Regulation of Queer Sexualities

The regulation of queer sexualities in a global context addresses the social regulation of diverse groups engaging in erotic and gender experiences that rupture with institutionalized heterosexuality (including in contexts where this is still in formation) and the imposition of a two-gender (male/female) way of doing gender on their lives. Sexual regulation is the complex web of relations and practices that define and regulate people's erotic lives. This regulation, originally articulated within the framework of nation-states, is increasingly global in character. This includes regulatory strategies ranging from criminalization to limited toleration of queer sexualities in “private” to only accepting “responsible” and “respectable” queers. These various regulatory strategies provoke diverse forms of resistance that oppose oppressive strategies of sexual regulation but also point toward non-oppressive sexual regulation where institutionalized heterosexuality and the two-gender system have been removed from the practices of sexual regulation. Keywords: queer; sexualities; social regulation