“I fell in love with her voice when I heard her on the phone for the first time. I can’t exactly point out why, but I felt drawn towards her. And after speaking to her it felt like I had developed a special kind of attraction.”
The first time Dipan Chakraborty heard Tista Das was when he called an organisation that provides Sex Reassignment Surgery. Dipan says he was in an abusive relationship with a woman and shared their problems with Tista. Tista heard both of them out as a consultant and figured out that Dipan’s partner did not respect his identity.
“Then she told me that she is with him because he has a female body now, but will not continue to be in a relationship with him once he transitions. I was stunned at how a relationship can be so regressive and sick. I personally believe that every relationship should be very clear, transparent and honest.”
They eventually became close and Dipan asked Tista if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. They announced their engagement on April 15, which is celebrated as National Transgender Day of Visibility. However, the response from the LGBTQ community was bittersweet with many questioning Tista’s decision to transition and undergo SRS.
However, they went ahead with the wedding brushing aside criticism and despite Dipan’s parents not being able to accept his transition. Tista Das and Dipan Chakraborty became West Bengal’s first transgender couple to tie the knot. They married earlier this month in the Kolkata suburb of Agarpara.
They also registered their wedding under the Special Marriage Act, signing as man and woman. Though they have become one of the first transgender couples of India, their fight for trans rights has only just begun.
