A Gay Couple in Pakistan

Trust me I'm more amazed than you are.

As rare as they may be, as hard as they may be to find, gay couples do exist in Pakistan. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting one such couple today. R and A (an openly gay couple would have been too good to be true) have been together for the past ten years. Their bond requires no piece of paper, no stamp of approval by society. Their sexualities remain hidden from the rest of the world. I complain about not being able to come out to certain friend and family members, they simply don't feel the need to tell anyone. I find the society around me to be oppressive, they are completely blind to the views of the people around them and because of their lack of vision, society doesn't seem to notice their love.

Two men holding hands or hugging in public are norms in our society. Every day we pass such men, never suspecting that their relationship would be of a sexual nature. Perhaps my fear of society is just simple paranoia. Perhaps my discontent is completely unjustified. After all, I've never been harassed due to my sexual orientation. People are unaware of my orientation unless I reveal it to them. R and A live together and manage just fine.

I sat with the two for quite a while and I noticed not a spec of fear of being discovered. Society may be completely unaware of their love but to me, their love was obvious. In the way A would look into R's face as though he was asking 'are you OK?' to the way R's dark masculine arm would occasionally grasps A's fair smooth elbow as if to say 'I'm not that old, you don't have to worry about me yet, but I still love you.'

R may be twenty years older than A, but there seemed to be no signs of miscommunication between the two. In fact, the two barely spoke to each other at all during our meeting. There mouths no longer need to move in order for them to communicate. The two know one another so well that each part of their bodies can speak a language that only the other can understand.

I know the above paragraph is full of cliches but R and A's relationship can be used to make the cheesiest love song known to man. R and A will never know exactly how happy they've made me. I am now hopeful that I too will find a way to make peace with this society and although I have always claimed that long term relationships aren't right for me, I still can't help but hope to fall madly in love.

I spent only a few hours with the couple but I feel as though during that short period of time, the couple changed me from a pessimistic realist to a hopeless romantic.