Table Of ContentCOMMUNISTS IN CLOSETS
Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s–1990s explores the history
of gay, lesbian, and non-heterosexual people in the Communist Party in the
United States.
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 60-year
ban, gays and lesbians who did join the Communist Party were deeply clos-
eted 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 dec-
ade of archival research, correspondence, and interviews, Bettina Aptheker
explores this history, also pulling from her own experience as a closeted les-
bian 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 general readers in
political history, gender studies, and the history of sexuality.
Bettina Aptheker is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Feminist Studies
Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. She is the author of
Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech and Became A Feminist
Rebel (2006); and The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis (1976; second
edition 1999).
“Bettina Aptheker’s personal history of gay and lesbian people and the
Communist Party is essential and transformative in enlightening our
understanding of gay, Black, and women’s liberation visions in America.
She shows how queer desires for freedom were so expansive, that they
were propelled by both the party’s political visions of justice and the
cruelties of its organizational prejudices to create entirely new liber-
ation formations. Aptheker traces the invention of Gay Liberation in
America, the first Women’s Studies class, the founding of Parents of
gays solidarity organizations, lesbian music, and the first play by a Black
woman on Broadway – all sprouting from queer Communist origins.
This is a book that makes connections and fills gaps, defies stigma and
defies historical silence.”
Sarah Schulman, author of Let the Record Show:
A History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993 (2021)
“This book is at once a deeply personal portrait of Bettina Aptheker
and her struggles as a gay woman in the Communist movement, but
also a generous, appreciative and carefully historicized portrait of the
many others who were gay, feminist, and Communist. The chapter on
Lorraine Hansberry is especially enriched by Aptheker’s triple vision.”
Mary Helen Washington, Distinguished University Professor,
English, University of Maryland, College Park, author of
The Other Blacklist: The African American Literary and
Cultural Left of the 1950s.
“Through vivid personal reminiscences and extensive archival research,
Aptheker draws out the hidden histories of gay and lesbian participation
in American communist movements, even as the Party remained hostile
to that possibility. From pre-Stonewall labor and social welfare causes to
the origins of gay liberation and beyond, she reveals, queer communists
played key roles on the Left. Her biographical approach provides rich
texture for understanding how both famous and previously unknown
activists navigated the tensions between their political and sexual identi-
ties, and how they influenced American history and culture.”
Estelle Freedman, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States
History, Emeriti, Stanford University, coauthor of
Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America.
“In this revelatory study, Bettina Aptheker gives us a superb model of
lesbian-feminist scholarship, distinguished by rigorous use of archival
materials and written from the heart. Succeeding generations will find
here the historical foundations upon which to build new, more inclu-
sive, movements for social justice.”
Julia M. Allen, Professor emerita of English, Sonoma State
University, author of Passionate Commitments:
The Lives of Anna Rochester and Grace Hutchins.
“With Communists in Closets Bettina Aptheker has given us a work that
is bound to be a classic in the history of the American Left. Combining
intricate historical detective work with analytical rigor and a biogra-
pher’s skill in individual storytelling, Aptheker reveals the hidden his-
tory of gay and lesbian radicals who had remained closeted as members
of America’s homophobic Communist Party and Communist Left.
Aptheker’s deep knowledge of the CP, her sensitivity to and under-
standing of the LGBT experience, combine with her brilliant archival
work to make this history not merely comprehensible but profoundly
moving and memorable.”
Robert Cohen, Professor of Social Studies,
Steinhardt Affiliated Professor, History Department,
New York University, and coauthor of Rethinking America’s Past:
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, 2021.
“With this important book, Bettina Aptheker takes us on an amaz-
ing journey of heart and history. Closeted and secreted for genera-
tions, advocates of socialism, anarchism communism – and LGBTQ
folks were hidden from history. Filled with stunning new informa-
tion, countless surprises, bold connections, Bettina’s life and research
enhances our understanding of some of the most creative and interest-
ing lives of our long-denied culture. This is a delightful book needed
now and for the future.”
Blanche Wiesen Cook, John Jay College & Graduate Center,
CUNY, author of ELEANOR ROOSEVELT,
vols I, II, and III among other works.
“Bettina Aptheker’s Communists in Closets is an insightful history of the
lived experiences of queer Communists in the United States. While her
archival digs into the lives of Harry Hay, Lorraine Hansberry, Betty
Millard, and many more would be reason enough to devour this book,
readers will be delighted to find Aptheker’s own story woven throughout
the narrative, lending an important first-person perspective to her rich
biographical archaeology. Written with good humor and a keen sense
of what might have been, Aptheker reminds readers of the complicated
pressures that shaped the lives and politics of queer Communists in the
twentieth century – and how they responded with grace, courage, and
perseverance.”
Aaron Lecklider, Professor, American Studies, College of
Liberal Arts, University of Massachusetts, Boston, author
of Love’s Next Meeting: The Forgotten History of Homosexuality
and the Left in American Culture.
“Deeply personal and thoroughly researched, Bettina Aptheker’s
ground-breaking book opens the closet door to the rich queer history
of the U.S. Communist Party. Through portraits of dynamic leftists—
Black and white—such as early gay rights activist Henry ‘Harry’ Hay,
Communist Party activists Elizabeth (Betty) Millard and Eleanor Flexner,
and playwright Lorraine Hansberry, Communists in Closets provides a new
model for historical writing on the U.S. Left and LGBTQ movements.”
Erik S. McDuffie, Associate Professor, African American Studies,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, author of Sojourning
for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism,
and the Making of Black Left Feminism.
“Combining personal recollections with impressive archival research,
Aptheker has reconstructed the lives of inspiring social justice activ-
ists whose true selves remained hidden due to pervasive homophobia.
Communists in Closets deeply enriches our understanding of the history
of the Communist left and of LGBTQ life in the United States.”
John D’Emilio, Professor Emeritus, History;
Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Illinois,
Chicago, author of Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood:
Coming of Age in the Sixties.
COMMUNISTS IN
CLOSETS
Queering the History 1930s–1990s
Bettina Aptheker
Cover image: Jenny Q. Sandrof, Blue Heron Design Group.
Photo courtesy of Giselle Tsering (photographer).
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Bettina Aptheker
The right of Bettina Aptheker to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Aptheker, Bettina, author.
Title: Communists in closets : queering the history 1930s-1990s /
Bettina Aptheker.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022013326 (print) | LCCN 2022013327 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032043098 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032035840
(paperback) | ISBN 9781003191391 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Communist Party of the United States of
America–History. | Communist Party of the United States
of America–Membership. | Sexual minorities–United
States–History.
Classification: LCC HX89 .A78 2023 (print) | LCC HX89 (ebook) |
DDC 335.00973–dc23/eng/20220505 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2022013326LC ebook record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2022013327
ISBN: 978-1-032-04309-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-03584-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-19139-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003191391
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
For Kate
I lift up my heart and rejoice
Shantideva
CONTENTS
List of Figures x
Acknowledgments xii
1 Introduction: What Is Found There: In the Archives
and in Life 1
2 Stonewalled: Gay Liberation and Communist Silence 47
3 Harry Hay (1912–2002): “Welcome, My Dears”:
A Communist, Radical Faerie in a Revolutionary Quest 81
4 Elizabeth (Betty) Boynton Millard (1911–2010):
A Passion for Women and a Global Sisterhood 104
5 Eleanor Flexner (1908–1995): Living the Unnamed:
Scholarship, Activism, and a Boston Marriage 141
6 Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965): Freedom in Mind 171
7 The Communist Party Ban Ends: Stories of the
1990s and 2000s 220
Afterword: A Labor of Love 247
Index 251
