Another fun fact: while Stalin-era USSR policies returned to “family values” and criminalizing queer identities, it is entirely inaccurate to say that the decriminalization of queerness was a “side-effect” of abolishing tsarist anti-sodomy laws. Post-October Revolution, the USSR was incredibly purposeful in not reinstating anti-sodomy laws (which were in effect in most of the world at the time). Grigorii Batkiss, the Director for the Institute of Social Hygiene in Moscow, outlined the Bolshevik stance on sexual identity in 1923: “It declares the absolute non-interference of the state and society into sexual matters, so long as nobody is injured, and no one’s interests are encroached upon.” In 1925, Dr. Batkiss participated in the World League for Sexual Reform, and wrote The Sexual Revolution in Russia. The World League promoted sexual rights for men and women, abortion access, freedom from patriarchal sexual roles, and tolerance of alternative sexual lifestyles.
While concrete evidence of this part is hard to track down, Sean Egan mentions in The Bolsheviks and the Sexual Revolution that part of the Soviet reframing of marriages included secular marriages, with reports of same-sex secular marriages being established.
This was no by-product, but a concerted Soviet effort to rethink sexual identity and freedom. As for trans people: post-Revolution women were known to change their names, wear men’s clothes, partner with other women, take on “men’s” jobs in the military and heavy industry. And there were doctors who could apply for permission to perform rudimentary gender affirmation surgeries, as well, which were cutting edge at the time, and a result of close partnership with Herschfield’s Institute.
Oh sorry didn’t see this comment, I put a source for it in a reply to myself because I wanted to follow up. It was talked about in a lot of trans publications at the time, and in a lot of trans conferences (which have very sparse documentation on the modern internet)
Regardless we(and hopefully anyone thinking objectively) can see that the DDR while nowhere near perfect was far better on LGBT+ issues than their captalist western counterparts
Not (just) because of the attitudes of potentiates but because one system over the other enabled the progression in equality and equity of all groups and peoples
The DDR did have government-funded surgery for trans people, no need to assume they would have.
This is from the FTM Newsletter (which was one of the biggest sources of trans info at the time) Issue #12, June 1990.
Fucking fuck, fuck, fuck, FUUUUUUCK. How could we fuck this up so badly…
Another fun fact: while Stalin-era USSR policies returned to “family values” and criminalizing queer identities, it is entirely inaccurate to say that the decriminalization of queerness was a “side-effect” of abolishing tsarist anti-sodomy laws. Post-October Revolution, the USSR was incredibly purposeful in not reinstating anti-sodomy laws (which were in effect in most of the world at the time). Grigorii Batkiss, the Director for the Institute of Social Hygiene in Moscow, outlined the Bolshevik stance on sexual identity in 1923: “It declares the absolute non-interference of the state and society into sexual matters, so long as nobody is injured, and no one’s interests are encroached upon.” In 1925, Dr. Batkiss participated in the World League for Sexual Reform, and wrote The Sexual Revolution in Russia. The World League promoted sexual rights for men and women, abortion access, freedom from patriarchal sexual roles, and tolerance of alternative sexual lifestyles.
While concrete evidence of this part is hard to track down, Sean Egan mentions in The Bolsheviks and the Sexual Revolution that part of the Soviet reframing of marriages included secular marriages, with reports of same-sex secular marriages being established.
This was no by-product, but a concerted Soviet effort to rethink sexual identity and freedom. As for trans people: post-Revolution women were known to change their names, wear men’s clothes, partner with other women, take on “men’s” jobs in the military and heavy industry. And there were doctors who could apply for permission to perform rudimentary gender affirmation surgeries, as well, which were cutting edge at the time, and a result of close partnership with Herschfield’s Institute.
Source on that? I don’t disbelieve you, Weimar Germany was on the cutting edge of trans liberation and gender-confirming surgeries
Magnus Hirschfeld having performed some of the first gender confirming surgeries, and was one of the first to have their work burned by the Nazis
And some within the DDR revived this tendency, despite internal and more significant external pressure
Oh sorry didn’t see this comment, I put a source for it in a reply to myself because I wanted to follow up. It was talked about in a lot of trans publications at the time, and in a lot of trans conferences (which have very sparse documentation on the modern internet)
Hadn’t seen that when I’d replied, thank you
Regardless we(and hopefully anyone thinking objectively) can see that the DDR while nowhere near perfect was far better on LGBT+ issues than their captalist western counterparts
Not (just) because of the attitudes of potentiates but because one system over the other enabled the progression in equality and equity of all groups and peoples