Jahed Choudhury, 24, and Sean Rogan, 19, were married June 22 in Walsall, England. Photos of the wedding, which took place at Walsall’s registry office, have since appeared on the BBC, The Independent, Gay Star News and a host of other international publications. It’s believed to be one of the U.K.’s first Muslim same-sex weddings.
Choudhury told The Express & Star that some family members were not supportive of the marriage and chose not attend the wedding, but he was ecstatic nonetheless. “Some of my family still call it a phase,” he said. “They think [homosexuality is] a disease and can be cured ... this is about showing people I don’t care.”
Watch footage of the ceremony, courtesy of The Express & Star, below:
The two men met in 2015 after Rogan spotted Choudhury crying on a park bench and approached him. They moved in shortly thereafter and got engaged last June. “He gave me hope at one of my lowest points,” Choudhury said, “and he’s stood by me all the way.”
After the wedding, the couple left for their honeymoon in Spain, which Choudhury called “a breath of fresh air.” Married life, he added, has been going great so far. “Now I am happy,” he told HuffPost UK. “I’m out and proud.”
NEW YORK, NY - CIRCA 1980: Gay Pride demonstration circa 1980 in New York City. (Photo by Arpadi/IMAGES/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - CIRCA 1980: Gay Pride demonstration circa 1980 in New York City. (Photo by Arpadi/IMAGES/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - CIRCA 1983: Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade circa 1983 in New York City. (Photo by PL Gould/IMAGES/Getty Images)
A gay rights march in New York in favour of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. (Photo by Peter Keegan/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 25: Participants in the 25 April 1993 gay rights march, held back by a line of parade marshals, scream and yell at a number of religious counter-demonstrators along the parade route. Hundreds of thousands of gay men and women joined in the march and rally to demand acceptance and equal rights. (Photo credit should read ARYEH RABINOVICH/AFP/Getty Images)
View along 6th Avenue as hundreds of people march (and drive) towards Central Park in a Gay Pride Parade, New York, New York, June 26, 1975. (Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images)
JUN 25 1978, JUN 26 1978; Marchers For Homosexual Rights Gather At Civic Center Pavilion; More than 1,000 men and women participated in march from Cheesman Park to the center for their rally. The group has a platform calling for an end of alleged police harassment, leggislative support of lesbian-gay rights and an end to discrimination based on sexual preference. It also asks that homosexuals be allowed to raise children. The marchers carried signs and chanted slogans during their march, which began at about noon Sunday.; (Photo By Kenn Bisio/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
View of the gay pride parade in Boston, Massachusetts, 1977. (Photo by Spencer Grant/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - CIRCA 1979: Gay Rights Demonstrators circa 1979 in New York City. (Photo by Images Press/IMAGES/Getty Images)
A crowd of gay rights protesters, including two priests, marching in the New York Gay Day Parade. (Photo by Peter Keegan/Getty Images)
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