Events › Meet Bettina Aptheker, Author of Communists in Closets

Join us on Saturday, June 10 to welcome Bettina Aptheker, author of Communists in Closets at the San Mateo County Pride Celebration.

In this special LGBTQ+ themed author talk, we are excited to talk with famed author, activist and Distinguished Professor Emerita Bettina Aptheker and her new book, Communists in Closets, Queering the History 1930s-1990s. The book explores the history of gay, lesbian, and non-heterosexual people in the Communist Party in the United States. The Communist Party banned lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from membership beginning in 1938 when it cast them off as “degenerates.” It persisted in this policy until 1991. Bettina’s book tells the stories of those who were forced to live in this very segmented “closet.”

Subjects include Harry Hay and the creation of Mattachine, Lorraine Hansberry and the Broadway production of Raisin In The Sun, Alix Dobkin and the creation of lesbian separatism and women's music, The founding of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and Angela Davis's role in and influence by the Communist Party.

A limited number of copies of Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s-1990s will be available for purchase at the event. The first 20 people to register and attend the event will receive a book, provided by Peninsula Family Service.

Bettina Aptheker is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz where she taught for more than 40 years. An activist-scholar she co-led the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley in 1964, and the National Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. She played a leading role in the international movement to Free Angela Davis. Bettina was a member of the Communist Party from 1962-1981. She has been part of the LGBT movement since the late 1970s. She has published several books including, The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis, Tapestries of Life: Women’s Work, Women’s Consciousness and the Meaning of Daily Experience, and a memoir, Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech & Became A Feminist Rebel that was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in 2006. She and her wife, Kate Miller, have been together since 1979. They live in Santa Cruz.