Five Minute Polemic No. One: Regarding Communism and Homophobia

“Real communists hated gay people. If there is a revolution, there’s not gonna be one, and if I die in it, you’ll die next.”-remark to me by an anticommunist, upon learning I was both queer and a supporter of Maoist revolution.

While it is certainly a waste of my time to respond individually to every person I’ve ever met who, upon learning of my communist beliefs, spouts essentially this same idea, it’s a common enough idea that I think it’s worth creating a single cohesive critique in this, the first in what I’d like to be a series of short and convenient polemics. The claim is: communism is an essentially homophobic ideology, and so gay people should not support it. This claim is made by a lot of people: from homophobic right-wingers who say things like “killing gays is the only good thing commies did,” to simpering liberals who think they are supporting gay people by telling us the communists (who in truth shall be our great liberators) secretly hate us. And, more to the point, the claim is fundamentally flawed.

In the first place, it is built on the idea that the “real” or the “true” communists are exclusively those of the past, principally of the CPSU and CPC, that contemporary communists (such as those gay communists against whom the claim is often leveled) are simply pretenders, and that if such “real” or “true” communists ever emerge again the supposed pretenders will find themselves betrayed by those they had wanted to herald into the world. This is simply nonsense. The International Communist Movement is not dead! It shall never be struck from the surface of the Earth until the worldwide and permanent victory of full-stage communism makes it no longer necessary! Yes, certainly, its conditions have changed- socialism in the USSR and PRC is sadly no more, and the role as foremost leader once held by the CPSU and then the CPC is now held by the great PCP in Peru. But the idea that communist activism is a thing of the past that we are trying to bring back is simply false. It is a thing that has existed, continually and with changes in its conditions but never a cessation of existence, for centuries. There are many great communist Parties leading our charge around the world as we speak: the PCP in Peru, of course, the TKP/ML and MKP (the genuine MKP, not the revisionist faction of the same name) in Turkey, the CPI(Maoist) in India, the CPP in the Philippines, the PCE-SR in Ecuador, the CPS(RF) in Switzerland, etc. All of these are living, breathing, “real” communists today.

Furthermore, none of these parties and no true communists are trying to restore the ICM of yesteryear. The ICM, like anything, has over its history changed and moved forward through dialectical material development. It is certainly, and unfortunately, true that homophobia has been a problem in the ICM in the past. Homosexuality was illegal in the socialist USSR, and this was undeniably a mistake. But again, the objective of a genuine communist is not to restore the state of affairs of decades past, it is to build socialism as effectively as possible now and in the future. We are a progressive movement, a movement that moves forward and not back. And so when judging whether “real communists” are homophobes, we should look only to those of the present era. And when we do so, we will find they are undeniable allies of queer people. Communist soldiers of the NPA, the People’s Army fighting revolutionary People’s War under CPP leadership in the Philippines, have made published remarks on the place of gay comrades in the revolution{1}, and the CPP programme makes specific mention of the rights of queer people{2}. The MPP, a United Front organization of the ongoing revolution in Peru, has, speaking on behalf of the PCP, made similar statements on the right of gay comrades to serve in the revolutionary struggle{3}. The facts are undeniable: the ICM of today is the greatest friend the queer masses have.

