It is said that love has no boundaries. A US-based Indian engineer tied the knot with his Vietnamese gay partner on 30 December at Yavatmal in Maharashtra.
This happened days before the Supreme Court agreed to review the criminalisation of homosexuality. Responding to a petition filed by members of the gay, bisexual and transgender community, a three-person bench of judges referred Section 377 to a larger bench for reconsideration, noting that Indians who are gay “should never remain in a state of fear,” and that “societal morality also changes from age to age.”
Keeping in mind the legal ambiguity with regard to gay marriage in India, the police chose to look the other way.
Forty-year-old Hrishi Mohankumar Sathawane, married Vinhi, with the blessings of friends and family at a hotel very close to the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP).
Hrishi completed his B-Tech from IIT-Bombay and went on to live in California. He currently holds a US green card. As per his social media posts, Hrishi’s parents were initially against his homosexual relationship. However, he somehow managed to convince them. His partner, 35-year-old Vinhi, is of Vietnamese origin and holds a Bachelors Degree in liberal studies and has been teaching in schools across Uzbekistan, China, and US.
As per Mumbai Mirror’s reports, the couple met in October 2016 via an online dating website. Hrishi has also posted a couple of pictures on his social media handle which show that the two got engaged in mid-2017. They even had an American wedding in October.
Though the owners of the hotel claimed it was a simple ceremony, the Facebook posts of the couple's friends have made it apparent that the celebration was held in Yavatmal. The photos have bombarded social media platforms and have received hundreds of likes.
(With inputs from Times of India and Mumbai Mirror)
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