Abhay Dange (34) and Supriyo Chakraborty (31), a gay couple, exchanged wedding rings and vows at a private ceremony in Hyderabad on December 18, to be the first gay couple to enter wedlock in the Telugu states.
The wedding, held at a resort on the outskirts of the city, was attended by 60 family members and close friends and officiated by Sophia David, a transwoman from Hyderabad.
As same-sex marriages are not legally recognised in India, the couple held a promising ceremony and made their eight-year-long relationship official. They plan to register their marriage once queer couples are legally allowed to marry.
While Abhay is an IT professional who works for an e-commerce firm, Supriyo is a hospitality professional. Abhay hails from Punjab and Supriyo from Bengal. The ceremony, too, was held with Bengali and Punjabi traditions and included haldi, mehendi and sangeet.
The duo met on a dating app and announced their wedding in October. Though initially unsupportive, parents later accepted their relationship, said Supriyo.
The couple feels that their wedding will give hope to closet couples to come out and normalise LGBTQ relationships. The marriage of queer couples must also be legalised the way same-gender relationships were decriminalised, they said.