Christianity, Civil Society and Homoerotic Men in Times of Legal Change: An Ethnographic Study in Aizawl, Mizoram

This ethnographic study documents the voices of homoerotically inclined men amidst religious and societal sanctions on same-sex sexuality among the Mizos of Aizawl in the north-eastern state of Mizoram. While there is a law legitimising consensual sexual acts, which has been adopted since September 2018 in India, it does not change the fact that there are Indian citizens who are afraid to claim their rights lest they be stigmatised by society. The article asks how the homoerotically inclined men negotiate their religious beliefs and faith as Protestant Mizo Christians on the one hand and their sexual identities on the other. The article looks at both the institutional control of the church and the role and nature of civil society organisations in Mizoram to analyse the ways they control its male homoerotic subjects, depriving them of various citizenship rights.