Socialism and LGBT Rights - Communist and Socialist Countries

Communist and Socialist Countries

After the Russian Revolution under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, the Soviet Union abolished previous laws against homosexuality.

The lowest point in the history of the relationship between socialism and homosexuality undoubtedly begins with the rise of Joseph Stalin in the USSR, after Lenin's death, and continues through the era of state communism in the Soviet Union, East Germany, China and North Korea. In all cases the conditions of sexual minorities, including transgender people, worsened in communist states after the arrival of Stalin. Hundreds of thousands of homosexuals were interned in gulags during the Great Purge, where many were beaten to death. Some Western intellectuals withdrew their support of Communism after seeing the severity of repression in the USSR, including the gay writer André Gide.

Historian Jennifer Evans reports that the East German government "alternated between the view as a remnant of bourgeois decadence, a sign of moral weakness, and a threat to social and political health of the nation." These three characterizations imbued the policies and practices of all communist states, as well as those Western socialist and communist organizations who followed their example.

Productivity and consistency were paramount in communist states, and sexual minorities were seen as unproductive and non-conformist. The Communists generally associated male effeminacy with luxury, leisure, and bourgeois or upper class values. Effeminate men and homosexuals were sometimes forced to participate in programs of 'reeducation' involving forced labor, conversion therapy, psychotropic drugs or confinement in psychiatric hospitals.

The revolutionary Cuban gay writer Reinaldo Arenas noted that, shortly after the communist government of Fidel Castro came to power, "persecution began and concentration camps were opened the sexual act became taboo while the "new man" was proclaimed and masculinity exalted." Similar "moral reforms" were instituted in the USSR, Communist China and in East Germany, as part of building a solid foundation for the new socialist republics. Following the 1953 uprising in East Germany, the government defended the traditional family, while homosexuality was regarded as contrary to "healthy habits of workers." This agenda was pursued using the existing Article 175 of the penal code, which had been applied under the Nazis. While there had been no law against sodomy in the USSR, such a law was introduced in 1933, added to the penal code as Article 121, which condemned homosexual relations with penalties of imprisonment up to five years. With the fall of the Soviet regime and the repeal of the law against sex between consenting adult men, prisoners convicted under that part of the law were released very slowly.

All communist states have banned gay and lesbian associations, whether social or political, and have banned the publication of LGBT material. Often, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, gays were denounced, dismissed from their jobs, imprisoned, deported and, in some cases, castrated or even executed. As was the case in many other parts of the world, conditions improved dramatically towards the end of the last century.

See also: LGBT rights in Russia, LGBT rights in Germany, and Communism and homosexuality