Based on twenty months of ethnographic research, the book looks at the relationship between the HIV/AIDS epidemic and rights-based struggles of sexual minorities in contemporary India. Sex workers, gay men, and transgender people in India have become visible in the Indian public sphere since the mid-1980s, when AIDS became an issue in India. Whereas sexual minorities were previously stigmatized and criminalized because of the threat of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Indian state started to fold these groups into national HIV/AIDS policies as “high-risk” groups for an effective response to the epidemic. The book argues that HIV/AIDS transformed the relationship between sexual minorities and the state from one focused on juridical exclusion to one focused on inclusion through biopower. The new relationship between the state and sexual minorities brought about by HIV/AIDS and the shared power communities felt with the state enabled them to demand rights and citizenship from the Indian state. In addition to paying attention to these transformations, the book also comparatively captures the rights-based struggles of sexual minorities in India who have successfully mobilized against a colonial era anti-sodomy law, successfully petitioned in the courts for recognition of gender identity, and stalled attempts to criminalize sexual labor. This book uniquely brings together the struggles of sex workers and transgender and gay groups that are often studied separately.
HIV/AIDS epidemic in the State of Amazonas: characteristics and trends from 2001 to 2012
