Fascist Russian Empire wrote:Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong both made homosexuality a criminal offense, when it had previously been made legal in both Russia (under Lenin) and China (under the Kuomintang). Both of them were militant atheists who attacked religion to no end. Stalin outlawed homosexuality because he thought it would raise birth rates, thus giving the Soviet Union an advantage over the rest of the world. Mao outlawed homosexuality purely because he thought it was a sign of capitalist decadence, because it had been made legal by the Kuomintang.
Atheists are completely capable of hating homosexuality for petty, ridiculous reasons.
Religion is a contributor to anti-homosexual sentiment (Islam, especially, is probably the biggest contributor to anti-homosexual violence in history, with Judaism being another big contributor), but the fact of the matter is that people are going to find excuses to hate groups of people regardless of religious affiliation or lack-thereof. There is not an exclusive link between religion and anti-homosexual sentiment, especially when you consider the fact that Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Colombia, all of which are extremely religious countries, have all made same-sex marriage legal, whereas largely atheist countries like China and North Korea still have no recognition of homosexual unions.
Religious people are completely capable of accepting homosexuality, and irreligious people are completely capable of violently opposing homosexuality.
To be fair the idea that it was western decadence was common among soviet elites too.