But those who spout this claim are not simply unaware of the present state of the ICM; they are woefully ignorant of its history as well. Yes, there is an unfortunate history of homophobia in socialist states. But we must not rob this of its context: there is an unfortunate history of homophobia in nearly every state! Homophobia in the USSR was a significant contradiction that, had the socialist Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat there lasted longer, we can only hope would have been resolved. But it was not unusually acute for its time; in fact, it was rather less of a problem than it was in certain capitalist countries. Let us compare homophobic laws of the early 20th century in two countries: the socialist USSR and capitalist-imperialist UK. In the USSR, the penalty for homosexuality (referred to in the Criminal Code as “pederasty” but defined in such a way as to also describe consensual homosexual behavior between adults) was, per the relevant article of the Criminal Code (Article 121), “deprivation of freedom for a term of up to five years{4}” (some claim it was death, these claims bear no evidence). This was terrible, let there be no doubt. But what of the UK? British homosexuals, like the famed case of Alan Turing, had under the Labouchere Amendment the choice between two years of hard, unpaid labour in prison and “therapy” that involved chemical castration{5}! Are these not, essentially, the same? Yet the USSR is spat upon and decried as tyrannical, while the UK (where it should be noted the penalty prior to the Labouchere Amendment had been life in prison, and prior to that execution!) is lionized as the great defender of freedom! But there is more, for there exists historical testimony to suggest that the enforcement of Article 121 was very limited, and that it was in fact possible to live a free life in the socialist USSR as an open homosexual. Let us hear from Harry Whyte, a Scottish communist who lived for a good while in the USSR:

“Comrade Borodin, who said that he personally took a negative view of homosexuality, at the same time declared that he regarded me as a fairly good communist, that I could be trusted, and that I could lead my personal life as I liked.”

and furthermore

“…the Soviet organs of justice were not prosecuting homosexuality as such, only certain socially dangerous [meaning counterrevolutionary] homosexuals.{6}”

Let us compare the case of Whyte and the case of Turing. Turing, though he was a national hero, was in the UK tortured by the state for the crime of honestly loving another until he was driven to commit suicide. Whyte, though he was a foreigner, was in the USSR allowed to live a relatively happy life (and in fact to pursue a successful career in journalism) as an open homosexual. Certainly he faced undue hardships- his colleague Borodin, though tolerant for the time, would most certainly be called a homophobe today. But the fact remains, Whyte was a gay communist allowed to live as such under socialism, at a time when capitalist countries would have had him tortured or killed. I ask, reader, who given this evidence must we conclude were the real homophobic tyrants of the 20th century: the communists? Or the capitalists?

I think the answer is clear. And, more to the point, I think it is further clear that even what homophobia existed in the ICM of the 20th century has been soundly, correctly, and irrevocably purged from that of the 21st. So to hell with the lie that communism is a threat to queer rights! Communism is the great liberator of all humanity, and the place of the queer masses is in the communist revolutionary movement! Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, long live the all-important lessons of Gonzalo Thought, and long live queer liberation!

SOURCES

1. “The only way the LGBTQ community can find liberation from gender oppression is to topple down class oppression.”-Ka Oliver, gay NPA fighter. Remarks published by revolutionary Philippine publication Ang Bayan
2. “Uphold the right of the LGBT to express their gender identity and support their struggle against all forms of discrimination.” -CPP, Programme for People’s Democratic Revolution
3. “They are, as we have previously stated, lies and slander which claim the PCP kills gays for being gay or makes statements against them… we reiterate that the PCP does not attack nor discriminate against anyone because of their sexual orientation. In fact, party membership is open to all who support the cause of communist revolution and the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, regardless of what their sexual preference may be.” -MPP, a statement released under a number of titles including “On Gays.” This statement also states that misconceptions about the PCP killing homosexuals are likely due to conflation of the PCP with the MRTA, an extinct counterrevolutionary revisionist movement, who were responsible for homophobic massacres slanderously attributed to the PCP.
4. Full text of Article 121 of the USSR’s criminal code:

“Pederasty

Sexual relations of a man with a man (pederasty),

Shall be punished by deprivation of freedom for a term of up to five years.

Pederasty committed with the application of physical force, or threats, or with respect to a minor, or with taking advantage of the dependent position of the victim,

Shall be punished by deprivation of freedom for a term of up to eight years.”

5. Full text of the Labouchere Amendment:

“Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures, or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with an other male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.”

6. The text of Whyte’s letter can be found, among other places, here: https://thecharnelhouse.org/2015/06/27/can-a-homosexual-be-a-communist-harry-whytes-letter-to-stalin-1934/