Understanding Re-partnership in Non-normative Conjugality: Narratives of Gay Men in Odisha, India

Abstract

Drawing on biographical narratives of two gay men in mixed-orientation marriage who have later gone on to establish re-partnership with another gay man, this paper seeks to critique the inherent heteronormativity in the discussion around re-partnership. It examines the consequential kinship dynamics among concerned social actors such as gay men, straight women, and their biological children, and their ongoing negotiations with the social institutions of marriage and family. Further, the discussion around re-partnership between two gay men in a Western context does not necessarily consider the alternative negotiations that characterize South Asian queer experiences. Borrowing from De Villiers’ concept of queer opacity (2012) and Jingshu Zhu’s (2017) ambivalence, the paper demonstrates that the kinning process of gay men in mixed-orientation marriage forging partnership with other gay men exists in a continuum. The boundary between what needs to be undone and what needs to be redone is porous, ambiguous, and interpenetrative. In that case, this paper suggests a non-Western framework to understand re-partnership in non-normative conjugality.

‘Let Us Hold Hands’: Lived Practices of Intimacy Among Gay Youth in Urban India

“…Till date, there has been little dialogue between critical sexuality studies and youth sociology in India. Barring a few notable exceptions (Boyce & Dasgupta, 2019; Horton, 2020; Kumar, 2022b; Mishra, 2020; Tonini, 2018), the concerns of sexual minority youth and issues of sexual citizenship in India have remained peripheral to Indian sociology, and consequently, theoretical work concerning structures of heteronormativity and sexual governance in India has been thin on the ground (John, 2008b; Kumar, 2020, 2014). Some argue that a broader ‘conspiracy of silence’ concerning sexuality is at play in India, encompassing the spheres of politics, social movements, and academic scholarship, which has led scholars away from the material sites in which sexuality has for long been embedded and contested (John & Nair, 1998; also see Srivastava 2004).…”

A lesbian, gay and bisexual migration tale: On the role of intimate citizenship for transforming sexual subjectivities

“…Others in these countries also practice different forms of intimacies, transgressing hetero- and mono-normative models (see, e.g. Kong, 2011; Mishra, 2020). Yet many, like Petra, do desire marriage or marriage-like relationships and children.…”