Homonationalism Before Homonationalism: Representations of Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union in the U.S. Homophile Press, 1953–1964

Abstract

This essay focuses on representations of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe in U.S. homophile periodicals from 1953 to 1964. Extending the application of Jasbir Puar’s concept of homonationalism to the Cold War period, the essay examines 128 articles and other items that were published in ONE, Mattachine Review, and The Ladder and demonstrates that these periodicals often engaged in homonationalist discourses when constructing the Russian, Soviet, and Eastern European “other.” Negative constructions of these regions were sometimes used to affirm the political alignment of the homophile authors with the American nation. At other times, negative constructions were used in comparative assessments that critiqued both the United States and the Soviet and Eastern European regions. In contrast, positive constructions of Russian, Soviet, and Eastern European peoples and cultures were used as evidence that non-heteronormative desires and bodies had legitimate places in many “primitive” cultures and existed across all nations and periods.