Excerpts from the conversation:
Shruti Janardhan: So, I watched Badhaai Do recently, and I am sure that you already know this, but it’s about a marriage between a closeted gay cop and a lesbian PT teacher. I wanted to hear some of your thoughts on “lavender marriage” as a term, as an act of self-preservation, and as an act of resistance against the legal heterosexual framework within which it exists.
Madhavi Menon: I saw the term for the first time in the email that you sent me. I have no idea what it means. What is it?
SJ: A lavender marriage is one of convenience between two people who are queer so that they can be protected from a lot of the pressure from their respective families and immediate communities. It becomes a way for them to live authentically in a specific arrangement while appearing heterosexual for the sake of self-preservation. I think the term was popularly…