In the feel-good love story we needed to kick off a fresh — and hopefully more loving — year, two women in Uttar Pradesh have married each other, after each weathered a forced marriage and subsequent divorce.
The women, whom Hindustan Times reports were married in a temple on Saturday, fell in love in college six years ago. What followed was cinematic, though it was likely not very entertaining for the two women who lived it: Their relationship discovered by their families, they were forced to drop out of college, separated, and each married off to men. Over the next six years, they divorced their respective husbands, renouncing any claim to marital property, and reunited, fighting a legal battle to stay together.
“Our lawyer has told us that since the Supreme Court has done away with Section 377, we can stay together. No one can trouble us. We have been living together as a couple for some time now,” one of the women told HT.
Unfortunately, despite last year’s repeal of Section 377, the law that criminalized homosexuality, same sex marriages and partnerships are yet to be recognized under Indian law. The local registrar has refused to recognize their marriage, the couple’s lawyer says. The registrar, who has since retired, says he could not do so because the forms to register same sex marriages don’t exist.
Something tells me these two women, no strangers to legal battles, will be working to change that, for themselves and for others. Congratulations, you two.
