Definitions of sex and intimacy among gender and sexual minoritised groups in urban India

Abstract

Understandings of sex and intimacy carry important implications for individuals’ behaviours and health. In many research studies, sex is narrowly defined as penile-vaginal intercourse, which may exclude the experiences of sexual and gender minoritised individuals. Likewise, sexual intimacy, or intimacy related to sexual experience between two or more people, is under-researched. Even less is known about how sexual and gender minoritised individuals in countries such as India understand these concepts. This qualitative study included focus group discussions and interviews conducted in three urban areas in India – Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Data were analysed thematically. Participants described sex as a context-dependent experience, acknowledging that their definitions might not capture others’ characterisations. Participants reported numerous barriers to intimacy, especially for transgender and other gender minority individuals. We discuss the implications of simplistic definitions related to gender and sexuality for future sexuality research and public health in settings such as those discussed here.

Keywords:

• India
• LGBT
• sex
• intimacy
• definitions

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Acknowledgements

We thank participants for sharing their stories with us.

Notes

1 We use the acronym LGBT in this paper to refer to sexual and gender minoritised individuals, since this was the acronym used by participants to refer to this population.

2 This law criminalised same-sex sexual behaviours between adults.

3 Participants within this category identified as transgender, trans woman and feminine male to refer to being assigned male at birth but identifying as a trans person. Since ‘trans man’ is not a readily understood term in India, transgender often only refers to a trans woman.

4 Due to the nature of our community partners’ work and the status of LGBTQ + individuals in India, some participants were engaged in transactional sex. Like other contexts, not all participants who participated in this work identified sex work as their occupation or feel comfortable identifying it as ‘sex work’. We report the results of individuals who did and did not engage in sex work, together.

5 Participants’ characteristics are represented as follows: name, city, age, gender identity, sexual identity, data collection format: interview or FGD. For full participant characteristics, see Tables 1 and 2.

6 Tamil: உடலுறவு / uṭaluṟavu; Bengali: যৌন / jouno

7 Tamil: fucking (English word inserted into Tamil sentence); Bengali: (English word inserted into sentence or not used).

8 Tamil: லவ் பண்ேறன் / Love paṇṟēṉ; Bengali: ভালোবাসা / bhalobasha

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially funded through a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant (Grant #064138).