India and Nepal have recently decriminalised homosexuality, but LGBTQIA+ individuals still face significant stigma, discrimination, and abuse against them, which remains widespread in the South Asian region. However, the recent recognition of the hijra, third gender, or the transgender category in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India goes beyond the gender binary and gives a new ray of hope. In November 2013, the government of Bangladesh officially recognised ‘hijra sex’ alongside male and female. Pakistan celebrated its first Trans Pride Parade in 2018, and people in Sri Lanka and Bhutan now have the right to change their gender. Despite these positive developments in the region regarding the acceptance of gender diversity, these non-binary individuals have often been regarded as ‘impotent’, ‘asexual’, and ‘born with ambiguous genitalia’. Due to the prevailing laws and the societal norms that prohibit same-sex relationships in South Asian countries, trans, hijra, or third-gender individuals are at the forefront of the struggle for recognition of their diversity and rights in the region. Therefore, this paper sets out the new realities of gender diversity emerging in South Asia against the Western currents of LGBTQIA+ activism, in which lesbian or gay individuals generally lead. It explores the regional (South Asian) scholarship on LGBTQIA and analyses how it will develop various avenues of new knowledge regarding the issues.