Advocating for LGBT Rights: Lakshya Trust and Humsafar Trust’s Contributions

When we talk about social justice in the country, one conversation that has steadily moved from the margins to the mainstream is the fight for dignity and equal rights for sexual minorities. For decades, LGBT individuals have navigated a landscape of legal hostility, social stigma, and institutional neglect. Yet, the landscape is shifting – and much of that change can be credited to grassroots community-based organisations (CBOs) that have done the hard, often invisible work of advocacy, service delivery, and community mobilisation. Two names stand out in this journey: Lakshya Trust in Gujarat and Humsafar Trust in Mumbai. Together, they represent how civil society can step in where the state falls short, building both safety nets and social movements.

Why community-based organisations matter for sexual minorities 🔗

Sexual minorities in India have historically faced a peculiar double bind. Until 2018, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalised consensual same-sex relations, pushing an entire community into the shadows. Even after the Supreme Court’s 2018 verdict decriminalised homosexuality, social acceptance, healthcare access, legal recourse, and workplace inclusion remained patchy at best.

This is where community-based organisations become essential. Unlike top-down government programmes, CBOs are built by and for the communities they serve. They understand the lived realities – the fear of police harassment, the difficulty of coming out to family, the blackmail, the stigma around HIV testing, the violence. They offer services that are culturally competent, peer-led, and rooted in empathy. In short, they fill the gaps that no government scheme or hospital desk ever quite manages to close.

The Indian context: a community waiting to be seen 🔗

India officially recognises the transgender community as the “third gender” following the NALSA judgment of 2014, and homosexuality was decriminalised in 2018. But legal recognition does not automatically translate into lived equality. In October 2023, the Supreme Court declined to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage, leaving same-sex couples without rights to inheritance, joint adoption, insurance, or hospital visitation. For many LGBT persons, the community organisation is the only institution that treats them as full citizens.

Lakshya Trust: a prince, a mission, and a movement 🔗

Few organisations have origin stories as cinematic as Lakshya Trust. Founded in 2000 by Manvendra Singh Gohil, the crown prince of the erstwhile princely state of Rajpipla in Gujarat, the trust emerged at a time when the very word “gay” was taboo in most Indian households. Manvendra publicly came out in March 2006, becoming the first member of an Indian royal family to do so – a declaration that triggered headlines around the world and, in his hometown, effigies burnt in protest.

Instead of retreating, he channelled that backlash into a sustained campaign for health, dignity, and rights. Registered as a public charitable trust and headquartered in Vadodara, Lakshya describes itself as a community-based, community-led organisation working across the social, economic, legal, psychological, spiritual, and health dimensions of gay, bisexual, and transgender lives in Gujarat.

HIV/AIDS prevention as a gateway to rights 🔗

Lakshya’s earliest and most sustained focus has been HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender populations. The choice was strategic. MSM and transgender communities in India face disproportionately high HIV prevalence, largely because stigma keeps them away from public health systems. By running drop-in centres, peer-led outreach, and STI clinics, Lakshya effectively builds a bridge between an invisible population and mainstream healthcare.

Today, Lakshya operates outreach programmes that reach thousands of MSM, female partners of MSM, and transgender individuals across Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot. It is also a partner to the Gujarat State AIDS Control Society and a member of the Integrated Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM). In 2006, it was recognised with the UNAIDS Civil Society Award for its contribution to HIV prevention among homosexual men.

Beyond health: gender equity and shelter 🔗

Gender equity is the second pillar of Lakshya’s work. Transgender persons in Gujarat – locally known as Kinnars – often face family rejection, housing insecurity, and limited employment opportunities. To address this, Lakshya collaborated with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on Garima Greh, a pilot shelter home for transgender persons inaugurated in Vadodara in November 2020. The home provides food, medical care, and recreational facilities to those disowned by their families. Manvendra has also opened portions of his ancestral palace grounds in Rajpipla as a community shelter and skills-training campus for LGBTQ+ youth.

The Kinnar community and COVID-19: an unexpected story of solidarity 🔗

One of the most moving chapters in Lakshya’s recent history unfolded during the COVID-19 lockdown. With traditional sources of income – badhai ceremonies, weddings, public begging – shut down overnight, the Kinnar community was pushed to the brink. But instead of simply receiving aid, members of the community became the givers.

In Vadodara, Kinnar members led by Noori Kanwar mobilised to feed the poorest in their neighbourhoods. Lakshya Trust helped them obtain travel passes during the nationwide curfew while the Kinnars dipped into their personal savings – nearly Rs 40,000 – to buy cooked food and dry ration packets for almost a thousand households. Some even mortgaged their gold jewellery, which for the Kinnar community functions as a retirement fund, to keep the kitchens running.

The episode showed what CBOs do at their best: they don’t just deliver services, they transform beneficiaries into agents of change. It also illustrated how marginalised groups often show up for the broader society even when the broader society has not shown up for them.

Humsafar Trust: India’s oldest LGBT community organisation 🔗

If Lakshya is the passionate younger sibling, Humsafar Trust is the seasoned elder of India’s LGBT movement. Founded in April 1994 by journalist Ashok Row Kavi along with co-founders Suhail Abbasi and filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan, Humsafar is widely acknowledged as India’s first community-based organisation dedicated to LGBTQ+ people. After persistent negotiation with the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, it became the first openly gay CBO to be allotted space in a municipal building in the city – a small but symbolically enormous victory.

What began as Friday drop-in sessions at a small centre in Santa Cruz has evolved into a multi-pronged institution. Humsafar now runs clinics, research wings, legal support desks, crisis-response teams, and policy advocacy programmes, employing a staff of more than two hundred people across projects.

