The Role of the Monogamous State in Anti-LGBTQ+ Politics

Scholars of sexuality have explored the relationship between the state and sexuality, theorizing the ways that the regulation of sexuality defines state logics and understandings. These scholars have critiqued the tendency when studying the state to treat it as a monolithic, rational, and static entity. For example, Jyoti Puri (2016) theorizes the “sexual state” to challenge the dominant idea of the diminishment of state-based governance in the era of globalization. Instead, she argues, the state remains a key player in its ability to modify, expand, and justify power by focusing on sexuality and its disruption of the social order. The sexual state has been important in enabling anti-LGBTQ+ politics in various global contexts. At the same time, scholars have yet to theorize how monogamy and the monogamous state also plays a role in enabling anti-LGBTQ+ politics. This talk examines the monogamous state as constituting a grid of intelligibility that connects understandings of perverse sexuality to anti-LGBTQ+ politics, in contradistinction to moral and productive monogamy. It theorizes how slippery slope arguments have been used in the construction of the monogamous state.