It’s here, it’s queer! 🌈 @vogueindia 🌈 Our August issue comes together as a joyous tribute to the fearless & fabulous LGBTQIA+ community within the subcontinent & around the 🌏. Looking back through history, it’s clear our heritage, our art, our stories didn’t limit love or self by gender or prescriptive notions. The 12th C sculptures of #Khajuraho; medieval depictions of chapti (sapphic love) in Urdu writing; Sufi poets, Bulleh Shah, love for his murshid. We open our style section with #ChandBibi, the iconoclastic female warrior who introduced androgyny into her wardrobe on & off the battlefield way back in the 15th century. Fast forward & one can trace a timeline of “conformity & colonialism, power & misogyny” as @alokvmenon frames the subsequent standardisation of self-expression, gender, love & sex codified by the British Raj in 1861 which criminalised homosexuality reflecting Victorian English morality rather than Indian instincts. Yeah but, “You Won’t Break My Soul”. This issue is a resounding testament to that—& we’re telling everybody. @kalpeshlathigra travels across India capturing a sweeping series of non-heteronormative storytelling comprising drag queens, a throuple, a trio of models, a community art collective run by women & trans artists, a brown male makeup artist & the incredible first-of-its-kind transgender football team from India’s north-east, Ya-All FC (Manipuri for ‘revolution’). 🌈⚽️🌈 There’s a resounding, unifying thread woven throughout the stories told in our August issue which speaks to the inherent need for self-expression & the right to be who one is or wants to be, without the fear of violence. Fashion was one of the first safe spaces for the queer community, eloquently described as a template for possibility. 💘 @dameimfala @anjalilama_official @znali @glorious_luna @anoushkavirk @kawaiiiichan_ @shantanudhope @aravaniartproject @ya.all.northeast