ABSTRACT
This chapter is broken into two parts. 1 In the first part, my concern is with the written texts of law; in the second, it is with a visual, cinematic text. The theme of both parts is nevertheless with the interpretation of HIV and its relation to the process of judgment, its force as a limit or liminal case in revealing the imaginary order of judgment. In substance, this chapter will concentrate upon the reading of cases concerning the judgment of the gay man before the law. Although focusing on the appearance of the gay man in judgment, the implications of my argument might well extend to the painful oscillation between negation and derogation in the legal imagination suffered by many marginalised groups. The intent of this chapter is not to advocate any kind of withdrawal from the legal sphere, any opting out of legal discourse. Rather, my intent is to find hopefulness in paradox: it is only in the disappearance of images that the compassionate envisioning of the other can take place. 2
