Inside the lives of $#@! people in heterosexual marriages...
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To their families, Sarah and Bilal check all the boxes of a perfect married couple. The husband and wife are wealthy, successful doctors living in an upscale suburb in Pakistan.
What their loved ones don’t know is that theirs is a “lavender marriage,” or a marriage of convenience. Sarah and Bilal are both gay but share a straight-passing commitment to spend the rest of their lives together as husband and wife. The couple’s names, along with others interviewed for this article, have been changed upon request for their safety and privacy.
In Pakistan, where homosexuality is criminalized under discriminatory colonial-era laws, the LGBTQ community faces a constant risk of violence and prejudice. Although legal penalties for homosexuality are rarely enforced, many Pakistani $#@! people live closeted lives fearing abuse, harassment, forced marriage and ostracism from their families and communities. Some, like Sarah and Bilal, choose to hide their identities through straight-presenting marriages. The practice is a means of simultaneously protecting their identities and appeasing societal marital pressures.
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https://historydaily.org/famous-holl...nder-marriages