Mother’s Day: Meet the mother who placed India’s first gay matrimonial ad
Updated On: 14 May, 2023 05:00 PM IST | Mumbai | Katyayani Kapoor
While placing a matrimonial ad looking for a groom is not uncommon, when Mumbai-based Padma Iyer did the same for her son Harish Iyer, it turned out groundbreaking. Believed to be India’s first gay matrimonial ad, this unique advertisement attracted hundreds of responses and fuelled conversation around same-sex marriage
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Equal rights activist Harish Iyer with his mother Padma Iyer
"Nothing came out of it, but I am happy that it became a breakfast discussion", recalls Padma Iyer as she beams with pride over the groundbreaking matrimonial advertisement that she had placed in Mid-Day back in 2015. For Mrs Iyer, she had simply put up a matrimonial ad that was lodged silently between the rest of the ads looking for a suitable match. Just like the majority of mothers, her intention was simple: to see her son Harish happily married. After numerous rejections by other publications on the grounds of ‘legal problems’, when the ad was finally accepted and published by Mid-Day, little did she know that it would spark a social media revolution. Mrs. Iyer’s email was flooded with hundreds of responses that not only included proposals from around the world but also hateful and homophobic messages from the outraged. It was India’s first gay matrimonial ad.
Padma Iyer, a simple homemaker, had accomplished the extraordinary. But was her journey as a rainbow parent that simple? As expected, not.
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