The fallacy of equality: 'Anti-citizens', sexual justice and the law in India

The determinants of citizenship seemingly have little or no relevance to the sexuality of the citizen. However when it comes to the matter of exercising citizenship rights, sexuality acquires great significance -- where the normative subject of citizenship is the heterosexual citizen. Ideas of citizenship are predicated on hegemonic heterosexuality. Based on this understanding this paper attempts to map how the lives of the sexually marginalized in India, who I refer to as the sexual 'anti-citizen', are regulated and disciplined through the dual operation of criminal law and heteronormativity. Drawing from the influential works of French philosopher Michel Foucault and American anthropologist Gayle Rubin the paper argues how the anti-sodomy law in India -- Sec. 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalizes 'unnatural offences' -- operates through a 'panoptic' model that results in creating 'sexual hierarchies', acutely disenfranchising sexual 'anti-citizens' from guarantees to basic rights and freedoms.