While use of the term trans in South Asia can be traced back no more than two decades, gender-variant communities have existed in the region for centuries. Following its use by transnational HIV/AIDS developmental funding programs in the 2000s, trans (expressed and institutionalized more often as transgender in South Asia) was adopted as an umbrella term by local communities and social [Page 798]movements. This expansion of the term produces some conflicts between universalizing conceptions of trans identities and regional/local gender-sexual configurations and knowledges.