in Delhi, builds a stark imagery of the complex expressions of self, guided by the spaces they occupy in the city. Their stories sketch out their discomfort and comfort within queer circles, the absences of caste discourse, and how it channels desire and sexuality for them. For example, on dating apps, some upper-caste men flaunt their status and explicitly discourage men of lower castes from applying. For many Dalit Bahujan queer and trans people, caste shame continues to overshadow desire and sexuality. Dhiran Borisa, curator of Across the Nala, talks about his own experiences of being a Dalit gay man and how he has had to hide behind his professorship even to access accommodations in the city, where he would be asked intrusive personal questions. “These questions haven’t been either-or questions of queerness and caste respectability, but they are enmeshed into each other,” he said. “They are reminders of the fact that I’m able to navigate these spaces because of the kind of life journey I have had and the position I have come to embody now.” But he adds that he also knows that it’s all fragile: “The way in which the wokeness and the progressiveness or even queerness of the city invites us into spaces, it is equally humiliating when it wants to show you the door.” Another journal that brings together essays on trans experiences of urban spaces is Urban Kaleidoscope by the People’s Resource Center. Its associate editor, Krishanu, an upper-caste queer and neurodivergent person, shares a fresh perspective on November–December 2025 23 navigating the city, with all its friendliness to their appearance. Their larger challenge was that navigating life in smaller towns and cities while growing up didn’t allow them any space to understand their sexuality. Moving to Delhi gave them that space, freedom, and agency to be as they are while dealing with the economic and environmental challenges of this city. “This is the only city that I have lived in for as long as ten years, and every locality I have been to, I have always found friendly neighborhoods,” they said. “It’s probably because I am a trans femme person, I receive a fair amount of love from strangers. While I don’t want to discount the discomfort and the violence I have also faced, I just don’t want violence to define my experience of the city.” They say city residents have a familiarity and a greater comfort with trans femme people. “As a trans femme person, existing in different public places has meant everything to me because people also share with you in ways that is very satisfying,” Krishanu said. “The many ways of existing for gender variant communities has been around historically, and that widens the sense of acceptance for me in society.” The experiences of Radhika, Borisa, and Krishanu give a sense of the complex terrain that Dalit trans queer people must navigate in urban India—a landscape in which liberation and exclusion exist in uncomfortable proximity. While cities like Delhi offer unprecedented freedom for gender expression and queer identity, they simultaneously reproduce the very caste hierarchies that progressive spaces claim to challenge. Discrimination against Dalit trans people dates back to the colonial era, when the Raj criminalized gendernonconforming people from marginalized castes. EL BOHÍO PRESS PRESENTS In its third edition, a groundbreaking book! COMING OF QUEER AGE IN PUERTO RICO by Joseph F. Delgado, author of The Tango of the Shipwreck andThat Other Plague “The ethnography of sexual harrassment.” —EFRAÍN BARRADAS “Excellent, compelling book!” —JOHN D’EMILIO “The author exposes the dark side of Puerto Rico’s hetero-normative culture.” —ALFREDO VILLANUEVA PAPERBACK • EBOOK • AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE AT
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