Queer As Art issue 2 April-May-June 2017 | Page 31

But despite the government’s best efforts,
ideas of sexual revolution inherited from
the West, were beginning to seep into
socialist states by the 60s. This process
was different depending on each country.
In countries that were situated closer to
the USSR, and hence felt the influence of
state socialism on a stronger level, the
liberalization of morals happened much
more slowly and insignificantly. But even in
the USSR, family values were marginally
relaxed during the 60s, with divorce
procedures being made easier under the
Krutschev rule. In the beginning of the
70s, homosexuality emerged as a topic
that could be discussed. Of course, this
was only so long as it wasn't being painted
as something positive, but it was still a
step away from the overwhelming taboo
that it still was. For example, the poem
Moscow to the end of the line, published
in the USSR in 1973 by writer and satirist
Yerofeyev, included a monologue about
homosexuality in its last pages.
Meanwhile, in East Germany and
most other socialist states, homosexuality
stopped being outlawed during the 60s
and the 70s: 1961 in Hungary, 1962 in
Czechoslovakia, 1968 in Bulgaria and
1977 for Croatia, Montenegro as well as
Slovenia. This was due to intellectuals’ and
scientists’ ideas changing. In
Czechoslovakia especially, the
psychologist and researcher Kurt Freund
specialized in sexology, and was one of
t h e fi r s t t o v o c a l l y a d v o c at e t h at
homosexuality isn't a pathology but simply
an erotic preference, and that
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re a s s i g n m e n t t h e ra p y i s n o t o n l y
ineffective, but also harmful. What explains
the marginal liberalism in these countries
is the spread of idea of individualization
imported from the West. Against the ideas
of the uniformization that had been
enforced for more than half a century,
people were slowly beginning to demand
some diversity in terms of clothing, TV,
taste in music... However, this was still
done under close governmental control,
and was coupled with an increase in police
surveillance. But the liberalization of the
way of life had already been started. A
telling example is the one of a Hungarian
women's magazine (similar to Cosmo) that
led a social experiment on university
s t