Towards A Scientific Analysis of the Gay Question

Colorful Classics #21

by Los Angeles Research Group

Published in 1975 when the anti-revisionist movement in the US was upholding an openly homophobic line, this essay provided a scientific analysis of the “Gay Question.” Today, it teaches us how, beyond rejecting an incorrect line, the MLM still has to synthesize a proletarian line on the LGBT struggle based on the experiences in semi-colonies as well as imperialist countries.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Theory, LGBT, Sociology, Politics, Gender and Sexuality

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Spooky Socialist · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the semi-colonies were already much advanced on the gay question, the communist organizations in the imperial core were completely backwards, refusing to allow gay people membership. Towards A Scientific Analysis of the Gay Question was one of the few attempts in the imperial core to rectify the subjectivist errors of the imperial core organizations.

Briefly going over Marxist methodology laid out in Mao's On Practice , the anonymous authors completely dissect the Revolutionary Union's unofficial position paper, noting that its basic assertions have no material or historical evidence and that its conclusions are ultimately unmaterialist, unhistorical, and undialectical. As one of the first polemical interventions on the gay question, it shares many similarities to polemical works by other anti-revisionist communists such as Harry Haywood and Vladimir Lenin. The RU's position mimics much of the same tendencies as the revisionists of old: tailism, the "outsiding" of disliked groups, subjectivism, and the rejection to look for allies of the working class. Although much of the authors' analysis has been advanced by other texts in recent years (Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch comes to mind), this first attempt at analyzing the gay question scientifically has its importance in gay history and advancing further interest in the connections between homosexuality and communism.

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

To lift that Anthony Bourdain quote and apply it here: "once you read this book, you'll never stop wanting to beat Bob Avakian with your bare hands."

The RU [now the RCP-USA, a joke of a communist group] didn't officially reverse their position on gay and lesbian Communists until 2001, so 26 years after this was published. So it wasn't like it was "a long time ago"; it wasn't that long.

Unfortunately, gayness and being transgender were viewed as petty-bourgeois in the early days of the u.s. Communist movement; no true Communist could or should deny that, I certainly don't, as a bisexual, transgender Marxist-Leninist. The RU is one of the extreme, highlighted cases. This made me prouder than ever to be a member of Workers World Party, the first Marxist-Leninist Party to take on the LGBTQ struggle in 1970; it's odd there's no mention of us in this book.

Regardless, this is an INCREDIBLE take down by 10 anonymous lesbian Communists who, using the correct dialectical and historical materialist analysis that true MLs use [and not reactionary ultra-leftists like RU and other Avakianites] to not only dispell myths on gayness as a whole, but the role of gay and lesbian people within the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist movement.

Transgender warriors like Leslie Feinberg, a transgender Butch lesbian, show without a doubt that queer/trans people are critical to class struggle and that the struggle for LGBTQ liberation and class struggle truly go hand in hand.

I highly recommend this book!

[Ñukñu · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important text for gay liberation movement. I feel appreciative of the conclusion and appendices. A good starting point to further research on the history and theory of gay liberation.

[Arya · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fantastic prelimenary to proletarian queer theory

[kz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely impressive refutation of a ridiculously draft programme on anti-homosexuality from the Revolutionary Union in the late 1970s. These 10 lesbian communist where able to throughly dismember and smash the RU with material analysis of historical conditions of history of LGBTQIA+ struggles. An impressive read, I enjoyed it immensely

[Kern Sus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book manages to deal with a lot of subjects in just a few pages. It takes the form of an essay debunking a an essay made by RU, a "revolutionary" group who are seeking to exclude the gay community from the revolutionary communist project. This book talks about the nuclear family, how sexual identities are formed and used within the capitalist structure, the gay movement and its to incorporate into the larger proletarian movement, and much more. Its main objective is showing how revisionist "communist" groups rely on an idealist, subjective view of class society and the family structure, and how such a view serves the agents of capital. This book is an investigation into the gay question from a dialectic and scientific marxist perspective. Read it!

[Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though obviously written as a polemic this is a fairly strong primer on the marxist analysis of homosexuality and the undeniable importance of the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights as part of the global socialist movement. The basis of their analysis obviously relies on some outdated information but largely still holds true. I was reminded of similar chauvinistic, opportunist movements (e.g. “patriotic socialism,” MAGA communism, the anti-woke crowd) that still espouse this idealist garbage today that falls apart dramatically after the slightest effort at thorough investigation, and must be struggled against. This is one of the key takeaways from the text and why it remains valuable to us.

“We cannot come to rash conclusions when a situation is still unclear; we must oppose carelessness and stress meticulousness; we cannot be satisfied with a one-sided approach. We cannot merely outline the appearance of a thing, but must get to its essence by grasping its principal contradiction.”

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is super helpful because it helps show what our community's elders & past had to deal with. It helps snapshot how discourse was like 45 year ago.

I had to pause my read reading at appendix 2 because it's the homophobic statement this book fights against. However the little taste i got from it so far has informed me of the various myths my community has faced.

You'd also think that people not being able to correctly predict sexuality would've informed people that it's Non-Conformity to Gender Roles & Stereotypes that gets used against us. However, this was 1975, it does seem they were still using a different nomenclature for like sexuality, trans, sex roles. So the good news is that they were figuring it out, they were on the right path, and I thank them so much for putting this book out into our world.

[Sappho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, but I think it’s unfortunate that they didn’t make any changes on the second printing. They mention that they made many shortcoming when composing the original text in the introduction to the second printing and enumerate them as well as indicate where they appear which was very helpful, but I think it’s a self-admitted limitation of the text. This is not a scientific analysis, but a step towards it and even after all these years I’m not sure how much we’ve advanced. I’m certainly left wanting more, but I’m not sure anyone has developed more than this. Hopefully this gets more attention in our movement and this text will certainly be the point of departure along with Engel’s work On The Family.

[Seren B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important to understand going into this that it is "towards" a scientific amalysis, that said its errors and shortcomings are accurately identified through self criticism on the authors part in the introduction to the second printing included. This is a good groundwork for understanding what it means to be gay and communist, and how grave of an error the RU made (I believe they only changed their stance on gay membership sometime in the 90s)

[Gage Hoefer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically 3.5.

Spot on analysis refuting homophobic attitudes and practices of certain communist parties in the United States during the 70's-80's; it is disappointing to read some of the positions put forward by "revolutionary" parties at the time on the question of support for gay and trans comrades.

[Beansism · Rating 5 out of 5]

Justifying points one today might think self-evident, it is interesting to see the leaps the ICM has gone through to arrive at a correct conclusion.

[Lina K. Menéndez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una vegada más, lesbianes maoístes soltando factos.

[Mary Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating queer marxist text. Only issue is that it was written before the AIDS epidemic so it's analysis of our place in capitalism is now incomplete. But again, required reading

[Rain Sailing · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a better polemic against the anti-gay positions adopted by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) and the October League (OL) than an concrete marxist analysis of the Gay Question. The book does not provide any concrete answers as to the origin of homophobia, the material history of homosexuality, or the current positions of gays in the capitalist world-system. While this book is not totally useless, I think it's usage is limited to refuting those who continue to uphold homophobic political lines from the New Communist Movement. As only a very few people parrot these positions today on the Left, I do not believe that this provides a very good starting point for people wanting to understand the oppression of gays under capitalism.