Description

The Communist Party banned lesbian gay bisexual and transgender LGBT people from membership beginning in 1938 when it cast them off as degenerates It persisted in this policy until 1991 During this sixtyyear ban gays and lesbians who did join the Communist Party were deeply closeted within it as well as in their public lives as both queer and Communist By the late 1930s the Communist Party had a membership approaching 100000 and tens of thousands more people moved in its orbit through the Popular Front against fascism antiracist organizing especially in the south and its widely read cultural magazine the New Masses Based on a decade of archival research correspondence and interviews Bettina Aptheker explores this history also pulling from her own experience as a closeted lesbian in the Communist Party in the 1960s and 70s Ironically and in spite of this homophobia individual Communists laid some of the political and theoretical foundations for lesbian and gay liberation and womens liberation and contributed significantly to peace social justice civil rights and Black and Latinx liberation movements

This book will be of interest to students scholars and anyone interested in political history gender studies and the history of sexuality