Bob McCubbin – LGBTQ+ rights pioneer, Marxist revolutionary

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the loss of lifelong revolutionary Bob McCubbin (June 23, 1942 – Aug. 31, 2025). McCubbin, 83, died from injuries sustained when he was hit by a car while taking his daily walk through Balboa Park in San Diego, California, where he lived and was active in the struggle for justice for 35 years.

McCubbin was an early pioneer in defense of LGBTQ+ rights. He wrote one of the first Marxist analyses of gay oppression titled “The Gay Question: A Marxist Appraisal,” published in 1976; a second edition published in 1993 changed the title to “The Roots of Lesbian & Gay Oppression.”  

The Stonewall Rebellion and the struggles of that period informed his writing and activism. McCubbin was inspired and worked closely with Marxist thinkers Sam Marcy, Dorothy Ballan, founders of Workers World Party and Fred Goldstein, an early leader.

McCubbin was equally active in the streets, participating in the many marches, pickets and strikes. His fight against gender oppression was matched by his fierce solidarity with the Black Liberation and Civil Rights movements of the era. Later, he looked to Leslie Feinberg to sharpen his understanding of transgender liberation to include it in his writing.

In 2018, Bob McCubbin helped found the Struggle for Socialism Party and became a writer and contributor to Struggle-La Lucha. During this period, he finished writing and published “The Social Evolution of Humanity, Marx and Engels Were Right!” 

In July of this year, he helped organize a contingent in support of Gaza and Palestine at the annual San Diego Pride March in addition to opposing attacks on im/migrants.

Bob McCubbin’s comrades and many friends in San Diego will remember him as a kind and generous friend. He is remembered as a courageous person who stood on ethics and principle regardless of whether it was difficult. McCubbin was a retired teacher and active member of the teachers’ union.

Memorial events will be held on both the West Coast and the East Coast in the coming months.

Bob McCubbin ¡Presente!

Struggle for Socialism Party and Struggle-La Lucha

An interview with Bob McCubbin: 

• Part 1: Targeted by fascism, united by struggle: Bob McCubbin on defending trans rights and building class solidarity
• Part 2: Inside the Bay Area’s Gay Liberation Front with Bob McCubbin
• Part 3: Bob McCubbin on LGBTQ+ liberation and Marxist organizing
• Part 4: Leslie Feinberg, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and the radical legacy of LGBTQ+ communists