Indian HIV policy is based on the misguided assumption that most sex in India takes place within monogamous, heterosexual settings. This over-emphasis on the heterosexual transmission of the disease has meant the rise of prevalence in the population vulnerable to non-heterosexual transmission of the disease. This article will place the disavowal of same-sex desire in post-colonial India within a historic context, and go behind the veil of heteronormative silence to tell the stories of sexual minorities, doubly stigmatized by poverty, as they seek sexual gratification in the shadows of Indian society.
ChakrapaniVNewmanPAShunmugamMDubrowR (2011) Barriers to free antiretroviral treatment access among kothi-identified men who have sex with men and aravanis (transgender women) in Chennai, India. AIDS Care23(12): 1687–1694.
6.
ChaudharyZ (2004) Controlling the Ganymedes: The colonial gaze in J.R. Ackerley's Hindoo Holiday. In: SrivastavaS (eds) Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia, New Delhi: Sage, pp. 83–98.
JohnMNairJ (1998/2000) Introduction: A question of silence? The sexual economies of modern India. In: JohnMENairJ (eds) A Question of Silence? The Sexual Economies of Modern India, New York: Zed Books, pp. 1–51.
13.
KhanSKhanO (2006) The trouble with MSM. American Journal of Public Health96(5): 765–766.
14.
KugleS (2001) Sultan Mahmud's makeover: Colonial homophobia and the Persian Urdu literary tradition. In: VanitaR (eds) Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society, London: Routledge, pp. 37–41.
15.
Malik R (2011) So say our Sadhus. Hinduism Today, April/May/June: 65.
16.
ManianS (2013) Is the new media erasing boundaries or erecting barriers?: Gay/transgendered vs kothi/aravani. In: DesaiG (eds) Virtual Transformation of the Public Sphere: Knowledge, Politics and Identity, New Delhi: Routledge India.
PlummerK (1995) Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds, London: Routledge.
20.
RamakrishnaJKarottMMurthyRSChandranVPeltoPJ (2004) Sexual behaviours of street boys and male sex workers in Bangalore. In: VermaRKPeltoPJSchensulSLJoshiA (eds) Sexuality in the Time of AIDS: Contemporary Perspectives from Communities in India, New Delhi: Sage.
21.
ReddyG (2005) With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
22.
SeabrookJ (1999) Love in a Different Climate: Men who have Sex with Men in India, London: Verso.
23.
SenS (2004) Colonial aversions and domestic desires: Blood, race, sex and the decline of intimacy in early British India. In: SrivastavaS (eds) Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia, New Delhi: Sage, pp. 16–17.
24.
SharmaMAggarwalKKGoreaRK (2011) Abnormal sexual behavior: A study of social factors. Journal of Punjab Academy of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology11(1): 20–22.
SrivastavaS (2004) Introduction. In: SrivastavaS (eds) Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia, New Delhi: Sage, pp. 49–82.
ThomasBMimiagaMJHayerKHClossonEFJohnsonCVBetancourtRSafrenSA (2012) Ensuring it works: A community-based approach to HIV prevention intervention development for men who have sex with men in Chennai, India. AIDS Education and Prevention24(6): 483–499.
30.
VanitaR (2002) Homophobic fiction/homoerotic advertising: The pleasures and perils of twentieth century Indianness. In: VanitaR (eds) Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society, New York: Routledge, pp. 127–148.
31.
VanitaRKidwaiS (2001) Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History, New York: Palgrave.
32.
YoungRMeyerI (2005) The trouble with MSM and WSW: Erasure of the sexual minority person in public health discourse. American Journal of Public Health95(7): 1144–1149.
