View source for Desecularization and politics

=== Secular leftism and anti-homosexuality ===

''See also:'' [[Atheism and the suppression of homosexuality]] 

Although not many contemporary secular leftists are aware, historically there have been notable cases of [[communist]] countries that have had a history of anti-homosexuality (see: [[Atheism and the suppression of homosexuality]]).

See also: [[Atheism and historical illiteracy]] and [[Atheism and historical revisionism]]

==== Soviet Union ====

For example, in the [[Atheism and communism|atheistic communist]] state of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] (USSR),<ref name="Demchenko2009">{{cite book|last=Demchenko|first=Elena|title=Religion and Identity of Soviet Jewish Immigrants in the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8LM-4FWYg4C&pg=PA7|accessdate=28 April 2014|year=2009|publisher=ProQuest|isbn=9781109121865|page=7|quote=The USSR declared itself the first atheist state in the world that discouraged any religion and persecuted those who tried to contradict the Marxist ideology.}}</ref> "a person could end up in prison for being openly gay."<ref name="Shiraev2014">{{cite book|last=Shiraev|first=Eric|title=A History of Psychology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ck_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|accessdate=25 April 2014|date=2014-03-04|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=9781452276595|page=12|quote=In the Soviet Union before 1990, a person could end up in prison for being openly gay.}}</ref> This policy was enforced after 1934, and went hand in hand with the Soviet Union's official doctrine of [[militant atheism]].<ref name="Turgeon1989">{{cite book|last=Turgeon|first=Lynn|title=State & Discrimination: The Other Side of the Cold War|accessdate=25 April 2014|year=1989|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|language=English |isbn=9780765621733|page=67|quote=Homosexual acts between consenting males only became illegal in early 1934. To this day, some of these acts are punishable by five years' imprisonment. A highly publicized case occurred in 1974, when the celebrated Georgian movie director, Sergei Paradzhanov, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for practicing homosexuality and incitement to suicide. Historical, there has been extensive discrimination in the USSR on both religious and political grounds. Religious persecution and the pursuit of atheistic educational policies by the state were especially great before World War II and, particularly, after a resolution of April 8, 1929, "On Religious Cults."}}</ref> 

==== China ====

Although Chinese [[literature]] cites homosexual practice since ancient times as one that was fairly tolerated,<ref name="DrescherLingiardi2003">{{cite book|last1=Drescher|first1=Jack|last2=Lingiardi|first2=Vittorio|title=The Mental Health Professions and Homosexuality: International Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdAs9zZtzxoC&pg=PA117|accessdate=25 April 2014|date=2 June 2003|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780789020598|page=117|quote=Homosexuality was widespread, recognized and fairly tolerated, although not entirely accepted, in ancient China.}}</ref> after the [[Chinese Communist Party]], which officially espouses [[atheism]], came to power in 1949, homosexuality was deemed a sexual crime and then classified as an abnormal (''buzhengchang'') [[mental illness]].<ref name="KleinmanYan2011">{{cite book|last1=Kleinman|first1=Arthur|last2=Yan|first2=Yunxiang|last3=Jun|first3=Jing|coauthors=Sing Lee, Everett Zhang|title=Deep China: The Moral Life of the Person|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RUWZUa8ijvEC&pg=PA251|accessdate=25 April 2014|date=27 August 2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520950511|page=251|quote=Chinese literature citing homosexuality dates back to ancient times. After the Chinese Communist Party took over the country in 1949, homosexuality was deemed a sexual crime until 1997 and then classified as a mental disorder until 2001.}}</ref><ref name="GrimFinke2010">{{cite book|last1=Grim|first1=Brian J.|last2=Finke|first2=Roger|title=The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mofX6zdChgcC&pg=PA132|accessdate=25 April 2014|date=6 December 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139492416|page=132|quote=Atheism had long been the official doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party, but this new form of militant atheism made every effort to eradicate religion completely.}}</ref> Under the [[Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution]], homosexuals experienced punishment that ranged from "[[forced labor|labor]] under surveillance to imprisonment for years".<ref name="DrescherLingiardi2003">{{cite book|last1=Drescher|first1=Jack|last2=Lingiardi|first2=Vittorio|title=The Mental Health Professions and Homosexuality: International Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdAs9zZtzxoC&pg=PA117|accessdate=25 April 2014|date=2 June 2003|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780789020598|page=117|quote=Arguably, this was the most sexually repressive period in the history of China. During this time, homosexual behavior could be grounds for persecution. Punishment ranged from labor under surveillance to imprisonment for years, depending upon the political atmosphere at the time and the mood of specific authorities. After the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s, as the government spent several years "rehabilitating" people who had been persecuted, those persecuted due to same-sex behaviors did not receive the same treatment (Wan, personal communication, 1997, 2001).}}</ref> Moreover, atheistic [[communist]] officials "when queried by foreign visitors, until recently simply denied that homosexuality existed in [[China]]".<ref name="Crompton2006">{{cite book|last=Crompton|first=Louis|title=Homosexuality and Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfBYd9xVaXcC&pg=PA244|accessdate=25 April 2014|year=2006|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674030060|page=244|quote=In Chinese history and literature, until the end of the Imperial age and the triumph of Marxism, men who loved men were depicted as good or bad, sympathetic or self-seeking, honest or dishonest, talented or undistinguished, but not set apart as a race to be humiliated, denounced, or extirpated. Under Communist rule, however, there has been a radical change. Chinese Communist officials, when queried by foreign visitors, until recently simply denied that homosexuality existed in China, the theory being that under a socialist economy social ills such as prostitution and homosexuality would vanish.}}</ref>

==== Cuba ====

The régime under militant atheist [[Fidel Castro]] "denounced homosexuality and established Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which patrolled neighborhoods and invaded private space."<ref name="Pickett2009">{{cite book|last=Pickett|first=Brent L.|title=The A to Z of Homosexuality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uRABiOI7itsC&pg=PA120|accessdate=28 April 2014|date=9 February 2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810870727|page=120|quote=Fidel Castro's regime denounced homosexuality and established Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which patrolled neighborhoods and invaded private space.}}</ref>