex, ” between men and women, and that same-sex attractn was as natural and ethil as heterosexualy.

The Instute was a center for rearch, sex tn, and legal aid to victims of Paragraph 175, and mpaigned not jt for repeal of the sodomy statute but agast homophobia the broast sense; Hirschfeld often noted that prejudice agast homosexuals was jt as strong untri like France and the Netherlands, where they were not crimalized, as was Germany.