(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



LGBTQ Literature: Introducing a New Format [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-23

LGBTQ Literature is a Readers and Book Lovers series dedicated to highlighting literature that has made an impact on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. From fiction to contemporary nonfiction to history and everything in between, any literature that touches on LGBTQ themes is welcome in this series. LGBTQ Literature posts on the last Sunday of every month at 7:30 PM EST. If you are interested in writing for the series, please send a message to Chrislove.

Good evening, faithful LGBTQ Literature readers.

I’ve done a great deal of thinking since I published last month’s diary announcing a “reset” for this series. I’ve felt very strongly that I want to do something different with this series in 2025. While I do (and will continue to) recruit new writers whenever I can, realistically, I will likely continue to carry much of the weight for this series. In past years, I used it as an opportunity to write about essential books in LGBTQ historiography (since I am a historian by profession). Well, the simple fact of the matter is that I’ve pretty much exhausted all the “old” books I’m interested in writing about. Any new material for this series on my part will have to come from new (or, at least, new to me) books. And let me tell you, dear reader—I do not have time to read, digest, analyze, and review a book every month.

I realized that much as I sat down to read the book I intended to be the subject of this month’s diary, Red Closet: The Hidden History of Gay Oppression in the USSR by Rustam Alexander. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve found myself starting to panic as the time slipped away while I chipped away at the book, sometimes just a few pages at a time before my attention diverted to something else. I decided that what I need is a new approach entirely if this is going to be a sustainable series that doesn’t burn me out.

So here is what I’m going to try. I want to treat this series—or, at least the months that I write for it—as a kind of “book club.” If you’re a reader of this series, you’re a member of the book club already! And this should be obvious, but I want to stress that this is very much optional, and I’m not expecting there to be mass participation in this project. I’m not delusional. I can’t even get my students to read much of the time—I certainly don’t expect all of my LGBTQ Literature readers to do homework! But, if you’re interested, I would like to invite you to read the books along with me and come here to discuss them at the end of each month. If not, that’s totally fine. You can just come here and read the diary like you normally would (my diaries will still be written in my usual format). I just want to experiment with making this series a bit more interactive and even discussion-oriented, for anybody who wants to play along. And, as a major plus (for me), it will allow me to slow down my reading a bit, since we’ll cover each book in two or three parts.

I’m already reading it, so the first book this series will cover this year is Rustam Alexander’s Red Closet: The Hidden History of Gay Oppression in the USSR. I mentioned in last month’s “reset” diary that I want to really drill down on the subject of queer resistance. This book, in my opinion, couldn’t be a better choice to kick us off on that project. Here is the blurb:

In 1934, Joseph Stalin enacted sodomy laws, unleashing a wave of brutal detentions of homosexual men in large Soviet cities. Rustam Alexander recounts the compelling stories of people whose lives were directly affected by those laws, including a naïve Scottish journalist based in Moscow who dared to write to Stalin in an attempt to save his lover from prosecution, and a homosexual theatre student who came to Moscow in pursuit of a career amid Stalin's harsh repressions and mass arrests. We also meet a fearless doctor in Siberia who provided medical treatment for gay men at his own peril, and a much-loved Soviet singer who hid his homosexuality from the secret police. Each vignette helps paint the hitherto unknown picture of how Soviet oppression of gay people originated and was perpetuated from Stalin's rule until the demise of the USSR. This book comes at a time when homophobia is again rearing its ugly head under Putin's rule.

Alexander, a historian and independent scholar, is also the author of Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956-91: A Different History, which comes from his Ph.D. dissertation. As he explains in the preface to Red Closet, he decided to write the latter as a way to provide the masses with an easy-to-read queer history of the USSR without the academic jargon. So the book is very accessible and you don’t need to have any kind of specialized knowledge to read it.

I’m really enjoying the book so far, although I am only a few chapters in. It’s eye-opening, and a side of the Soviet Union I was not at all familiar with. I don’t think I even need to explain why this book is relevant to us in the United States today. As we LGBTQ people face an uncertain—and dangerous—future under the Trump regime, I believe it is of the utmost importance to study the lived experiences of people who have resisted state oppression before. And, if you choose to read along, you’ll see the similarities between past and present just jump right off the page (it’s actually quite alarming).

If you want to participate in this “book club,” I am planning to cover the preface, as well as the first two parts (“Under Stalin” and “Under Krushchev”), on March 30 (or the next time I write). The last two parts (“Under Brezhnev” and “Under Gorbachev”) will be covered on April 27 (or the next available date). As you can see, we’re moving chronologically! And, again, if you’re not interested in reading, please don’t let this put you off of the series. From your perspective, nothing is going to change except the books are going to be broken into parts. And, in my last diary on Red Closet, I will announce the next book we’ll cover. If you’re not interested in reading this one, maybe you’ll be interested in the next one!

This may well end up being a flop, and I may decide to do something else later. But I’m looking forward to trying a new approach. See you next month!

READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE

If you’re not already following Readers and Book Lovers, please go to our homepage (link), find the top button in the left margin, and click it to FOLLOW GROUP. Thank You and Welcome, to the most followed group on Daily Kos. Now you’ll get all our R&BLers diaries in your stream.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/23/2305680/-LGBTQ-Literature-Introducing-a-New-Format?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.