ABSTRACT
With the familial and domestic space of the nation as imagined community, non-heteronormative sexuality is either criminalized, or disavowed and elided; it is seen both as a threat to national integrity and as perpetually outside the boundaries of nation, home and, family. Border crossings between what is described as "good" sex and "bad" sex take place from time to time. But the crossing of really "bad" erotic practices into moral and legal acceptability is feared and resisted. In a diasporic production called "Fire," the film's director represents the dilemma of culture and authenticity that this chapter seeks to voice. The chapter examines specific legal controversies in the area of sexual speech, and the legal rights of the sexual subaltern, namely sex workers and gays and lesbians. It looks at the spaces created by hybrid fantasies in law and how these spaces unhinge stoic and monotonous tales about sexuality and culture, and challenge dominant sexual ideology and exclusionary stories about culture.
