Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights in India have expanded in the 21st century, although much of India's advancements on LGBT rights have come from the judiciary and not the legislature. LGBTQ people in India face legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ people. There are no legal restrictions on sex between men or between women. Same-sex couples have some limited cohabitation rights, colloquially known as live-in relationships. However, India does not currently provide for common-law marriage, same-sex marriage, civil union or unregistered cohabitation.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 recognises the right to self-perceived gender identity, and new identification documents confirming the change of gender can be issued by government agencies once a certificate is provided by a relevant medical official. Transgender citizens have a constitutional right to register themselves under a third gender.

Some states protect hijras, a traditional third gender population in South Asia through housing programmes, and offer welfare benefits, pension schemes, free operations in government hospitals as well as other programmes designed to assist them. The 2011 census recorded approximately 480,000 transgender people in India.

Since the 2010s, LGBTQ people in India have been increasingly tolerated and accepted. A poll in 2023 by Pew Research Center found that 53% of Indians supported the legalisation of same-sex marriage, while 43% were opposed. According to research in 2024, 79% of gay men and 44% of bisexual men have experienced verbal abuse or physical violence. Muslim respondents were 2.6 times more likely to face sexual violence compared to respondents whose religion was Hindu, and respondents who were out about their sexuality in public were five times more likely to face violence than those who were not.

There were no legal restrictions on homosexuality or transsexuality for the general population prior to early modern period and colonialism. However, certain dharmic moral codes^[which?] forbade sexual misconduct (of both heterosexual and homosexual nature) among the upper class of priests and monks, and religious codes of non-Hindu religions such as Christianity and Islam forbade homosexuality among their followers.

Hinduism describes a third gender that is equal to other genders, as documented in ancient Hindu and Buddhist medical texts. The term "third gender" is sometimes viewed as a specifically South Asian term, and this third gender is also found throughout South Asia and East Asia.

There are certain characters in the Mahabharata who, according to some versions of the epic, change genders, such as Shikhandi, who is sometimes said to be born as a female but identifies as male and eventually marries a woman. Bahuchara Mata is the goddess of fertility, worshipped by hijras as their patroness.

The Nāradasmṛti and the Sushruta Samhita, two important Sanskrit texts relating to dharma and medicine, respectively, declare homosexuality to be unchangeable and forbid homosexuals from marrying a partner of the opposite sex.