UN ETEROCLITO BABUINO: On Giordano Bruno's Candelaio and the Infinitization of the Sexes.

Giordano Bruno (Nola 1548 - Rome 1600) published in 1582 Candelaio, a comedy that anticipates the core arguments he developed in the six dialogs written in volgare during the philosopher's stay in England (1583-1585). In the comedy, the term candelaio (candlebearer) is deployed not only as a trope for light and illumination, but also as a slang designation for sodomite. Thus, sexual dissident Bonifacio, the tragicomic personage to which the title refers, brings to light the mostly unavowed or denigrated, albeit ineradicable complexities of every sexual individuality. In this framework, the personality, lifestyle, and views of disruptive Bonifacio/Candelaio serve as narrative support for a critical stance aiming at undoing the validity claims of the man/woman dichotomy. At the antipodes of the finitization of sexuality fostered by Christian creationism, Bruno's sexual approach is framed within a conception of "natura naturante," the all-pervasive, inexhaustible and animating power, which enables the emergence of utterly diversified beings throughout the infinitude of the existing worlds. Having dismantled the epistemic pretentions of sexual binarity and its possible closed supplementations, Bruno effectively frees Bonifacio's sexual heteroclisis from the stigma of unnaturalness. Notwithstanding the trailblazing traits of Bruno's sexual thought and its ontological framework, Brunian scholarship to the present has ignored that the philosopher from Nola posed the arguably most profound and consistent challenge to binary sexuality and its finite suppletions in pre-Darwinian Modernity. In view of the critiques of patriarchy and anti-feminism that began to develop at the turn to the twentieth century, it is striking that no systematic effort has been undertaken to relate Bruno's principled reversion of the form/matter hierarchy to his advocacy for the axiological restauration of femaleness in the masculinist-centered culture of the West. In accordance with Bruno's explicit design to "turn upside down the reversed world," his philosophy seeks to reveal the endless profusion of sexual forms not as creations of an omnipotent paternal figure, but as emergences from an inexhaustible source, which he signally terms "the maternal womb of Nature."

Jaded jezebels, chainsmokers, gypsies, and ninjas: Criminality and the refurbishment of lesbian identity and gender non-conforming identities in Sri Lankan newspaper narratives.

This essay focuses on how Sinhala and English newspapers in Sri Lanka interpret and refurbish lesbian identity and gender non-conforming identities using tropes of criminality. My premise is that, despite the existence of British colonial laws against 'sodomy' and 'impersonation' in the Sri Lankan Penal Code, law does not offer a clear definition or interpretation that can act as an organizing narrative for these identities. Although newspapers cite these laws, criminality has to be narrated, and the modes of narration produce instabilities around, and re-articulations of, those identities. Thus, the essay asks how Sri Lankan newspapers discursively construct the criminality of lesbian and gender non-conforming identities. I survey print and online newspaper articles dating from August 1999 to August 2020, critiquing attempts to make these identities explicable by way of strict legal framings of criminality. I draw out four tropes, "Jaded Jezebels," "Chainsmokers," "Gypsies," and "Ninjas," arguing that they are proxy categories for lesbian and gender non-confirming identities and that they reflect how the meanings of criminality are discursively produced and rendered unstable across frames of reference such as religious orthodoxy, cultural conformity, heteropatriarchal norms, and modernity vs. tradition. I highlight moments of narrative instability, including the above bizarre tropes, forced discursive connections, misfiring formulations, and rag-tag collections of meanings. The article concludes that the question of whether lesbian identity and gender non-conforming identities are obsolete is inflected, in Sri Lankan newspaper narratives, by how they are refurbished via proxy categories with their own contingent meanings and frames of reference.

Madman in the Closet: "Homosexual Panic" in Nineteenth Century New England.

This analysis uses trial records from the 1860s to explore a same-sex male relationship that devolved into panic and murder. The paper's goal is to better understand how, during the middle of the nineteenth century, men who had sexual feeling for other men were forced into spaces that were qualitatively different than our current understanding of "the closet." The paper concludes that what we now call "coming out" was not an option during this era. In telling the story of how Samuel Andrews killed his best friend, Cornelius Holmes, this paper shows that the categories ordinarily presented as symmetrical binary oppositions in contemporary times-homo/heterosexual, closeted/out-did not work for Andrews and Holmes, and probably did not and could not have worked for others living under similar conditions.

