>My question is whether heteronormativity is essential to Marxist thought or
>whether it can be excised. It seems that there is an assumption that the
>proletariat is completely het-sexed.
Well that's a wacko assumption, isn't it? Why would heteronormativity be essential to Marxist thought? I don't see any relation with class, value production, or any Marxist essentials. Given the importance of bourgeois marriage to property relations (and that stuff about free love in The Manifesto), you could do a queer Marxism even.
Doug