Contesting heteronormativity: the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender recognition in India and Vietnam

Abstract

Recent public debates about sexuality in India and Vietnam have brought the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people sharply into focus. Drawing on legal documents, secondary sources and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the urban centres of Delhi and Hanoi, this article shows how the efforts of civil society organisations dedicated to the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights have had different consequences in these two Asian contexts. The paper considers how these organisations navigated government regulations about their formation and activities, as well as the funding priorities of national and international agencies. The HIV epidemic has had devastating consequences for gay men and other men who have sex with men, and has been highly stigmatising. As a sad irony, the epidemic has provided at the same time a strategic entry point for organisations to struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender recognition. This paper examines how the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender recognition has been doubly framed through health-based and rights-based approaches and how the struggle for recognition has positioned lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in India and Vietnam differently.

How many sexual minorities are hidden? Projecting the size of the global closet with implications for policy and public health

“…For example, in India, strong pressures, including threats of imprisonment, harassment, blackmail, and sexual assault, face sexual minorities who are open about their sexual orientation. [20] In China, sexual minorities have no legal recourse against targeted discrimination and harassment; harmful sexual orientation conversion therapies are normative. [21] The present research suggests that sexual orientation concealment is also normative in these, and most other, countries as a function of such structural realities.…”

Chasing the rainbow: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth and pride semiotics

“…Throughout its history, the rainbow has been a public symbol flown to challenge the political and social status quo (Nusser, Parker, and Anacker 2013). Young people encounter these uses in the media and online, at pride festivals that began as protest marches and as acts of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer solidarity that continue to be political acts when flags are flown at pride events held across the world (Horton, Rydstrøm, and Tonini 2015; Kelley 2015; Zamon 2015). …”

Deviant Sexual Behaviours amongst Substance Abusers – a clinical study

“…Over the last few decades many of the western societies have shed their inhibitions in the expression of sexuality making acts like masturbation (alone or in company), anal and/or oral sex among mutually consenting adults (for expression of love and getting pleasure) as acceptable considering them as typical sexual behaviors [33]. But these are still considered deviant in many of other countries including India [34]. The sexual acts considered as DSBs differ from country to country depending upon the culture they follow.…”