The central claim of this paper is that contemporary art by women and queers -exemplified in this text by the installation “Hamra Hamra” (2013) from feminist artist Sonia Kallel and new digital works from queer artist Khalil Ayari- responds to the Tunisian state’s manufactured progressive identity through engagement with themes such as the entanglement of queer and female bodies with politics in visual representation. Ironically, the state’s modernist identity is based primarily on the regulation of sexuality through procreative marriage. The artworks addressed use sexuality to make claims that undermine state power through subtle evocations of sexuality, sensuality, and the erotic. This paper therefore elucidates the unique relationship between Tunisian liberalism as premised on sexual repression and artworks with themes of sexuality that touch the fundamental meanings of human social relations. As in many Middle Eastern regions, the heteronormative family is the basic unit of social organization (Hasso 2010), but unlike in other countries, Tunisia’s self-presentation as a supporter of personal liberty and defender of women’s rights is at odds with the reality of its social conservatism and the selective enforcement of its penal code. The fundamental issue to be addressed in Tunisian sexual politics is that the maintenance of strict gender roles also maintains the state. The compulsory heterosexuality (Rich 1978) of Tunisian women remains structured around the presentation of a certain type of modern woman whose liberation is codified always on state terms. LGBT individuals, on the other hand, experience oppression from a society that openly rejects their sexual identity yet delights in non-normative sexual relationships behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the Tunisian state itself is openly homophobic, but covertly sexist. The tension between the presentation of a forward-thinking democracy and the reality of Tunisian sexual expression is evident when various forms of the Tunisian Constitution and Penal Code are held alongside artworks that have clear sexual undertones but that also strongly evoke contemporary governmental politics and state bureaucracy. Artistic engagement with these conditions elucidates the particular relationship of the Tunisian state to its citizens and of the citizens to one another regarding sexuality, cultural freedom, and political contribution. These works provide invaluable evidence for an analysis of the inextricable workings of art and politics in the Tunisian context.