Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s–1990s
Bettina Aptheker
May 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Ann Sprinkle
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13 hr 33 min
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About this audiobook
The Communist Party banned lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from membership beginning in 1938 when it cast them off as "degenerates." It persisted in this policy until 1991. During this sixty-year ban, gays and lesbians who did join the Communist Party were deeply closeted within it, as well as in their public lives as both queer and Communist. By the late 1930s, the Communist Party had a membership approaching 100,000 and tens of thousands more people moved in its orbit through the Popular Front against fascism, anti-racist organizing, especially in the south, and its widely read cultural magazine, the New Masses. Based on a decade of archival research, correspondence, and interviews, Bettina Aptheker explores this history, also pulling from her own experience as a closeted lesbian in the Communist Party in the 1960s and '70s. Ironically, and in spite of this homophobia, individual Communists laid some of the political and theoretical foundations for lesbian and gay liberation and women's liberation, and contributed significantly to peace, social justice, civil rights, and Black and Latinx liberation movements. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and anyone interested in political history, gender studies, and the history of sexuality.
About the author
Bettina Aptheker is Distinguished Professor Emerita, feminist studies department, University of California, Santa Cruz, United States. She is the author of: Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech and Became A Feminist Rebel; and The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis.
As a seasoned performer, singer, and voice actor, Ann Sprinkle's voice has been described as warm, clear, friendly, fun, engaging, soulful, uplifting, and "sunshine in a voice." Her storytelling credits include the narration of multiple audiobooks, voice-over, film, and leading and supportive roles in opera and theater.
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