This is a old post saved from reddit.

USSR AND LGBT

Contrary to popular belief,the USSR did not have any anti-LGBTQ laws.

Article 121 was designed as an anti-pederasty law. If you look at the law text,it mentions or at least implies pedophilia.

To quote The Sangha kommune:

Article 121, despite its curious reading, appears to have been designed to protect Soviet society from the menace of child abuse and paedophilia, although it is recorded that Soviet academia was interested in the practice of homosexuality from a medical perspective, and attempting to ascertain its root cause (with a number of early Soviet researchers following the Czarist assumption of aberration). This did not mean that homosexuals were persecuted – far from it – the general underlying trend in the USSR was to end all oppression, and facilitate the integration of the individual into the collective.

https://thesanghakommune.org/2016/12/28/the-ussr-and-homosexuality-article-21/

Stalin himself wasn't homophobic either, Georgy Chicherin,a known Homosexual Bolshevik,was a close Comrade of Stalin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Chicherin

At one point, Chicherin announced that he wanted improved relations with foreign countries to encourage investment,this policy was enthusiastically supported by Joseph Stalin,and he said this:

"it can hardly be doubted that Comrade Chicherin is better informed about the mood in foreign investment circles that any of us" - J.V Stalin

Reiman, Michal: Birth of Stalinism, pp. 39-40 John Holroyd-Doveton Maxim Litvinov p 99

There's no evidence that Stalin was homophobic in any Russian language text

https://thesanghakommune.org/2017/07/07/on-why-stalin-was-not-a-homophobe/

There's no objective, verifiable evidence of a persecution of homosexuals in the USSR

To quote Sangha Kommune again:

Research By Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD

The fact that the Soviet Union was considered enlightened and tolerant demonstrates that these laws were not applied as a deliberate attack upon homosexuals – although in the 1930’s, certain homosexual activity became associated with specific counter-revolutionary activity. In this regard, homosexuals who strove to bring-down the USSR were treated as ‘criminals’ – just as their heterosexual colleagues. Soviet records demonstrate that Joseph Stalin... was responding to various police reports about contemporary counter-revolutionary activities (usually within major cities). ACW 5.1.2016

Modern (capitalist) Russia has now imported much of the anti-Soviet Cold War disinformation fabricated by the US (and her allies) between 1945 – 1991. As a result, many modern Russian authors side with the reactionary forces of capitalism and adopt this pseudo-history as their own (apparently not realising its ‘racist’ anti-Slavic nature). The above article is anti-Soviet and is designed to give the impression that the USSR carried-out a continued pogrom against homosexuals – even though its author continuously states that there is no evidence to support his claims. Indeed, the only evidence the author can muster is ‘Western’ Cold War authors whose work – as pieces of official fiction – contain no Russian language sources. However, I have quoted this piece where I have been able to verify the facts within Russian language sources. It remains informative on two counts, 1) as a narrative history of homosexuality in Russia from early times to present, and 2) as a study of modern (Russian) anti-Soviet literature. I have found no objective, verifiable evidence of a deliberate persecution of homosexuals in the USSR. ACW 29.10.2018

https://thesanghakommune.org/2017/01/05/the-ussr-and-homosexuality-part-iii-rsfsr-article-154a/

Hope this helps.