Amituckeredout

In honor of Pride Month, I had the honor of interviewing my friends, Parag Mehta and Vaibhav Jain,  a couple who has not just inspired the LGBTQ+ community, but also the South Asian community around the world.Last March, they tried to register their marriage with the Indian Consulate in NYC under India’s Foreign Marriage Act, which is a pretty standard process for Indian citizens who get married abroad (Parag is from Texas and Vaibhav is from Delhi).  This is their story, their journey really, from the time they got denied the registration at the NYC consulate to filing  a precedent-setting petition with the Delhi High Court, urging the Indian government and its Ministry of External Affairs to recognize same-sex marriages.We talk about the history of gay rights and laws in India, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, attorneys Menaka Guruswamy  and Arundhati Katju, the faces behind the historic Section 377 verdict in 2018, and other gay couples who are fighting for equal and inclusive rights in India.Parag an