In 2016, when Navi Mumbai couple Rakesh and Renu Sharma's daughter Ria, came out as lesbian, they were accepting and empathetic. They had an inkling about the 16-year-old's orientation given the subtle signs. "For instance, her taste in clothes was androgynous and she would often head to the male section at clothing stores," says mother Renu, 45.

The coming out confession, therefore, wasn't a bolt from the blue. What did come as a surprise, was the subsequent declaration a few months later, when Ria identified herself as gender-fluid. "We didn't know what it meant, although she did try to educate us," says Rakesh, who along with Renu, runs Lilac Insights Pvt Ltd, a genetic-testing start-up in Mahape. It was in the same year that Oxford English Dictionary added the term to its fold, defining it as "a person who does not identify with a single fixed gender; of or relating to a person having or expressing a fluid or unfixed gender identity."