One of the things that puzzles me is that modern day left leaning americans are without exceptions extreme pro-LGBT but nothing such I have ever heard about communist countries in the last century. How come ?
There's always more to write, but in the meantime this answer by u/goyims might be of interest:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/93xjmq/comment/e3h9p17
Thought work was at the core of Maoist ideological practice. By working to think the right thoughts, a person could mold themselves into a "progressive," ideologically correct worker. In the words of "Mao-ish" political theorist Franz Schurmann:
> Given the importance of sixiang in Chinese Communist ideology, it is clear that the Chinese Communists have paid particular attention to the thinking of individuals. This is obvious in the practice of thought reform in Communist China. In accordance with orthodox Marxist theory, the Chinese Communists regard the thought of individuals as arising from a class-determined social matrix. If a man is bourgeois, this thought will be bourgeois…However, it is possible for an individual to change that status after having undergone thought reform and produce “Correct thought.” Thus, a bourgeois, before thought reform, will “naturally” have bourgeois thought. But, by combining “correct theory and practice,” he can transform himself…”
The belief in the infinite malleability of thought is combined in Maoist doctrine with the ideological determination to raise socially constructive thoughts and strivings above individualist or "selfish" thoughts. This is captured in numerous Cultural Revolution slogans: become a "never-rusting screw" or "vanquish every last moment of individual thought" (these are my own lousy translations; the Chinese sounds better so sorry about that!). As such, anyone who sought to overindulge in individualist desires--whether sexual, romantic, or even for good food and wine was suspect of bourgeois tendencies. Party Committees were constantly on the lookout for "wasteful consumption" or "indulgence" and encouraged thrift and abstinence. (There were practical reasons for this that were probably more important than the ideological reasons but that's a subject for another post.) See: the Collected archives of the Wenzhou Communist Party Committee.
Homosexuality alone would not get you labeled as a counterrevolutionary. And a few homosexual dalliances were unlikely to result in serious punishment. Like overdoing it at a party, throwing your parents a fancy funeral, or gambling now and again--as long as you didn't overdo it the authorities were likely to let a few encounters slide. But anyone caught engaging in too much homosexuality, or heavens forbid a relationship, was in danger of being labeled as a "bad element," i.e. one who was so thoroughly tarnished by bourgeois vice that they would be detrimental to building socialism. See Yang Kuisong's article in Maoism at the Grassroots.
All that said, there has not been enough research on this topic. We have a lot of incredible scholarship about Qing and Republican sexuality, but far less on the Mao era. If this is a topic you are considering pursuing, I cannot encourage you strongly enough.
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