the post-war persecution across the English-speaking world: David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2004).
I knew by now that homosexuality: The overwhelming majority of laws criminalizing homosexuality or “crimes against nature” were inherited or derived from colonial rule, particularly British colonialism. For an excellent analysis of the former British colonies, see Human Rights Watch, This Alien Legacy: The Origins of “Sodomy” Laws in British Colonialism, 2008, https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/17/alien-legacy/origins-sodomy-laws-british-colonialism. For the British colonial legacy in the United States, see William N. Eskridge, Jr., Dishonorable Passions, and Martha C. Nussbaum, “A Defense of Lesbian and Gay Rights,” Sex and Social Justice.
I had not yet read the text: The first mention that I recall of Section 377 was in “Bombay: Gay Times,” India Today, January 31, 1984, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/changing-trends-gays-in-bombay-come-out-of-their-self-imposed-social-exile/1/360420.html.
CHAPTER 6: INDIA
the first major article: “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name: A Journey Through the Secret World of the Indian Homosexual,” Sunday Magazine, July 31–August 6, 1988, 32 ff.
CHAPTER 7: LOVE—AND FEAR
had ambivalent and even homophobic feelings: See Sudhir Kakar and Katharina Kakar, “Sexuality,” in The Indians: Portrait of a People (New Delhi: Penguin, 2007), in which they insightfully discuss the “wasteland” of both male and female sexuality in contemporary India.
CHAPTER 8: PRISONS
The sections on Dominic D’Souza in this and later chapters are based on interviews in Goa with Raj Vaidya and Isabel de Santa Rita Vaz and in Mumbai with Dr. Ishwar Gilada, Anand Grover, and Ashok Rao Kavi, as well as on the published materials cited here.
“AIDS is the last thing”: “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name: A Journey Through the Secret World of the Indian Homosexual,” Sunday Magazine, July 31–August 6, 1988, 32 ff.
They badgered him with questions: Dominic D’Souza, “There but for the Grace of God Go I,” Mid Day, September 10, 1989.
“[I] was left all alone”: Ibid.
Lucy D’Souza filed a case: Smt. Lucy R. D’Souza etc. v. State of Goa, 1989.
“It appears that the government”: Pushpa Iyengar, “Goa Reviews AIDS Act,” Times of India, April 4, 1989.
The court gratuitously instructed Dominic: Order of the Goa Bench, Bombay High Court, April 18, 1989, in the case of Smt. Lucy R. D’Souza etc. v. State of Goa.
Dr. A. S. Paintal: Quoted in “Less than Gay: A Citizens’ Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India,” AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), 1991, https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1585664/less-than-gay-a-citizens-report-on-the-status-of.pdf, 32, 85.
The sections on Selvi in this and later chapters are based on interviews with Shyamala Nataraj, B. Sekar, Dr. Suniti Solomon, and Mary Thomas, in addition to the specific written materials cited.
the morning after Selvi’s arrest: The events from the Madras reformatory to the Indian government’s public statement are based on the following sources: Sunil Suhas Solomon, “From 6 to 6 Million in Two Decades: The Story Behind the First Six Cases of HIV Detected in India,” unpublished paper, no further publication information; Sadanand Menon, “Avoid Promiscuity,” Sunday Observer, May 18, 1986; Salil Tripathi, “AIDS: Premature Panic,” Imprint, August 1986; “Madras, India: Locking up prostitutes,” Shyamala Nataraj, The Third Epidemic: Repercussions of the Fear of AIDS, Panos Institute, 1990, http://panos.org.uk/.
The panic was most intense in Madras: “Six Cases of AIDS Detected in T. Nadu,” The Hindu, April 30, 1986; “Strict Vigil over AIDS Cases,” The Hindu, May 1, 1986; “AIDS Cases, No Cause for Panic,” The Hindu, May 1, 1986; “Alert as AIDS Patients Flee,” Times of India, April 30, 1986, which reported that two of the six HIV-positive women in the reformatory had escaped.
