Laxmi Narayan Tripathi

When Kavi started to appeal Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which made homosexuality a crime; Laxmi joined his team. During a press conference with the media and Zee TV she appeared in full makeup and women's clothing. This is when her parents found out about her association with the hijra community. It was shocking news as her parents were looking into marriage proposals. In an interview with BBC her father was asked about his thoughts on his child's sexuality he responded, "if my child was handicapped would you even ask me whether I’d have asked him to leave home? And just because his sexual orientation is different?"

Laxmi co-wrote her biography, Red Lipstick, with Pooja Pande. The book was published by Penguin in 2016.

In April 2014 Indian Supreme Court recognized transgender rights, officially recognizing them as a third gender which gives relief to an estimated 3 million people within India. Laxmi along with a legal agency had petitioned the court to recognize transgender as a third category on all documents. Alongside this recognition the courts have ordered the government to provide quotas in jobs and education, similar to the ones for other minority groups in India. Governments were also ordered by apex courts to construct third washrooms and create health departments to take care of transsexual medical needs. They will also be entitled to adopt children and after reassignment surgery identify with their gender of choice.

In 2011 Laxmi starred in Queens! Destiny of Dance, an award-winning Bollywood movie about hijras that garnered rave reviews.

Laxmi starred in an award-winning documentary in 2005, Between the Lines: India's Third Gender.

Laxmi has served on the boards of several NGOs which conduct LGBT activist work. In 2002 she became president of the NGO DAI Welfare Society, the first registered and working organization for eunuchs in South Asia. In 2007 she started her own organization, Astitiva. This organization works to promote the welfare of sexual minorities, their support and development.

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (known as Laxmi, sometimes transliterated as Lakshmi) is a transgender rights activist and Bharatanatyam dancer in Mumbai, India. She was born in Malti Bai Hospital on 13th Dec 1978 in Thane. Laxmi is a hijra. She is the first transgender person to represent Asia Pacific in the UN in 2008. At the assembly, she spoke of the plight of sexual minorities. "People should be more human like. They should respect us as humans and consider our rights as transgenders," she said. She was a contestant on the popular reality show Bigg Boss in 2011.