When Adrienne Rich wrote Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence, she indicated the erasure of lesbian lives from heteronormative life worlds in the Anglo-American context. Lesbian existence is a critical way of fighting compulsory heterosexuality and speaks of bonds and friendships that go beyond sexual desire between two cis women. With the concept of the lesbian continuum, Adrienne Rich represented woman-identified experiences that carry the possibility of politically realigning the relationship between the lesbian and the feminist. This paper is interested in understanding the textures of companionship in the 1980s and 1990s in urban India among lesbian identifying cis women. We engage with the narratives of lesbian identifying individuals who developed companionship and kinship through social stigma, legal oppression and political erasure. Today, all above 50 years of age, their life journeys of discrimination and political togetherness help sharpen the lesbian continuum. In their narratives of companionship are folded stories of resistance, subversion and resilience, of opening up their homes and hearts for queer and trans* individuals to connect, form friendships and care networks. By focusing on these lives' spatial and historical contexts and struggles, we ask if lesbian companionship can sharpen the concept of the lesbian continuum to arrive at a renewed understanding of kinship, care and solidarity. Apart from resistance against compulsory heterosexuality, what other possibilities can lesbian companionships and lesbian continuum present for trans-feminist solidarities?
Biswas et al. (Fri,) studied this question.