Is Socialism Gay?

Ana Sasaki

Relations between socialism and the gay world have been long and varied. Conflict between the two from the socialist perspective have existed from near the point of socialism’s conception, with multiple denigratory perspectives on homosexuality posited: from theories about relations between people of the same sex being an aristocratic affliction stemming from the disaffection and boredom with all other kinds of (heterosexual) carnal vice common amongst the decadent and self-indulgent youth of the nobility; to the idea that homosexuality was exceptionally prevalent amongst members of the petty bourgeoisie because of the contradictions that gradual capitalist decay sowed amongst this stratum of society; and that the proletariat and lumpenproletariat were given over to homosexual relations because the economic conditions they lived under made (nominally normal) heterosexual lives impossible — and various other explanations. There have also been (often reactionary) tendencies amongst gay liberationist movements to disregard socialism as homophobic or inadequately equipped to provide meaningful advances for gay people.

Yet capitalist society has — apart from its own degradation of homosexuals — frequently merged the socialist or proletariat interest with gay interests to attack both in one fell swoop. We can see this in the Lavender Scare of the late 1940s to 1960s, a period of congressional investigation-led of gay people working for the US government which resulted in the firing and forced resignation of many and culminated in the social ostracization of those discovered to be gay. The Lavender Scare destroyed lives across the USA — socially, economically and mortally, with several people committing suicide in the wake of the decimation they had been subjected to. Hence, it’s significant that the Lavender Scare was bound inextricably with the Red Scare, (the similar hunt for and destruction of suspected communists within America) with the Scares both an indelible part of the Cold War and with the same rhetoric and the same investigators being reappropriated for both purposes.

Despite the frequently fraught relationship between gay and socialist causes, the class enemies of both movements often see some inexorable link between the two. And it’s true demonstrably that socialism, despite all the antagonism, repeatedly improves the gay condition when put into practice. The 1917 October Revolution in Russia resulted in the repeal of previous legislation criminalising homosexuality, and the introduction of Hugo Chávez’s government resulted in gains for gays in Venezuela. Furthermore, gay groups often have embraced socialism wholeheartedly: a prominent example being the group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, a group of largely communist gays and lesbians who supported South Wales miners during the 1984–85 strikes.

What drives this conflict? Why did Cuba post-1959 revolution see the increased persecution of gay people, but in 2022 legalised same-sex marriage after an overwhelmingly positive referendum result, (due in part to Mariela Castro, Fidel Castro’s niece and Raúl Castro’s daughter, campaigning for LGBT rights)? Why did the USSR decriminalise homosexuality in 1917, only to recriminalise it in 1934? How can these contradictions be explained?

It’s necessary to understand that socialism has never been uniform in its approach to any issue. The root of these conflicts lie in broader and more fundamental principles which, likewise, are often not agreed upon. Clashes over the nuclear family, the role of men and women, to what extent reform and revolution should occur, whether power should be centralised, whether national identity and worldwide class consciousness can co-exist, if traditional conservative values are antithetical to communist revolution (and so on) all impact how same sex relations are viewed, and each have hundreds of years of sometimes bitterly differing rationale behind them. It hence stands to reason that the issues of gay rights and socialist liberation are complexly and sometimes contradictorily intertwined.