ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author problematizes sexual rights interventions in law and human rights advocacy through a postcolonial critically queer lens. He deals with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy in India and the legal rollercoaster ride it has gone through in recent years. In April 2014, somewhat unexpectedly, a separate bench of the Indian Supreme Court upheld an equality challenge brought by the transgender community and held that transgendered persons were entitled to the legal rights to health, education, marriage, and to be included in the category of ‘other’ on official government documents. In the choice between criminality and legitimacy, legitimacy seems clearly preferable. Incorporating identities once excluded by the law from the public domain brings about the reconstitution of these once excluded identities into newly inscribed regimes of governance.
