Consuming Intimacy: Sense of Belonging and Indian Gay Men

Description

Page: 774-777

Himadri Roy (School of Gender and Development Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi)

The intimacy between two gay men has multi-dimensional characteristics. There seems to be a homonormativity between the two consenting adults, and this prevails in the whole community when the sense of belonging in a relationship between two gay men is taken into consideration. In India, there are legal spaces, but no social recognition of such sexuality and sexual orientation. This prevails the trait of promiscuity as an authenticated prejudice and makes gay men fall into the gossamer of illusionary relationship of togetherness and belonging. The consumption of erotic desires, therefore, plays a pivotal role in the sustainability and development of a sense of belonging between two individuals – more strongly than the larger units of society. Bodily urges bring two gay men closer breaking all barriers of caste, religion, color, and region. But certain factors work very methodically when two gay men choose their sexual partners. There are significantly three criteria that think gay men always choose intelligently and they are age, class, and language. This paper will deal with these three criteria. Apart from these criteria, the paper will also discuss how their kind of non-normative intimacy tends to be clandestine and closeted preferably, and will try to explore these areas through the epistemology of gayhood and socio-psychological essentialism of gay men’s sexual pleasures. This paper is the outcome of interviewing 450 gay men living in cities in India.