On 12/17/20 7:57 AM, Michael Meeropol wrote:
I think the left IGNORED homosexual rights almost all the way to
Stonewall ---
Not exactly. The SWP excluded gays using the same excuse as the State
Department about the possibility of blackmail forcing employees to
become agents. Same with the CP, as far as I know:
Keeping the Communist Party Straight, 1940s-1980s
By: Bettina Aptheker
Summer 2008 (New Politics Vol. XII No. 1, Whole Number 45)
GROWING UP IN A COMMUNIST FAMILY and in Communist circles in New York
City in the late 1940s and 1950s sexuality of any kind was never
discussed, ever, in any context, for any reason. I am not laying claim
to any kind of universal experience in saying this; I am only commenting
on the absence of discussion in my own experience.
Although I knew from an early age, and certainly by adolescence, that my
primary attractions were to women, I had no language with which to
express these feelings, and a firm belief that I was sexually perverted
and evil, and absolutely singular in my desires. It was not until 1973
that I learned the word "lesbian" because I found the book Lesbian Woman
by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons. I hid the book from my husband and read
it with acute attention and a shortness of breath, borne of panic. By
1980 I was in a committed lesbian relationship, but I was still
terrified to tell my Communist parents, Herbert and Fay Aptheker. Much
to my mother's credit, when I did come out to her she was very
supportive, and told me not to worry about my father; she would take
care of him.
https://newpol.org/issue_post/keeping-communist-party-straight-1940s-1980s/
Also, from my review of Allen Young's memoir, a good friend of
Michael's, I should add:
Within a few years, McCarthyism had become viral in American society,
even in my “utopia”. Just four years younger than Allen, I have vivid
recollections of the malicious gossip directed against the Youngs. In
the mid-50s, there were two major taboos: Communism and “race-mixing”,
even in a village like Woodridge that had been a bastion of New Deal
support. In junior high school, there were classmates who whispered
about the Youngs. Not only were they Reds, they also had parties at
their house where Blacks and whites would dance together. It was almost
if their house was a witch’s coven.
The other major taboo back then was homosexuality. By the time he was
dropping those eggs, Allen had no doubts that he was attracted to men.
Despite his father’s socialist values and his open-mindedness, he never
accepted Allen’s sexual orientation. Given the prejudices directed at
Reds, Blacks and gays back then, it is a testament to Allen’s strength
of character that he soldiered on and became a great success as a writer
on the left.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/18/breaking-the-lefts-gay-taboo/
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