(Reuters) Dressed in a golden, laced gown, Noor was relieved to wed a man she had met briefly online, ending years of pressure from her Pakistani family to marry.
As lights flashed and guests danced merrily inside an English wedding hall, Noor felt she might finally be free to live her life as a lesbian, since her new husband was a gay man.
“In our culture, there’s a really huge pressure to get married. My family were like, ‘Find someone for yourself or we’ll find someone for you’,” said Noor, who declined to give her real name as she has not come out yet.
Being lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) remains taboo in some cultures in Britain, and campaigners say that coming out can lead to forced marriage, disownment, expulsion from the family home and honour-based abuse.