Legal support, crisis management, and advocacy 🔗

One of Humsafar’s most distinctive contributions has been in the domain of legal support and crisis management. LGBT individuals frequently face extortion, blackmail, police harassment, and domestic violence, often with nowhere to turn. Humsafar’s counselling and crisis intervention teams handle cases ranging from forced conversion therapy to family-initiated confinement to cases of intimate-partner abuse. Its support group Umang focuses on lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, while Yaariyan supports young LGBT people and Sanjeevani works with people living with HIV.

Humsafar’s advocacy reach is equally impressive. The organisation was among the key petitioners in the case that led to the historic 2018 Supreme Court verdict striking down Section 377 and decriminalising consensual same-sex relations. Founder Ashok Row Kavi, CEO Vivek Anand, chairperson Suhail Abbasi, and staff members Yashwinder Singh and Gautam Yadav were all named petitioners.

The online petition for LGBTQ+ civil rights 🔗

The 2018 judgment was a landmark, but Humsafar recognised that decriminalisation alone was not enough. In June 2020, at the close of Pride Month, the trust launched an online petition calling on the Government of India to extend basic civil rights to the LGBTQ+ community. The petition demanded recognition of same-sex marriage, adoption rights, anti-discrimination laws, and gender-neutral rape laws that acknowledge sexual violence against gay men and transgender persons.

Additional demands included inheritance rights for same-sex partners and the right to jointly own property, take housing loans, and extend insurance and employment benefits to same-sex spouses. Within a week of its launch, the petition had already gathered around 1,200 signatures, and it continues to serve as a reference document for policy conversations on LGBTQ+ civil rights.

Healthcare and integrated services 🔗

In the health domain, Humsafar inaugurated India’s first integrated community-based HIV treatment centre and LGBTQ+ clinic in Santa Cruz, Mumbai. Supported by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS), the clinic offers counselling, HIV testing, anti-retroviral therapy, and mental health support under one roof. The model is now being studied as a template for similar community-based facilities elsewhere in the country.

The bigger picture: what these organisations teach us about civil society 🔗

Looking at Lakshya and Humsafar together, a few lessons about the role of civil society in social justice stand out.

Filling institutional gaps 🔗

Traditional institutions – government hospitals, police stations, family courts – are often ill-equipped to serve sexual minorities with sensitivity. CBOs provide specialised, tailored services that mainstream systems cannot. From HIV testing that does not judge, to legal aid that understands queer family structures, to shelters that feel like home rather than charity, these organisations fill critical gaps.

Moving from service delivery to rights advocacy 🔗

Both trusts began as health-focused service organisations but have gradually expanded into rights-based advocacy. This evolution reflects a crucial insight: you cannot separate health from dignity, or HIV prevention from legal equality. A community that is criminalised, harassed, and disowned cannot be expected to access clinics freely. Rights work and welfare work are two sides of the same coin.

Building leadership from within 🔗

Perhaps the most important contribution of these organisations is leadership development. They train peer educators, counsellors, and advocates from within the community, so that the movement for change is led by the people most affected by it. The Kinnar community’s COVID-19 response, Manvendra Singh Gohil’s global advocacy, and Humsafar’s growing bench of young activists all demonstrate the power of community-led leadership.

Using partnerships strategically 🔗

Neither Lakshya nor Humsafar works in isolation. Both partner with government bodies like NACO, international agencies like UNAIDS, academic institutions, media organisations, and corporate CSR programmes. Humsafar, for example, received support from the Google.org Charitable Giving Fund in 2023 to expand its advocacy, crisis support, and legal assistance programmes. Strategic partnerships help CBOs scale their impact without compromising community ownership.

Challenges that remain 🔗

Despite significant progress, the work is far from done. Same-sex couples still lack legal recognition of their relationships. Discrimination in employment, housing, and healthcare persists. Transgender persons continue to be pushed into informal and precarious livelihoods. Rural LGBT individuals, in particular, remain largely invisible to policy makers.

Funding is another ongoing challenge. Many CBOs depend heavily on HIV/AIDS programme grants, which can narrow their scope and leave them vulnerable to shifts in donor priorities. Diversifying funding sources, building domestic philanthropic support, and strengthening volunteer networks are long-standing goals for the sector.

And then there is the slow, stubborn work of changing hearts and minds. Laws can be rewritten overnight; social attitudes take generations to shift. This is precisely why community-based organisations remain indispensable – they are present for the long haul, one conversation, one clinic visit, one court case at a time.

What do you think? As you reflect on the journey of Lakshya Trust and Humsafar Trust, consider this: should the responsibility of protecting and empowering sexual minorities rest primarily with community-based organisations, or should the state take a more proactive role in ensuring equal rights and dignity? And what role can ordinary citizens – students, professionals, neighbours – play in turning legal victories into everyday social acceptance?

References

1. https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2009/october/20091011humsafartrust
2. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(24)00144-6/fulltext
3. https://www.lakshya-trust.org/who-we-are/about-manvendra-singh-gohil
4. https://give.do/discover/G51/lakshya-trust/
5. https://www.lakshya-trust.org/what-we-do/queer-a-community-campus-rajpipla
6. https://blackhattalent.com/talent/book-prince-manvendra-singh-gohil/
7. https://thebetterindia.com/227834/transgenders-coronavirus-lockdown-distributing-essentials-hunger-survival-gujarat-inspiring-india/
8. https://humsafar.org/about-us/
9. https://www.fairplanet.org/story/indias-first-hiv-treatment-centre-and-clinic-for-the-lgbtq/
10. https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/07/06/mumbai-lgbt-india-petition-same-sex-marriage-adoption-trans/
11. https://www.likhowithpride.com/blogs/the-humsafar-trust-launches-online-petition-for-lgbtq-civil-rights/
12. https://humsafar.org/advocacy/