Maitri Dore, or the more pop-culture friendly Dore Mai, as she calls herself on her blog, does illustrations for both children's books and LGBT magazines like Gaylaxy. A Mumbai-based architect, Dore has poetically managed to step out of India's sanskaari box. With her strongly political art, that looks like a child's innocent work (with crayons/pencil colour) at first, she gives out messages that most adults don't think of. "I always had an interest in the LGBTQ community and the issues it faces", Dore told The The Newsminute. "It is because of that I started contributing to online sites including Gaysi and Gaylaxy."

Sita Chooses

"This drawing first appeared in Volume 3 of The Gaysi Zine, 2015. It captures the ancient Indian marriage custom of the ‘swayamwara’ (practice of choosing one’s husband from a pool of suitors), and turns it on its head. The attempt is to show that in an egalitarian society, Sita’s choices for partner would be quite diverse and the ‘Rama’yana (ancient Hindu epic) would probably never have been."

Penilised

"For these women, heterosexuality is like a death sentence. ​T​he law does not permit homosexual relations and the penis becomes a noose around their necks, killing them both physically and in spirit."