Communing and belonging in Mumbai's LBT scene.

Abstract

In Mumbai, new streams of private funding and shifting social milieu have supported the growth of LBT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) social and nightlife spaces. A more recent addition to the informal social networks, activist collectives, and support groups that have long comprised a lesbian scene in the city, these spaces are increasingly visible to the public. As greater visibility comes in parallel with homophobic nationalism, the LBT scene offers queer young adults the chance to resolve a disconnect between self-understanding and normative stigma by finding networks of support. However, as the queer expressions that unify these collectivities elide internal differences, Mumbai's LBT scene engenders tensions of inclusion. Drawing upon ethnographic research of queer digital and nightlife spaces in Mumbai, this essay examines how class and caste shape experiences of belonging in the LBT scene. It argues that material costs of access work in tandem with linguistic, aesthetic, and social norms to mediate inclusion in the middle-class LBT scene. Examining how upper-caste terms of desirability and status inform social norms in the scene, I show that caste intersects with class to further dictate belonging. I argue that in their practices of communing, lesbians confront the class/caste boundaries that encumber their pursuits of social support.