Threads of Diversity: Exploring Clothing Experiences of India’s LGBTQ Community

The LGBT community is a hidden population that has only recently started to integrate into mainstream society in India. Though the community has been studied extensively, the clothing of its members has not received the same attention as other fields. Present study was planned with the objective to ascertain the community's struggles with clothing in India. Both primary and secondary data were utilized for this purpose. A systematic Review of Literature was carried out to explore the previous studies in this field. This was followed by primary data collection. Eleven participants- six gay men, three transgender women, one pansexual woman and one bisexual man were recruited through snowball sampling and participated in telephonic interviews. Based on the content analyses, three themes were established; (1) Creation and expression of gender/sexual identity through clothing (2) Identification and procurement of clothing and (3) Need for acceptance and integration through Fashion and Media. Specific issues related to clothing along with certain clothing practices of the LGBT community were successfully observed in the present study.