LGBT rights in the Sino-Soviet Union

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in the Sino-Soviet Union  has been a long-standing recurring issue in the country since its formation back in 1946. Homosexuality was originally decriminalized in 1917, but was recriminalized in 1933 and remained that way for over thirty years. During the Cultural Revolution, homosexuality was decriminalized by Mao Zedong, but was later reversed by Leonid Brezhnev due to the political instability that rocked the country during that time. After Mikhail Gorbachev took officer in 1991 following the coup in August, he pushed forward many reforms, one of which involved the official decriminalization of homosexuality and has remained legal since its legalization back in 1993 and sex-change operations were also legalized in 1997. After a series of political reforms involving the legalization of protests, Gay pride parades became common and were openly allowed by the central government and were even used by propaganda to promote the idea of communist tolerance against the "religious fanatics" of the western world.

Despite these changes however, LGBT people in the Sino-Soviet Union face many legal and social challenges in the country as conservative mindsets on homosexuality dominate the general public opinion. A majority of Soviet citizens are not in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and homosexuality is even declared a mental disorder by psychiatry organizations in the Chinese Soviet republics and conversion therapies remain open across the country. The worst incidents come from the Central Asian and northwestern Chinese Soviet republics where the citizens are mostly muslim and islamic views and sentiments on homosexuality dominate the public mindset and have been sites of the worst recorded hate crimes in the country.