Soibam Sandeep and Nikhil Sharma exchange rings in Imphal West district on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, March 25: Dressed in a sleeveless white wedding gown, Nikhil Sharma married his lover of six years, Soibam Sandeep, in Manipur’s first public gay wedding after Delhi High Court decriminalised homosexuality on July 2 last year.

Both beauticians by profession, the two exchanged wedding rings before a curious crowd at the auditorium of Leimayol Art Centre at Chingamakha of Imphal West this afternoon.

“My happiness is boundless. I am very happy today. I realised a long cherished dream,” 28-year-old Sharma said after the wedding.

This is the second time a man married another in Manipur but today’s is the first public wedding.

Wahengbam Dinesh, 20, married Karam Rakesh, 21, at a small ceremony in Sharma Lone Beauty Parlour, owned by today’s bride and located at Khongman of Imphal East, on November 25.

Both Dinesh and Rakesh were present today as the best friends of the groom and the “bride”.

Sharma was escorted to the podium by Rakesh, while Sandeep, wearing a blue suit and a white and grey striped tie, was led by Dinesh.

Sharma smiled when 26-year-old Sandeep lifted the veil off the bride’s face even as the audience burst in a thundering applause.

Not everyone’s response, however, was as encouraging.

Though the bride had distributed invitations to about 100 colleagues, only a few turned up.

Several homosexuals turned up wearing traditional Manipuri women’s wedding apparel.

In the crowd, it was difficult to identify the women from the gays.

Only one woman relative each of the bride and groom turned up. Both maintained that they did not approve of the wedding.

They even refused to give their names and requested the media not to mention the names of the fathers of the couple and their localities in their reports.

The only one to walk up to the podium to bless the couple, and wish them a happy married life was L. Radharani Devi, a nurse at the government-run Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital.

She called Sharma her daughter and Sandeep his son-in-law.

Though it was a Christian-style wedding, no priest was present to declare the two man and wife.

“We are not Christians. We are holding the ceremony in this manner because we wanted the Christian-style wedding,” Sharma said.

The couple will live at the parlour since Sandeep’s family drove him out of his house sometime back because of his relationship with Sharma.