“like an isolation cell”: Author’s interview with Mary Thomas, Chennai, December 23, 2008
CHAPTER 9: A PERFECT STORM
In this and later chapters, I’ve drawn on the following books to analyze the international response to the AIDS pandemic: Laurie Garrett, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (New York: Penguin, 1995); Laurie Garrett, Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health (Westport, CT: Hyperion, 2001); Greg Behrman, The Invisible People: How the U.S. Has Slept Through the Global AIDS Pandemic, the Greatest Humanitarian Catastrophe of Our Time (New York: Free Press, 2004); Peter Gill, Body Count: How They Turned AIDS into a Catastrophe (London: Profile, 2006); Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside, AIDS in the Twenty-first Century: Disease and Globalization (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); Elizabeth Pisani, The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS (London: Granta, 2008).
Jonathan Mann: Mann died tragically young in the 1998 Swissair crash that also killed his wife, scientist Mary Lou Clements. Philip Hilts. “Jonathan Mann, AIDS Pioneer, Is Dead at 51,” New York Times, September 4, 1998, www.nytimes.com/1998/09/04/us/jonathan-mann-aids-pioneer-is-dead-at-51.html.
Mann had taken a disease: Behrman, The Invisible People; Jonathan Mann, Daniel Tarantola, and Thomas Netter, eds., AIDS in the World: A Global Report (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1992).
AIDS was spreading exponentially: “Global Estimates of AIDS Cases and HIV Infections: 1990,” in James Chin, “AIDS 1990: A Year in Review,” AIDS 4 suppl. 1 (1990): S277–83.
Though those estimates were disparaged: Behrman, The Invisible People.
spreading even more fiercely in developing countries Ibid., 568; “Poor Man’s Plague,” The Economist, September 21, 1991.
in some parts of central Africa: Data from “History of AIDS: 1987–1992,” www.avert.org/history-aids-1987-1992.htm. ADD.
For Mann’s achievements in bringing human rights concerns to the forefront of HIV-related policies, see Lawrence O. Gostin, “A Tribute to Jonathan Mann: Health and Human Rights in the AIDS Pandemic,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 26 (1998): 256–58, http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1746&context=facpub; D. Tarantola, S. Gruskin, T. Brown, and E. Fee, “Jonathan Mann: Founder of the Health and Human Rights Movement,” American Journal of Public Health 96, no. 11 (November 2006): 1942–43; Elizabeth Fee and Manon Parry, “Jonathan Mann, HIV/AIDS, and Human Rights,” Journal of Public Health Policy 29, no. 1 (April 2008): 54–71; Behrman, The Invisible People.
The first global resolutions: See, e.g., “Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of AIDS,” World Health Assembly Resolution 40.26, May 15, 1987; “Prevention and Control of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS),” UN General Assembly Resolution 42/8, October 16, 1987; “The World Health Organization’s Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of AIDS,” in “AIDS—A Global Perspective,” Western Journal of Medicine 147 (December 1987): 732–34.
“We emphasize the need”: London Declaration on AIDS Prevention, World Summit of Ministers of Health, January 28, 1988, World Health Organization, WHO/GPA/INF/88.6.
“protect the human rights and dignity”: “Prevention and Control of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS),” UN General Assembly Resolution 46/203, December 20, 1991.
CHAPTER 10: THE PERSECUTED
more than half a million adults: Sanjoy Hazarika, “In an Unaware India AIDS Threat Is Growing,” New York Times, August 9, 1990; Siddharth Dube, “AIDS: It’s Here,” Sunday, August 25, 1991; Harinder Bawja and Arun Katiyar, “The Indian Face of AIDS,” India Today, November 30, 1991.
J.J. Hospital in Bombay: Dube, “AIDS: It’s Here.”
“third wave”: “Statement at an Informal Briefing on AIDS to the 42nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly,” 1987, quoted in Elizabeth Fee and Manon Parry, “Jonathan Mann, HIV/AIDS, and Human Rights,” Journal of Public Health Policy.
“Since sex is universal”: “Poo
r Man’s Plague,” The Economist, September 21, 1991.
Almost nowhere were transgender or male prostitutes mentioned: The AIDS pandemic led to research and programs focusing on transgender and male sex workers, but till today, in most countries, substantially less is known about sex work by them than by women. A UNAIDS technical report notes, “Although far fewer in number than female sex workers, transsexuals and men also engage in sex work in diverse social and cultural settings. There is growing evidence that male sex work is not a phenomenon that is limited only to certain regions. Although information from countries in the developing world remains very limited, male sex work has been reported in various countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, as well as in most Western countries. Male sex workers frequently report sexual contacts with both male and female partners, representing a potential for heterosexual and homosexual transmission.” UNAIDS, Sex Work and HIV/AIDS: Technical Update (Geneva: UNAIDS, 2002), www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2002/20020704_jc705-sexwork-tu_en.pdf.
