It is evident that the LGBTQIA+ community suffers from stigma and negative stereotyping leading to unacceptability, uncertainty of future and exclusion from the so-called mainstream society and its institutions that believe in the binary of sexes and sexual expressions. Even after changes in the laws and also tremendous resistance from the LGBTQIA+ community in different parts of the world, and deepening of democratic and open expressions of the identities, the stigma, stereotyping and labeling of the community as deviant, unwanted and something to be banished continues to exist. Universities are the sites where the youth faces the dilemmas of these kinds of orientations and gender expressions. They also are the sources of collective expression of rights and also resistance to claim their space and fight for acceptance of the community. Urban youth and the university become the sites of struggle for acceptance, expression and claiming identity. It is in this context, the paper intends to understand the presence and experiences of a few university youth identifying themselves with the LGBTQIA+ community in the urban cosmopolitan context of Delhi. The paper thus intends to understand the hopes, expectations and aspirations of the individuals associated with the LGBTQIA+ identity and the challenges faced by them inside and outside of the University spaces.
Objectives: To Understand the experiences of people from LGBTQIA+ in terms of life journey and aspirations
To understand their experiences in educational institutions in a cosmopolitan context
