Gay marriage case could bring gold rush to Indian wedding industry
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A ruling to allow same-sex couples to marry would be a huge boost to the LGBTQ+ wedding industry in the country of more than 1.4 billion people, where families often spend the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars on lavish ceremonies that can last for several days. Indians spend a fifth of the total wealth accumulated in their lifetime on their weddings, according to loan provider Reliance Money, in a trillion rupee ($12 billion) industry.
Since the Indian government decriminalized homosexuality in 2018 and the subsequent hearing of the legalization of same-sex marriage by India's Supreme Court, a group of LGBTQ couples have reinvented India's elaborate traditional wedding ceremonies. With no legal recognition of same-sex marriages in India, it's impossible to say how many couples have decided to marry, but a growing market for LGBTQ-focused matrimonial apps and the rise of so-called "gay-wedding" planners suggests it's a trend that is growing.
The wedding of Chaitanya Sharma and Abhishek Ray made the newspapers. Not because they’re famous (they aren’t), or because anything had gone awry (it hadn’t). Their union became a local news event because they’re both men, insistent on cementing their relationship with all the fanfare of a traditional marriage ceremony, even though their vows aren’t legally recognized in the
Marriage is a heteronormative standard for respectability, but does everyone want it?