Homo and Juliet: Queer & Lesbian Love Stories, Shruti Chakravarty’s new book (Yoda Press, 2026), documents the rich, and diverse ways of living, resisting, imagining, and creating. How does one navigate queer intimacy? Shruti’s work is an important intervention in understanding the lives of queer women, trans folx, and non-binary persons – groups historically left out in India’s conversations on the LGBTQIA+ community largely on account of misogyny, transphobia, and patriarchy.
Writing about the templates available (or not) to queer folx to mirror their relationships, Shruti states that most queer folx grow up with a heterosexual template of loving. It is only through a process of learning and unlearning that a more nuanced language of intimacy and partnerships evolves, one which is not assimilationist and doesn’t mirror heterosexual relationships. Even within the queer community, non-normative ways of loving don’t often find acceptance and compassion. Conforming to heterosexual ways of loving is tantamount to falling into the trap of historical imbalance of power as represented in heteronormative relationships.
Through eight stories of queer love, Shruti focuses on the work, strength and creativity that queer persons often put into forming new languages of intimacies with a syntax that continues to offer more inclusive ways of loving. Through her own story with Pooja, Shruti writes about the multiple homes they have built, their relationships with natal families, houses they share with exes who are now integrated into chosen families. These possibilities simply don’t exist in a heterosexual union. Popular imagination decries the chastity of any woman seen walking with a man who was once her lover.
The state has a special interest in preserving a certain kind of heterosexual union – family of a man, woman and children born through peno-vaginal sex. It is clear in its refusal to give legal sanctity to queer families, whether through civil union or marriage. The Indian State and its law officers have repeatedly opposed the granting of rights to queer individuals even as the same state continues to extract taxes, cesses, and fines from this community. Everyday harassment is built into living a queer life in India. Social acceptance is also yet to become available to queer unions and family structures. As Shruti writes, it is not uncommon for queer partners to share a difficult relationship with their natal families; for instance, even introducing partners to parents is often rooted in scepticism and fear. That acceptance remains a far-fetched dream is a trope that is repeatedly brought out in almost all the accounts in the book. When Sap and Neel, celebrate their 25th anniversary, they are surrounded only by two close friends unlike where a similar event in a heterosexual union would be marked by much aplomb. In lesbian relationships, there is also an undertone of misogyny that dictates the attitude of families towards it. In Shourya and Khushi’s story, Khushi is beaten and confined to home because of her gender and Shourya has to let go of his rightful share in the family property to be with Khushi.
Acceptance even when it grazes such relationships is often conditional and problematic. Families often superimpose a cis het narrative on queer unions often categorising one partner as the ‘husband’ and another as the ‘wife’. The recognition of queer love is not concomitant with an acceptance to look beyond structures of caste and class. In India, notions of caste purity dictate the marriage market. Natal families often yearn for connections in the same caste and class even when they recognise the queerness of their children but, as Shruti notes, the radical potential of queer relationships is that it can dismantle unequal structures like marriage.
“It gave me goosebumps to look at how some of these relationships have survived in the absence of any social structure for ten – fifteen years”, Shruti says. Their survival in challenging circumstances points to their honesty and realness, she adds. The social structure denied to queer folx in the way of acceptance and support has to be built up from scratch. Collectives like LABIA that have been doing rescue and rehabilitation work with queer women is one part of what this structure looks like. Through the accounts mentioned in this book, one can notice the community coming together to build both the structures and the rituals that were never provided to it. The cis – het patriarchal set-up seeks to control women’s reproductive potential, and if a woman expresses romantic desires for another woman the backlash is both prolonged and severe.
Shruti writes about tenderness and the challenges of bringing up children in queer families through the story of Khushi and Shourya. Tejaswee, another queer woman whose account is mentioned in the book, chose to come out to her daughter and shares a close bond with her. “I have found that children of queer parents, of queer mothers or even queer fathers actually have the benefit of learning about diversity or being different, being celebrated for being different, about equality at a much younger age. Research points out that they are more resilient,” Shruti notes.
Queerness offers us the possibility to reimagine long-held and performed beliefs like that of masculinity. Shruti’s book is replete with instances of masculinity which is tender, non – threatening, loving in contrast to the violence, aggressiveness, domination present in a cis – het masculine presentation and its constant performance. This kind of thinking requires a radical outlook to question established norms and doesn’t happen by chance. Another queer author and activist Sunil Mohan, in Your Stick will not Break my Strength (Zubaan 2026), speaks similarly of his struggle with developing a nuanced language of masculinity and has written in detail on the fault lines within his community regarding a re-enaction of a cis-het way of being masculine and his work to constantly question it. In Sid and Preet’s story, Sid comes to terms with his gender presentation with his partner’s support to reaffirm his choices. Queer relationships provide the space to be authentic while affirming each other’s choices.
This book offers a look into the subversive potential of queer – trans relationships, community building, and companionship while documenting the many challenges such relationships continue to face across caste – class barriers. In a world where queer folx continue to be secluded, and shunned, Shruti’s book celebrates these narratives of diversity and inspires hope.
Cover image by Anant
