ABSTRACT
Familiar phrases bring us face-to-face with sexuality’s inseparability from the state and the
nation. We live with such sentiments and policies every day without thinking twice about
them. Precisely because the impact of nation and state on sexuality is so routine, it all
seems unremarkable. Perhaps the spark of sexual desire set off deep within one’s core rein-
forces the belief that sexuality is personal, private. Nothing could be further from reality;
social institutions matter tremendously to issues of sexuality. When pushed to consider which
institutions matter, we easily concede the usual suspects – family, media, peer groups, school,
and religion. But the above phrases starkly remind us that nations and states are equally
important to sexuality, if not more. Think about it: it is easier to ignore parental injunctions
about your sexual behavior than what the state sees as sexually legal. This chapter presents a
case for how nations and states bear on matters of sexuality and why this is too crucial to
ignore.
