A recurring storyline throughout Shani Mootoo’s book, Cereus Blooms at Night, is Mala’s plight to save the snails from being killed by the other, more powerful people around her. As Ambrose Mohanty explains it, “we fancied ourselves the protectors of snail and all things unable to protect themselves from the bullies of the world” (Mootoo 119). Mala gravitates to these snails, among other creatures because she too is ostracized by society. Mala understands that because they are too slow, or too slimy, or not cute enough, there is not space for them and they ultimately must be killed. However, she wants to prevent them and ergo takes it upon herself to save them. These shared feelings of isolation correlate to a shared feeling of queerness, of sexual deviancy, of not fitting into the hegemonic mold that society has laid out for you. Michael Warner conceptualizes these feelings as he frames queerness as anything that stands in opposition to the sexual norm. As he says, “so Clinton might at least theoretically see himself as having something in common with people in all the other categories on the ‘wrong’ side of the list” (27). He Warner describes Bill Clinton and his “sexual relations” with Miss Lewinsky as queer because they do not follow the sexual norm (outside of marriage, sodomy, etc.). Ergo, Clinton and his acts with Miss Lewinsky are in this queer category, along with sex workers, polyamorous people, people in the BDSM community, people who have sex before marriage, etc. Unlike Clinton, who often refused to bridge the gap between him and sexual deviants (see also DOMA, DADT, welfare reform, etc.), Mala intends to join this fragmented group. But this active ostracization of people ho do not conform to preconcieved notions of gender and sexuality, due to a compliant and symbiotic relationship between the government and law enforcement. As Sedgwick says, “the complicity of parents, of teachers, of clergy, even of the mental health professions in invalidating and hounding kids who show gender dissonant tastes” (2). Seeing these snails as inherently queer, anyone out to kill them is someone who upholds systems that oppress LGBTQ+ identified people. Ambrose Mohanty also reflects on who they had to protect the snails from. He names Walter Bissey, the town bully from Mala and his past, now a judge. Bissey used to make fun of Mala for her perceived queerness, that was apparently contagious from her mother. It’s so interesting how people how received joy from killing animals and bullying people for being queer often then become judges, police officers, and legislators. These people with political biases usually work within the system, which is made to benefit them already, and craft it to make it very difficult for LGBTQ+ people. They pass legislation on internet security and refuse to acknowledge the trans unemployment rate. This cycling of oppressive attitudes in the political world fuels the vicious cycle of the depletion of LGBTQ+ political power. These prejudices and personal biases go beyond simply offending others; they fan the flames of the subjugation of the LGBTQ+ community.