The connection between left-wing ideologies and LGBTQ rights struggles has a long and mixed history. The status of LGBTQ people in socialist states have varied throughout history.

Scientific and utopian socialism

The first currents of modern socialist thought emerged in Europe in the early 19th century. They are now often described with the phrase utopian socialism. Gender and sexuality were significant concerns for many of the leading thinkers such as Charles Fourier and Henri de Saint-Simon in France and Robert Owen in Britain as well as their followers, many of whom were women. Fourier believed, for example, that true freedom could only occur without masters, without the ethos of work, and without suppressing passions; the suppression of passions is not only destructive to the individual, but to society as a whole. Writing before the advent of the term 'homosexuality', Fourier recognized that both men and women have a wide range of sexual needs and preferences which may change throughout their lives, including same-sex sexuality and androgénité. He argued that all sexual expressions should be enjoyed as long as people are not abused or hurt, and that "affirming one's difference" can actually enhance social integration.Charles Fourier, Le Nouveau Monde amoureux (written 1816-18, not published widely until 1967: Paris: Éditions Anthropos). pp. 389, 391, 429, 458, 459, 462, and 463.

Alongside other prominent thinkers at the time, Fourier believed scientific understanding to be a standard of any society to live up to. Émile Durkheim is known for being one of the first people to provide the idea of having to understand utopian socialism with the rise of social sciences; however, through further evaluation of these thinkings Fourier and Saint-Simon were not seen as heads of the emerging scientific socialist movement. With integration of scientific thought into a social perspective, there would be further discourse within the topics of family, education and especially sexuality. Fourier in particular had a doctrine specifically detailing complexities surrounding the full expression of human passions. The doctrine that Fourier expresses some of these views is known in French as Nouveau monde amoureux, which means New World in Love. The ideas expressed by early utopian socialists would help influence many women to become a part of the movement and were quite instrumental towards the emergence of the feminist movement. The idea of social reshaping was matching the thinking of utopian socialism. In fact, the reemergence of Fouriers works in the 1960s would contribute further to the rising movements of feminism and LGBT because of interest in sexual liberties. Durkheim was known to show concern through a more scientific approach rather than a political one. He was also very adamant about the significance of the study of Sociology as it was believed to shape the humanist subjects of philosophy, history and psychology. Durkheim is also known for establishing L'Année Sociologique, which is the first journal of social science in France in 1898.

Germany From the earliest European homosexual rights movements, activists such as Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and Magnus Hirschfeld approached the Left for support. During the 1860s, Ulrichs wrote to Karl Marx and sent him a number of books on Uranian (homosexual/transgender) emancipation, and in 1869, Marx passed one of Ulrichs' books on to Friedrich Engels.Most of the information on this incident is taken from: Kennedy, Hubert, Johann Baptist von Schweitzer: The Queer Marx Loved to Hate. In: 'Journal of Homosexuality' (ISSN 0091-8369) Volume: 29 Issue: 2/3, pp 69-96. Hereafter, original sources cited by Kennedy are given. Engels responded with disgust to Marx in a private letter, lashing out at "pederasts" who are "extremely against nature", and described Ulrichs' platform of homosexual rights as "turning smut into theory". He worried that things would go badly for heterosexuals like himself should homosexual rights be gained.The letter, dated June 22, 1869, is published in Marx, Karl, Engels, Friedrich: Collected Works, vols. 42, 43 (New York: International,1988), 43: 295–96

Both Marx and Engels have tangled with the idea of liberty pertaining to love and have made these ideas public. A small time after the death of Marx, Engels had said "that with every great revolutionary movement the question of 'free love' comes to the foreground." This is due to the known rejection of the family institution for the purpose of that free love notion as described by Engels. This would in turn spark much opposition towards the socialist movement by the German government by instituting laws from the mid to late 1800s outlawing any attack whether physical or verbal on the institution of family. Much of this work pushed by Marx and Engels was influential to the leader of the socialist women's movement in the late 1800s. It is from the work with Marx and the work produced after the death of Marx that Engels had been able to influence a plethora of socialist thinkers as well as those who belong to feminist thinking. The work consisting of the family dynamic had Marx and Engels express their concerns under three main points which were showing the hypocrisy surrounding the institution of the family especially within bourgeois, the historical context surrounding the beginning of families, and look into the future of families under a communist state. Most thinkers belonging to Marxism would then realize that Marx and Engels were set on dismantling the institution of the family. In 1843–1844, Marx had been introduced to these ideas surrounding the institution of families in Paris because of fellow socialist thinkers such as Charles Fourier that had immense influence among social thinkers in France. Fourier had also previously published writings specifying his stance on families and the favoring of replacing monogamous marriages in order to suit what Fourier called a "Greater latitude of sexual passions" and this work producing such notions was in a piece named Oeuvres Completes, its first volume published in 1841. This would also in turn promote some influence for future socialist thinkers who happen to be a part of pro-LGBT movements across the world.

