It’s a bit weird to compare the USSR to the west at a time when the west literally imprisoned and/or sterilized gay people

You mean the whole fucking decade when it was not a crime? Between 1920 to 1930? Because after it was Article 121, straight to prison or asylum.

Because in the same decade gays could have sex without going to prison in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Belgium (and provably more, but I'm too lazy to check).