{"product_id":"communists-in-closets-bettina-aptheker-9781032043098","title":"Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s-1990s","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCommunists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s-1990s\u003c\/em\u003e explores the history of gay, lesbian, and non-heterosexual people in the Communist Party in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe 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 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, \u003ci\u003eThe New Masses. \u003c\/i\u003eBased 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.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis book will be of interest to students, scholars, and general readers in political history, gender studies, and the history of sexuality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Bettina Aptheker\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1032043091\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781032043098\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Routledge\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/09\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 270\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.17lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d","brand":"Bettina Aptheker","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44070898106623,"sku":"9781032043098","price":170.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_8e9dde72-8db7-456a-a9ca-384853d62c29.jpg?v=1685432973","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/communists-in-closets-bettina-aptheker-9781032043098","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}