Wh Rsia set to host next year’s Wter Olympics, ternatnal attentn is focsed on the untry’s relatnship wh s gay and lbian cizens.
Contents:
- A DOUBLE DEFEAT: CATASTROPHE FOR GAY EMANCIPATN GERMANY AND THE USSR
- GAY THE USSR
- GAY LIFE STAL’S GULAG
- THE HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALY RSIA: OM SOVIET SEX CHANG TO GAY GULAGS
- WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A GAY COMMUNIST WROTE TO STAL
A DOUBLE DEFEAT: CATASTROPHE FOR GAY EMANCIPATN GERMANY AND THE USSR
In 1933-34 the gas ma by gay men Germany and the Soviet Unn were abptly reversed. * gay ussr *
Before 1933, Joseph Goebbels had long nounced Hirschfeld and the Instute for Sexual Science’s claims that homosexuals fact reprented a “third sex, ” that same-sex timacy should not be tegorized as crimal, and that people troubled by “physil and psychologil sex disorrs” should be provid the bt unsellg and treatment available.
GAY THE USSR
The sprawlg system of Soviet mps ntaed many untold stori. I spoke to one of the few historians rearchg the experienc of gay men and lbians the Gulag to fd out more. RU * gay ussr *
Goebbels also knew that the Instute’s prence Berl had been backed by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), power Berl sce 1919, and hoed the Scientific Humanarian Commtee (found by Hirschfeld 1897 to advance homosexual rights) and an ternatnal anizatn, the World League for Sexual Reform. Though homosexualy is no longer outright illegal -- and has not been nsired a mental disorr sce 1999 -- a stubbornly homophobic stra of natnalism persists, as evinced most recently by an anti-homosexual "propaganda" bill that is gag momentum the State Duma. Though homosexualy is no longer outright illegal — and has not been nsired a mental disorr sce 1999 — a stubbornly homophobic stra of natnalism persists, as evinced most recently by an anti-homosexual "propaganda" bill that is gag momentum the State Duma.
The artist’s new book, Mosw, is an evotive but unembellished medatn on gay cisg the pal cy, featurg photographs of the public toilets near the Hermage Garns; the stairs to the riversi embankment by Mosw Universy; the Bolshoi Theater; and many other inic lotns. However, also rri the implied nnotatn that the practice of ‘homosexualy’, is fact the practice of ‘child abe’, wh the former beg clearly nflated wh the latter, spe the fact that Article 121 appears to fe ‘perasty’ as the performance of a sexual act between one man and another. Article 121, spe s cur readg, appears to have been signed to protect Soviet society om the menace of child abe and paedophilia, although is rerd that Soviet amia was terted the practice of homosexualy om a medil perspective, and attemptg to ascerta s root e (wh a number of early Soviet rearchers followg the Czarist assumptn of aberratn).
GAY LIFE STAL’S GULAG
The past five years have wnsed an explosn of tert the histori of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people the Soviet Unn and s succsor stat. This special issue extends our unrstandg of the history of queer experience the late Soviet Unn and s succsor stat. Its eight articl balance attentn between the Rsian “re” and republics on the “periphery” of the USSR: Geia, Kyrgyzstan, and Latvia. One article draws attentn to Italy, and t... * gay ussr *
It is an tertg pot to observe that both the USSR (and the post-Soviet-Rsian Feratn), reta a hostile and negative attu toward both the theory and practice of homosexualy – if homosexualy is fed as a sexual relatnship between two nsentg adults of the same genr; i.
THE HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALY RSIA: OM SOVIET SEX CHANG TO GAY GULAGS
However, also rri the implied nnotatn that the practice of ‘homosexualy’, is fact the practice of ‘child abe’, wh the former beg clearly nflated wh the latter, spe the fact that the actual anti-homosexual legislatn qutn, f ‘perasty’ as the performance of a sexual act between one man and another.
Where homosexualy was mentned by the bourgeois legal s, was ually viewed as an exprsn of sexual viancy, and is tertg to note that the legal system of the Soviet Unn took this le, when virtually all other areas, the USSR thoroughly parted away om tablished bourgeois thkg. Anti-homosexual views are a product of historil relig views that have been superimposed onto secular bourgeois society – simply through force of hab om one generatn to the next – that has nothg to do wh science, but which has been morally assumed to be ‘scientific’ nature.
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A GAY COMMUNIST WROTE TO STAL
Moreover, I thk should also be poted out that, spe the view that homosexualy was a mental disorr, the actual law qutn, Article 121 of the Soviet Crimal Co, was pretty much only enforced s of pedophilia, wh some 800 – 1000 prosecutns annually.
Our laws proceed om the prciple of protectn of society and therefore untenance punishment only those stanc when juvenil and mors are the objects of homosexual tert … while regnizg the rrectns of homosexual velopment … our society b prophylactic and other theraptic measur wh all the necsary ndns for makg the nflicts that afflict homosexuals as pals as possible and for rolvg their typil trangement om society wh the llective—Sereisky, Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1930, p. The Rsian Feratn crimal s for 1922 and 1926 did not mentn homosexualy, although the rrpondg laws remaed force plac where homosexualy was most prevalent – the Islamic republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenia, and Uzbekistan, as well as Christian Geia.