Two Indian men — Soibam Sandeep, 26 and Nikhil Sharma (wearing the dress), 28 — were the first same-sex couple to wed in Manipur, exchanging vows in front of 100 guests on Thursday after a six-year relationship. But they’re very quickly ending their union, after their families contacted the police and, through two hours of, ahem, “consult,” convinced the men to call it all off.
family pressure
Is This India’s Fastest Same-Sex Divorce?
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sad
That sucks! They were met with opposition from society, the police, and both of their families. I’m kind of sad that they caved; maybe they could’ve paved the way for other same-sex couples. đ
nikko
Er, why is one of them wearing a bride dress? He’s gay, not transgender.
Hyhybt
@nikko: I was confused by that as well, and by the news reports of their wedding calling one the husband and the other the wife. Apparently that’s the way they do it in India… so the next time someone asks *you* “which of you is the woman” you can tell them where to go.
indo_am
@Hyhybt: Its not correct to say “that’s the way they do it in India”. There have been other isolated cases of same-sex marriages in India – both gay and lesbian – where both spouses dressed as male (the gay cases) or as females.
Manipur is a very small state in the remote north-east of India, bordering China and Myanmar. The people there are racially closer to the Chinese and most are Christians.
Sam
Maybe one really IS transgender, and the media just reported it as a gay marriage out of confusion. Think of how many people in America still get gay and transgender confused, and now think of how little time mainstream Indian society has had to figure it all out. Plus, if the trans-gal is pre-op, or if the laws don’t allow a person to legally change his/her sex, then technically I guess it would be gay marriage.
Jason
@nikko: Because apparently all us gays wear dresses.
I was not approsed of this prior to accepting the assignment.