Extrapolations from studies suggested: Priscilla Alexander, “Sex Work and HIV/AIDS,” Health Policy 8 (1994): 1, 11–12.
Western prostitutes who contracted HIV: Ibid.; Martin Foreman, “Offering Sex for Money,” in The 3rd Epidemic: Repercussions of the Fear of AIDS (London: Panos Institute, 1990); Melissa Hope Ditmore, ed., Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006).
HIV rates remained low: Alexander, “Sex Work and HIV/AIDS.”
Among the poorest groups of prostitutes: Ibid.; “Poor Man’s Plague,” The Economist, September 21, 1991.
she and Mann convened an unorthodox meeting: The entire section on the development of WHO’s first guidelines on HIV and sex work is drawn from Karen Booth’s valuable analysis, “National Mother, Global Whore and Transnational Femocrats: The Politics of AIDS and the Construction of Women at the World Health Organization,” Feminist Studies, 1998. The guidelines Making Sex Work Safer: A Guide to HIV/AIDS Prevention Interventions were eventually published only in 1993, because of delays that Alexander and Booth attribute to opposition faced by Alexander within the new leadership of the global AIDS program.
the country had about 1 million women sex workers: Table 9.6, p. 376, in Jonathan Mann, Daniel Tarantola, and Thomas Netter, eds., AIDS in the World: A Global Report (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1992).
mass raids on Bombay’s red-light areas: John Stackhouse, “Indian, Nepali Prostitutes Rounded Up, Detained in AIDS Raids,” Toronto Globe and Mail, September 10, 1990.
Tests forcibly carried out on the women: “Most Rescued Women Infected by AIDS Virus,” The Hindu, June 14, 1990; R. Bhagwan Singh, “Burdened with AIDS,” Sunday, July 8–14, 1990; V. R. Mani, “Freed Prostitutes—Yet Another Bondage,” Times of India, July 28, 1990.
gained entry to the reformatory: Shyamala Nataraj, “Madras, India: Locking Up Prostitutes,” in The 3rd Epidemic.
“That’s why I don’t raise my voice”: Federico García Lorca, “Ode to Walt Whitman,” The Collected Poems: A Bilingual Edition, edited by Christopher Maurer (New York: Farrar, 2002).
CHAPTER 11: THE INVISIBLE
But when doctors or health officials asked: Radhika Ramasubban, “HIV/AIDS in India—Gulf Between Rhetoric and Reality,” Economic and Political Weekly 33, no. 45 (November 7, 1998): 865–72.
By the end of 1990: “Less than Gay: A Citizens’ Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India,” AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), 1991, https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1585664/less-than-gay-a-citizens-report-on-the-status-of.pdf, 62, 84, citing ICMR Bulletin, November–December 1990.
Trikone . . . or Bombay Dost: See Edward Gargan, “Coming Out in India, with a Nod from the Gods,” New York Times, August 15, 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/08/15/world/bombay-journal-coming-out-in-india-with-a-nod-from-the-gods.html.
“Believe me, not one word”: Letter to Dr. Gilada, September 26, 1989, reproduced in India Health Organisation, Dominic D’Souza: The Complete Story (no publication date given).
the courts were less responsive: Pushpa Iyengar, “Segregation of AIDS Patients Upheld,” Times of India, December 24, 1989.
“Dr. Vaidya didn’t allow me”: IHO, op. cit.
“the best ambassador”: India Health Organisation, Dominic D’Souza.
It was India’s first association of “positive people”: For the work of the group since, see www.positivepeople.in/.
“This brave Goan did not quail”: India Health Organisation, Dominic D’Souza.
“boldly said that I died of AIDS”: See “Goan AIDS Activist Succumbs to Virus,” Times of India, May 28, 1992. The will is reproduced in India Health Organisation, Dominic D’Souza.
“I knew what AIDS was”: India Health Organisation, Dominic D’Souza, 3.
