Grooms marry in same-sex Muslim wedding to show the world you can be gay and Muslim
A couple from the UK have married in traditional Muslim attire in what could be the UK's first same-sex marriage involving a Muslim person.
Jahed Choudhury, 24, and Sean Rogan, 19, claim to be the first couple to have a same-sex Muslim marriage. The pair got hitched in Islamic dress at a registry office in Walsall, West Midlands, on 22 June.
The couple -- who've been together since 2015 -- hope other gay Muslims will see their wedding and find the courage to come out to their loved ones. They want to show the world it's possible to be gay and Muslim.
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"I just hope other gay Muslims see this as well," Choudhury told the Express and Star. "And they know that they've got support from other gay people," Rogan added.
Choudhury told the Express and Star he felt like the "black sheep" of his Bangladeshi Muslim family and he'd been repeatedly bullied at school, banned from his mosque, and attacked by other Muslims from his community.
"I stood out like a sore thumb – I never liked football, I preferred watching fashion shows on TV. I remember feeling trapped," said Choudhury. "It went all over school, people would spit on me, empty the rubbish bins on me, call me pig and the Muslim people would shout 'haram' -- which is a very nasty insult in my language."
"This is about showing people I don't care, my family doesn't want to come on the day, they just don't want to see it, it's too embarrassing for them," says Choudhury. "I want to say to all people going through the same thing that's it's okay – we're going to show the whole world that you can be gay and Muslim."
Same-sex marriages have been taking place in the UK since March 2014 after legislation was passed by parliament in 2013.
Congrats to the happy couple!
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
