"I’d like to see our lives bond together, our traditions and our cultures," said Kalavati Mistry. "We get to embrace both."

Kalavati Mistry and Miriam Jefferson’s wedding made history this week as what’s believed to be the first Hindu-Jewish interfaith lesbian wedding in Great Britain. The ladies held a Hindu ceremony in Leicester, donning the traditional red and white garb, garlands and mangala sutra necklaces. They also held a traditional Jewish ceremony in Texas, where they reside, back in February.

“It’s really nice to now have a Hindu wedding here,” Jefferson told the Mail Online, “because it brings both of us together and completes both of us in my eyes.”







“I will follow the Hindu faith and follow some of the Jewish traditions,” Mistry told Pukaar News. “I’d like to see our lives bond together, our traditions and our cultures. We get to embrace both, Hinduism as well as Judaism. That’s how I see it. I hope this brings people together.”



The couple met and fell in love 20 years ago while at a training course at an interfaith organization they both work for. Mistry was closeted until very recently, telling the Independent coming out had been “very difficult for me as an Asian gay woman.” Still, she adds, friends and family have been “welcoming and embracing.”

“I hope many many gay people—no matter what religion or culture they’re in—are in loving relationships.”