From Libidines nefandæ to sexual perversions.

A conceptual evolution is traceable from early modern classifications of libido nefanda (execrable lust) to early nineteenth-century allusions to 'perversion of the sexual instinct', via pluralizing notions of coitus nefandus/sodomiticus in Martin Schurig's work, and of sodomia impropria in seventeenth- through late eighteenth-century legal medicine. Johann Valentin Müller's early breakdown of various unnatural penchants seemingly inspired similar lists in works by Johann Christoph Fahner and Johann Josef Bernt, and ultimately Heinrich Kaan. This allows an ante-dating of the 'specification of the perverted' (Foucault) often located in the late nineteenth century, and appreciation of pygmalionism and necrophilia as instances of 'perverted sexual instinct'. In this light, Kaan's early psychopathia sexualis was less innovative and more ambivalent than previously thought.

Los saberes científicos y sus perspectivas en torno a las prácticas sexuales entre varones en Chile 1884-1916 / Scientific knowledge and its perspectives on sexual practices between men in Chile

En el presente artículo, en primer lugar analizaremos los planteamientos de la ciencia médica chilena desde 1884 hasta 1916 en relación con las prácticas sexuales entre varones (la medicina legal, la teoría de la degeneración, la antropología criminal y la neuropatología). En segundo lugar caracterizaremos las conceptualizaciones empleadas por los médicos y abogados chilenos (descripciones que estaban hegemonizadas por la ciencia medica) en relación a la sexualidad entre varones: sodomía, inversión, pederastia y homosexualidad (AU)

Songs of Sodom: Singing About the Unmentionable Vice in the Early Modern Low Countries.

Although sodomy was purportedly an "unmentionable vice" in the early modern period, popular songs from the Low Countries paint a different picture. Bringing musical sources to bear upon the subject adds an extra dimension to the now widely held view that sodomy was a multimedia phenomenon in early modern society. Sodomy was represented in art, literature, poetry, and popular song as well. These songs were pedagogical in that they aimed to encourage performers and audience to live a pious life, and they stimulated the formation of confessional identities. By drawing attention to this neglected chapter in the history of homosexuality-popular song in the early modern Low Countries-this article seeks to contribute to the research on cultural perceptions of sodomy in the period.

Ultrassonografia no auxílio do diagnóstico de vesiculite seminal em touros de corte / Ultrasonography in the diagnosis of seminal vesiculites in beef bulls

A vesiculite é um processo inflamatório das glândulas vesiculares, podendo ser unilateral ou bilateral, que acomete reprodutores. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi avaliar a utilização da ultrassonografia como meio de diagnóstico precoce das alterações das vesículas seminais em touros. O presente trabalho foi realizado no município de Videira, Santa Catarina. Analisou-se um total 42 reprodutores, com média de idade de 15 meses, das raças Aberdeen Angus e Polled Hereford em semi-confinamento. Foi realizado exame clinico do estado geral dos animais e exame andrológico dos reprodutores. As amostras de sêmen para a realização do exame das características físicas do ejaculado foram obtidas por eletroejaculação. Através da palpação retal, realizou-se a avaliação das glândulas vesiculares por ultrassonografia. A análise estatística dos dados foi realizada por meio de análise de variância (ANOVA) para comparação entre médias com nível de significância de 5%. A presença de vesiculite foi observada em 31 animais (73,8%) dos 42 analisados. Dos 31 animais portadores 11 animais (35,5%) apresentaram vesiculite bilateral e 20 apresentaram vesiculite unilateral (64,5%; P<0,05). Animais com perímetro escrotal maior tendem a desenvolver vesiculite unilateral, tal fato pode ser explicado pela precocidade sexual agravado pela sodomia entre os animais. O uso do ultrassom auxilia de forma preventiva a detecção de animais portadores de vesiculite em reprodutores.(AU)

The vesiculite is an inflammatory process of the vesicular glands, unilateral or bilateral, that affects bulls. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of ultrasound as a complementary method for early detection of changes in seminal vesicles in bulls. This study was conducted in the municipality of Videira, Santa Catarina. We evaluated 42 bulls, with an average age of 15 months, Aberdeen Angus and Polled Hereford breeds and in semi-confinement. Clinical animal examination and andrological exam were performed in all animals. Semen samples were obtained by electroejaculation and physical characteristics of the ejaculate were performed. Rectal palpation was performed by ultrasonography to evaluate vesicular glands changes. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) for comparison between means with significance level of 5%. The presence of vesiculitis was observed in 31 (73.8%) from the 42 analyzed bulls. Of the 31 animals, 11 animals (35.5%) presented bilateral vesiculitis and 20 showed unilateral vesiculitis (64.5%; P<0.05). Animals with a larger scrotal perimeter tend to develop unilateral vesiculitis, which can be explained by the sexual precocity observed by sodomy among animals. In this way, the use of ultrasound helps preventively to detect animals with vesiculitis in breeding animals.(AU)

Sodomy's Penumbra.