Known to both Ulrichs and Marx was the case of Jean Baptista von Schweitzer, an important labor organizer who had been charged with attempting to solicit a teenage boy in a park in 1862. Social democratic leader Ferdinand Lassalle defended Schweitzer on the grounds that while he personally found homosexuality to be dirty, the labor movement needed the leadership of Schweitzer too much to abandon him, and that a person's sexual tastes had "absolutely nothing to do with a man's political character".Linsert, Richard. 1931. Kabale und Liebe: Uber Politik und Geschlechtsleben. Berlin, Man. Schweitzer would go on to become President of the German Labor Union, and the first Social Democrat elected to a parliament in Europe.

August Bebel's Woman under Socialism (1879), the "single work dealing with sexuality most widely read by rank-and-file members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)",Hekma et al. (1995). p. 14 can be seen as another example of the ambiguous position towards homosexuality in the German labor movement. On the one hand, Bebel warned socialists of the dangers of same-sex love. Bebel attributed "this crime against nature" in both men and women to sexual indulgence and excess, describing it as an upper-class, metropolitan and foreign vice.Bebel, August (1879). Woman under Socialism. translated by Daniel De Leon, New York: New York Labor Press, 1904. pp 164 - 165. In a footnote added in 1909, he remarked that the Eulenburg scandal proved that homosexuality was widespread in the upper classes. On the other hand, he publicly supported the efforts to legalize homosexuality. For example, he signed the first petition of the "Wissenschaftlich-humanitärer Kreis", a study group led by Magnus Hirschfeld, trying to explain homosexuality from a scientific point of view and pushing for decriminalization.Hirschfeld, Magnus (2000) The Homosexuality of Men and Women. Prometheus Books In an article for Gay News in 1978, John Lauritsen considers August Bebel as the first important politician "to speak out in public debate" in the favor of gay rights since he attacked the criminalization of homosexuality in a Reichstag debate in 1898.

The leading figure of the LGBT movement in Germany from the turn of the 20th century until the Nazi government came to power in 1933 was undoubtedly Magnus Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld, who was also a socialist and supporter of the women's movement, formed the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee to campaign against German Penal Code Section 175 which outlawed male-male sex. Hirschfeld's organization did a deal with the SPD (of which Lassalle and Schweitzer had been members) to get them to put forward a bill in the Reichstag in 1898, but it was opposed in the Reichstag and failed to pass. Most of Hirschfeld's circle of homosexual activists had socialist politics, including Kurt Hiller, Richard Linsert, Johanna Elberskirchen and Bruno Vogel. After the toppling of the German monarchy, the struggle against § 175 was continued by some social democrats. The German Minister of Justice Gustav Radbruch, member of the Social Democratic Party, tried to erase the paragraph from the German penal law; however, his efforts were to no avail. Also, some Queer cinema began to emerge to show what life for a gay individual was like in West Germany. These characters are also distrustful of Bourgeoisie but hold these feelings of sexual nature dearly. The use of this piece of cinema in the 70's proved to be effective through influential advertisement of ideas. It was actually after these films took place in 1971 that the first gay rights organization was formed in west Berlin. While there was still separation of eastern and western sides of Berlin, the east has proven to be much more lenient on the matter of gay rights. This comes with major reforms through legislation and repealing of Nazi-era anti-sodomy laws.

Britain

In Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man Under Socialism, he advocates for an egalitarian society where wealth is shared by all, while warning of the dangers of authoritarian socialism that would crush individuality.Kristian Williams. "The Soul of Man Under... Anarchism?" He later commented, "I think I am rather more than a Socialist. I am something of an Anarchist, I believe."According to his biographer Neil McKenna, Wilde was part of a secret organisation that aimed to legalise homosexuality, and was known among the group as a leader of "the Cause". (McKenna, Neil. 2003. The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde.) In August 1894, Wilde wrote to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, to tell of "a dangerous adventure". He had gone out sailing with two boys, Stephen and Alphonso, and they were caught in a storm. He wrote, "We took five hours in an awful gale to come back! [And we] did not reach pier till eleven o'clock at night, pitch dark all the way, and a fearful sea. ... All the fishermen were waiting for us. ... Tired, cold, and 'wet to the skin', the three men immediately 'flew to the hotel for hot brandy and water'. But there was a problem. The law stood in the way: 'As it was past ten o'clock on a Sunday night the proprietor could not sell us any brandy or spirits of any kind! So he had to give it to us. The result was not displeasing, but what laws! Wilde finished the story, "Both Alphonso and Stephen are now anarchists, I need hardly say."