There is a peculiar administrative burden to being bisexual. You tell someone you’re bisexual and, almost immediately, they want supplementary documentation. But which do you prefer?Are you sure you’re not gay? Are you sure you’re not straight?

It is remarkable how quickly a statement about your sexuality becomes a customer-service enquiry.

In India in 2026, bisexuality is more visible than it has ever been. Dating apps have given people the vocabulary, popular culture has become more willing to acknowledge sexual fluidity, and younger Indians seem considerably less attached to the idea that attraction must behave itself inside one of two boxes. Tinder’s 2023 India research, based on a survey of 1,000 young Indian daters aged 18–25, found that 33% said their sexual orientation was more fluid than it had been three years earlier, while 56% said they were open to dating people with diverse gender identities, sexual orientations and gender expressions.

That does not mean 33% of young Indians are bisexual. Fluidity and bisexuality aren’t interchangeable. But the number does suggest something has shifted: young people are becoming less convinced that attraction needs to come with a permanent Government-issued certificate.

A friend of mine has identified as bisexual for as long as I’ve known him. He isn’t someone who “discovered” bisexuality after a particularly confusing Saturday night. He has always known. What he has discovered, repeatedly, is that other people find the concept considerably more confusing than he does.

“With women, there’s always this question of whether I’m actually bi,” he tells me. “They want to know if I’m secretly gay, or if I’m eventually going to leave them for a man.”

With men, he says, the suspicion can go in the other direction. “Some gay men think you’re just not ready to admit you’re gay. And some men hear bisexual and think you’re automatically sexually adventurous.”

His problem isn’t necessarily rejection but the interrogation before the relationship can even begin. “I’m not confused,” he says. “I’m attracted to people.”

Proof in the research

Indian research has been documenting versions of this for years. A 2018........

© The Hindu