when kolkatas abhishek ray exchanged marital vows with his gurgaonbased partner chaitanya sharma at a city banquet on sunday the city of joy witnessed its first gay wedding as friends and family showered their love and blessings on the samesex couple it was a sight to behold and cherish for not just those in attendance but many others who have been hailing this as a big step towards achieving an inclusive society from gaye holud asirbad mehendi and sangeet to saat pheras malabodol and khoi porono a local priest conducted the wedding as per bengali rituals stop thinking log kya kahengewhile abhishek a fashion designer is a selfconfessed filmi at heart and a diehard romantic chaitanya a digital marketing expert is more practical ultimately love conquers all as it has no barriers caste creed religion and most importantly gender stop thinking log kya kahenge and start living your life your way said abhishekalthough the supreme court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018 samesex couples cannot get their marriage legally registered so we were sceptical about it at first but then thought a wedding ceremony was not a criminal act section 377 allows gay couples to be together said abhishek adding in a social wedding it is not just two people getting married but it is about two families coming together gay marriages might not be legal but doing this social event with loved ones is important to celebrate our love making this decision was not easy but we made it happen i guess this is the first gay wedding in kolkata and i hope this is followed by several such marriages and it becomes as natural and normal as any other weddinghope this encourages gay couples to enjoy life freelychaitanya who was holding his partners hand throughout the ceremony had revealed his sexual orientation to his family in 2016 it wasnt an easy journey but i managed to make them understand and with time they accepted me for who i am and even started being supportive when i told them i wanted to marry abhishek there was initial resistance so we gave them time to come to terms with it they eventually realised that this decision meant a lot to us and would make us both happy things started falling into place from there said chaitanya who hopes that their wedding will encourage others from the community to come forward and live their life as they wishfinding a priest wasnt easysamesex marriages continue to be a taboo in this part of the world so naturally finding a priest to solemnise the wedding was no mean task we approached several pandits to conduct the wedding rituals but most of them turned us down then i finally asked our family pandit and thankfully he has been extremely supportive he said what we are doing is extremely progressive and it will set a precedent for many couples like us he said our wedding would encourage them to come out and get married to the love