Challenging “Bare Life”

This chapter draws on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” to show how prior to HIV/AIDS, sexual minorities experienced the state only through “raw power,” where rampant violence and abuse were the norm and the state freely consigned individuals to death by depriving them of resources. The management of “risk” in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic brought attention to the violence faced by sexual minorities, especially arbitrary police violence supported by criminal laws. During the earlier phases of the epidemic, peer educators and outreach workers—who were drawn from “high-risk” groups themselves—faced challenges and even violence in reaching out to their peers. Even carrying condoms for outreach purposes was seen as evidence of “criminal” sexual activity. This tension between peer educators and police reveals internal contradictions in the state; peer educators, who are at the cusp of state juridical and biopower, bring this contradiction in the state to the foreground.