This article advocates a sodomitical approach to sodomy. Its approach is framed alongside and against three historical glosses on sodomy law: first, that sodomy law instantiates homophobia; second, that sodomy law targets sexual violence against boys; third, that sodomy law reaches assaultive sex against women that did not register as assaultive enough to qualify as "rape" by sexist juries. The first story of sodomy law is mostly wrong. The other two glosses pivot on protection: protection of boys or protection of girls and women. These accounts, tethered to identitarianism, underplay sodomy law's multiplicity, as a source and symptom of our conflicted understandings of when sex is sex and when sexual violence is rape. The first part of the article explains my choice of sodomitical sites. The second part complicates the story of sodomy as phobic. The third part complements the historiography of sodomy as protective against boys. The fourth part argues that the gloss on sodomy law as a corrective to disbelieved women is appealing but untrue. The final part makes the case that fellatio matters. The prevalence of forcible oral sex in sodomy cases intimates a cultural pluripotence of oral sex, as well as shifting definitions-in law and life-of sex and rape. This last story of sodomy law remains undetected under an identitarian radar.

Harassment and Violence Among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) and Hijras After Reinstatement of India's "Sodomy Law".

On December 11, 2013, the Indian Supreme Court recriminalized non-peno-vaginal sex under Sec. 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), overturning a 2009 ruling that deemed IPC Sec. 377 unconstitutional. Similar "sodomy laws" in other countries have been associated with increased violence, harassment, and other discrimination against men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women. However, few studies have looked at the effects of such a law in an Indian context. This study examined experiences of victimization among MSM and hijra/transgender women (MSM-H) in the State of Maharashtra using a mixed-method approach. Data came from a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups and interviews from an HIV prevention study as well as qualitative media and case reports from a local MSM-H-serving community-based organization. MSM-H in Maharashtra reported experiencing a high frequency of harassment, violence, and extortion, particularly from male sex partners met online and police. IPC Sec. 377 was implicated across qualitative sources as creating a culture of protection for harassment against MSM-H by being used directly as a tool for harassment, hindering victims of harassment from seeking legal recourse, and adversely impacting HIV and healthcare services. The reinstated IPC Sec. 377 may directly and indirectly facilitate negative health outcomes among MSM-H. Health agencies and advocates should continue to monitor the impact of IPC Sec. 377, incorporate rights-based approaches to protect MSM-H identities while addressing their health and well-being, and explore avenues to initiate discussions with the government to work toward repealing the law.

The birth of modern criminology and gendered constructions of homosexual criminal identity.

There is a dearth of engagement with LGBTQ populations, and sexual orientation and gender identity more broadly, in the field of criminology. This article analyzes the treatment of sexual orientation and gender identity at the birth of the discipline around the 1870 s. Through an analysis of Cesare Lombroso's writings, the article argues that a multifaceted stigma of deviance attached to homosexuality and gender nonconformity in early criminological theory. The article explains this multifaceted stigma in terms of broader political, social, cultural, and legal developments before and during the late nineteenth century that shaped modern Western conceptions of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Rights versus morality: online debate about decriminalization of gay sex in Singapore.

This article presents a quantitative content analysis of 10,473 comments from two opposing online petitions related to the legal status of a section of the penal code in Singapore used to ban sex between men. Results indicate numerous significant differences in how the two sides discussed the law and its significance. In particular, they used different types of arguments to support their views and expressed different kinds of concerns over the potential impact of changing or maintaining the law. The patterns of language use seem to reflect distinctly different approaches to the debate and suggest the difficulty of finding common ground amid this contentious social issue, but they also reveal similarities to how Western cultures have framed the debate.

Mucosal patch on anus: a rare sequel of sodomy.

A case of mucosal patch on the perianal area of a 15-year-old boy with history of frequent sodomy is presented here.