[Marxism] Query on CPUSA policy change on homosexuality

[David Thorstad <binesi@xxxxxxxxx>]

I would appreciate it if someone on the list could point me to 
documentation or specifics on when the CPUSA went from opposition to 
homosexuality and gay liberation to support for gay rights and (see 
/Political Affairs/, January 2005) same-sex marriage. Stalin  
reintroduced the tsarist ban on (male) homosexuality by fiat in March 
1934, and, so far as I know, most if not all world CPs adhered to that. 
Gorki called homosexuality the "fascist perversion." Communists in 
Germany suggested the Nazis were homosexual. In my article 
"Homosexuality and the American Left: The Impact of Stonewall" (/Journal 
of Homosexuality/, 1995) I documented several statements by CPUSA and CP 
youth leaders comparing homosexuality and gay lib as "a diversion," "a 
psychological problem . . . based on the bourgeois concept of manhood," 
similar to drug addiction and other social problems, and stating that 
"homosexuals, perverts" were people the party did not recruit. None of 
this is really new, but I would like to find documentation of when 
(presumably sometime after 1995) the party decided to take a stance of 
actually advocating some gay rights (and gay marriage).
    I have recently made Word documents of several of my articles, 
including "Homosexuality and the American Left" (which discusses, among 
other things, Fourier, Lenin and the "glass of water theory," positions 
of the CPUSA, the Maoists, anarchists, Trotskyists, Workers World Party, 
gay rights vs. sexual  liberation, pederasty and the left), and would be 
glad to send them to anyone who contacts me off list. Others include "In 
Alexander's Footsteps: Siwa Today," "Man/Boy Love and Feminism," 
"Man/Boy Love Then and Now: A Personal-Political Appraisal" (which 
compares the early German and American gay and pederast movements, with 
a focus on /Der Eigene/, John Henry Mackay, Edwin Bab, Adolf Brand, 
Benedict Friedlaender, and others), "Man/Boy Love and Sexual Freedom: A 
Radical Perspective."
    Appreciate any help on my question about the CP.
David


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