Law-Struggles: Decriminalizing Homosexuality in India

• In Event: 584 - Thematic Session. Transnational Sexual Diversity Politics

Abstract

Since 2001, efforts to overturn the anti-sodomy law have been underway in India. A colonial era relic that was retained in the postcolonial penal code, this statute has been seen as a symbolic and material barrier for rights and protections due same-sex sexual subjects. Chronicling the struggle, the presentation comes to grips with the ways colonial and postcolonial histories predisposed the activism toward law and, more broadly, the state. Tracing also the transnational constraints, it reflects on the limitations of this campaign. More precisely, the presentation traces the inequities of race, gender, and social class implicated in this reach toward sexual/social justice.

Author

• Jyoti Puri, Simmons College