CHAPTER 12: A FIRST GLIMPSE OF FREEDOM
“a lousy lot”: Quoted in “Less than Gay,” “Less than Gay: A Citizens’ Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India,” AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), 1991, https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1585664/less-than-gay-a-citizens-report-on-the-status-of.pdf, 61, with an attribution to Sunday, February 26, 1989.
AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_Bhedbhav_Virodhi_Andolan.
the Bank approved India’s AIDS control loan: Siddharth Dube, “Facade of AIDS Prevention?,” Economic and Political Weekly, April 11, 1992; Timothy Johnston and Martha Ainsworth, India National AIDS Control Project: Project Performance Assessment Report, Operations Evaluation Division (New York: World Bank, 2003–4); Human Rights Watch, “Epidemic of Abuse: Police Harassment of HIV/AIDS Outreach Workers in India,” July 2002, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india2/india0602.pdf.
the historical evidence: This section draws on “Less than Gay” as well as the following sources on sexuality and gender expression on the Indian subcontinent: Sudhir Kakar, Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1990); Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai, eds., Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000); Sudhir Kakar and Katharina Kakar, “Sexuality,” in The Indians: Portrait of a People (Delhi: Penguin India, 2007); Devdutt Pattanaik, “When Gayness Was Out in Open, Not a Matter of Guilt,” Times of India, July 3, 2009; Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History (New York: Viking, 2009); Human Rights Watch, This Alien Legacy: The Origins of “Sodomy” Laws in British Colonialism, 2008.
the colonial elite was appalled: Kenneth Ballhatchet, Race, Sex and Class Under the Raj (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980); Janaki Nair, Women and Law in Colonial India: A Social History (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1996); Sumanta Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitute in Nineteenth Century Bengal (Calcutta: Seagull, 1998); Ronald Hyam, Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1991); Robert Aldrich, Colonialism and Homosexuality (New York: Routledge, 2002); Philippa Levine, Prostitution, Race and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire (New York: Routledge 2003); Ashwini Tambe, Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late Colonial Bombay (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2009).
“absolute monsters of lust: William Wilberforce, quoted in “Imperial Deceivers,” Kevin Rushby, The Guardian, January 18, 2003, www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jan/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview19.
“new-caught, sullen peoples”: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands,” 1899, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478.
the colonial Criminal Tribes Act was amended: Human Rights Watch, This Alien Legacy.
ABVA filed a public interest case: Reproduced in Bina Fernandez, ed., Humjinsi: A Resource Book on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights in India (Mumbai: India Centre for Human Rights and Law, 2002); Vimal Balasubrahmanyan, “Gay Rights in India,” Economic and Political Weekly, February 3, 1996, http://orinam.net/content/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/COMMENTARY_Gay-Rights-in-India_EPW.pdf.
CHAPTER 13: MORE RIGHTS—TO CORRECT THE WRONGS
the Bank’s record of promoting policies: For contrasting views on the Bank’s/IMF’s impact, see Graham Hancock, The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business (New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1989); Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: Norton, 2002); Sebastian Mallaby, The World’s Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (New York: Penguin, 2004).
the lifestyles of the global superrich: “How the World Bank Cuts Costs,” The Economist, April 14, 1990; Ken Ringle, “Breaking Open the World Bank,” Washington Post, September 25, 1990, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/09/25/breaking-open-the-world-bank/b04a7ddc-cc33-495d-981f-f3aac046dde1/; Michael Irwin, “Let Them Eat Honey-Roasted Peanuts: World Bank’s Mismanagement,” The Washington Monthly, June 1, 1990, www.thefreelibrary.com/Let+them+eat+honey-roasted+peanuts.-a09085511; Michael H. K. Irwin, “Banking on Poverty: An Insider’s Look at the World Bank,” Cato Foreign Policy Briefing no. 3, September 20, 1990, www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb-003.html.
a poem satirizing the “development set”: Ross Coggins, “TheDevelopment Set,” available at https://newint.org/features/1995/10/05/update. Coggins (1927–2011) was a Baptist missionary and USAID worker. The poem was first published in 1976.
Sex work was illegal: This section draws on Priscilla Alexander, “Sex Work and HIV/AIDS,” Health Policy 8 (1994): 1, 11–12; ProCon.org, “100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies,” https://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000119; and Melissa Hope Ditmore, ed., Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006). This invaluable two-volume encyclopedia has wide-ranging entries related to sex work worldwide, past and present.
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