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Capitalism & Homophobia

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Capitalism & Homophobia 1 Marxism and the Struggle for Gay/Lesbian Rights Capitalism & Homophobia Revolutionists must seek to understand the gay ques- democratic rights and the oppressed was integral to tion for both scientific and programmatic reasons. Marx- Bolshevism. Lenin explicitly disagreed with the notion ists have always sought to understand society as a that as a Marxist, you should ‘‘concern yourself only whole, and to develop a historical materialist analysis of with your own class,’’ and rejected the Menshevik’s all social phenomena----from the relations of production advice to ‘‘abandon ‘Blanquist dreams’ of leading all the to religion, the family and so on. As Lenin noted in What revolutionary elements of the people....’’ (Collected Is To Be Done?, it is not sufficient to give attention only Works, v. 16). to questions immediately affecting the proletariat: The classical case in which the issue of the Marxist ‘‘The consciousness of the working masses cannot be vanguard as tribune of the people was posed was the genuine class-consciousness, unless the workers learn, Dreyfus case. In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish from concrete, and above all from topical, political facts officer of the French general staff, was court-martialed and events to observe every other social class in all the for treason, degraded, and sent to prison. When it sub- manifestations of its intellectual, ethical, and political life; unless they learn to apply in practice the materialist analy- sequently became clear that he was innocent, the right- sis and the materialist estimate of all aspects of the life and wing, clericalist, anti-Semitic general staff did their best activity of all classes, strata, and groups of the popula- to suppress the truth. Throughout 1898-99 there were tion.’’ frequent street clashes between the Dreyfusards (intel- We uphold the Leninist conception of a party of the lectuals, socialists and bourgeois radicals) and the proletariat as the ‘‘tribune of the people,’’ which seeks to French right. While some leftists argued that the work- lead the working class in the fight against all forms of ing class had no interest in defending a bourgeois mili- oppression under capitalism, and to link the struggles of tary officer who had no connection to the workers’ the oppressed to the struggle for working-class rule. movement, this conflict shook the Third Republic almost Marxists oppose all capitalist oppression, and in that to its foundations. The majority of French socialists un- spirit clearly oppose the persecution of both male and derstood that it was important to uphold democratic female homosexuals and others who are oppressed on rights and to connect this struggle to the movement the basis of sexually related behaviour, such as transves- against capitalist rule. tites and transsexuals, sado-masochists, etc. As long as Historically homosexuality has been persecuted be- there is informed consent between participants, we ada- cause of its ‘‘unnaturalness,’’ and the supposed threat it mantly oppose state intervention. poses to the reproduction of the species. These two Capitalism does not concentrate the pain it causes in rationalizations are in fact closely related, as what is a single identifiable class easily mobilized as a united supposed ‘‘unnatural’’ about homosexual activity is that force. If that were the case our task would be simple. it is not procreative. In fact there is no reason to think Capitalism distributes its pain in seemingly chaotic pat- that homosexuality has any more impact on reproduc- terns, leaving its victims to fight for their interests in tive statistics than recreational heterosexual intercourse, isolation, each separated from the others----disabled masturbation or celibacy. groups, immigrants, religious minorities, the elderly It is simply not possible to know for sure how organic and the young. It is the task of the revolutionary party and social conditions interact to determine sexual pref- to champion the interests of all the oppressed, and to erence, although, while there is no demonstrated bio- organize their struggles around the axis of proletarian logical function for a unidirectional sexuality, it is clear revolution. that in contemporary society there is very substantial Tribune of the People social pressure encouraging an exclusively heterosexual orientation. A more tolerant social atmosphere may lead As Lenin explained, a Marxist must be a: to an increase in homosexual behavior, but that does not ‘‘...tribune of the people, who is able to react to every mani- necessarily imply an increase in the proportion of people festation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it appears, no matter what stratum or class of the people it with a homosexual preference, or a decline in reproduc- affects; who is able to generalise all these manifestations tively significant heterosexual behavior. Certainly the and produce a single picture of police violence and capi- need to reproduce the human population is not threat- talist exploitation; who is able to take advantage of every ened by homosexuality; the quantity of heterosexual event, however small, in order to set forth before all his activity necessary for reproductive purposes is a small socialist convictions and his democratic demands, in or- fraction of what goes on. der to clarify for all and everyone the world-historic sig- nificance of the struggle for the emancipation of the Homosexuality Before Capitalism proletariat.’’ ----What is to be Done? The intensity of social prejudice, and the legal sanc- This conception was not some temporary tactical tions employed against male and female homosexual stance adopted by the immature Lenin; the defense of behavior, has varied considerably with time and place. 2 On the whole, homosexuality (in particular patterns) dren for very long hours at subsistence wages proved an was accepted in classical antiquity. In 1980, a Yale Uni- impediment to the development of the nuclear family. versity professor, John Boswell, published Christianity, This is what the Manifesto described as ‘‘the bourgeois Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, which described clap-trap...about the hallowed co-relation of parent and how, from the mid-eleventh to the mid-twelfth century child’’ when the development of large-scale industry in Catholic Europe, there was a veritable flowering of meant that ‘‘all family ties among the proletarians are explicitly gay activity and writing, including erotic po- torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple etry, in the priesthood. This corresponded with the en- articles of commerce and instruments of labour.’’ forcement of the ban on priestly marriage, which until The absence of strongly patterned domestic arrange- that time had been permitted (as it still is in the Eastern ments in the early proletariat did not serve capitalism Church). Homosexual priests were among the strongest well. It did not prove easy to integrate childbearing, supporters of the ban on heterosexual marriage, but the nursing and child-raising into the factories and other fundamental basis for the shift was the need for the enterprises. Over time, bourgeois society accepted that church to adapt itself to the feudal mode of production. these functions could best be carried on outside the In most feudal societies land was inherited by the eldest factory. This is the material basis of the proletarian nu- son, and that principle could have rapidly depleted clear family. That is its origin, and even today that is its church landholdings. Consequently it was necessary to sustenance. prevent the clergy from marrying and having sons. The historical development of the family was condi- The outlawing of heterosexual activity in the priest- tioned by the necessity for socializing young proletari- hood required either accepting homosexuality as a ans, looking after the aged, and providing healthcare norm, or, alternatively, banning homosexual activity as and emotional support for the laboring population. It well. The matter was decided at the Third Lateran Coun- was shaped ideologically by the practices of the ruling cil in 1179, which imposed sanctions against homosexu- class (developed earlier to meet its own needs). ality. The decision was not immediately reflected in local The nuclear family also provided a measure of social legal codes, but between 1250 and 1300 sodomy passed cohesion and stability for the bourgeois order. A male from being legal to being punishable by death in most wage earner, demeaned at work, could accept his lot countries in feudal Europe. more readily if he had his personal needs met at home Although its origins lay in the requirements of the where he was ‘‘boss.’’ He thereby became an important church, it is hardly surprising that the doctrine of sod- participant in moulding the next generation of workers omy as a particularly iniquitous sin applied universally, into acceptance of the hierarchical nature of class society. or that it soon became an ecclesiastical crime for the At the same time his domestic responsibilities reinforced whole population, and later a crime before the king’s the power of the employer----a worker had to consider courts. Neither is it to be wondered at that there was an his dependent wife and children before slugging the uneven tendency over time for the prohibition gradually foreman or voting to go on strike. to lose its force. For all its utility, however, the nuclear family proved difficult to entrench in the proletariat, and required Capitalism and the Nuclear Family considerable ideological as well as legal and material support. In England there were a battery of props----from Persecution of homosexuals declined from the 14th to the Factory Acts limiting hours of work for women and 19th centuries, and then increased sharply in the late children, to the emphasis on plebeian chastity, temper- 1800s. This outburst of homophobia was clearly linked ance and self-sacrifice by the various non-conformist to the promotion of the nuclear family as the social norm, Christian denominations.
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