Duo on a tour to India to protest against SC verdict on homosexuality.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Television actor, former “30 Rock” star Maulik Pancholy is now engaged to his partner of nine years, Ryan Corvaia.
The couple got engaged at the Taj Mahal, with Pancholy tweeting “It only took 9 years but it’s official! Just got engaged at the Taj Mahal to @Ryan_Corvaia! YEEEESSSS!” and posting a photo of himself and Corvaia outside the famed Indian mausoleum.
Pancholy, 39, came out in an interview with Out Magazine this past November, saying that he knew he was homosexual for several years but was apprehensive about making it public. In the same interview, he voiced his support for the Prop 8 and Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) verdicts in California, both of which were controversial anti-gay marriage laws that have now been debased.
His engagement to another man took place in India, which recently upheld a Supreme Court verdict that makes any kind of homosexual relations, regardless of if they’re consensual or not, illegal. Anyone engaging in LGBT sexual activities can be put in jail, a controversial decision that was frowned upon by several more liberal countries in the West.
The couple was in India, in fact, specifically because of the Supreme Court ruling. They are touring the country to protest the upholding of Section 377 in the Indian Penal Code, which calls homosexual activities “against the order of nature.”
Although most well-known for his role as Alec Baldwin’s assistant Jonathan on NBC’s “30 Rock,” which was one of the network’s most successful comedies of the past decade, Pancholy has also had recurring roles on the Showtime series “Weeds” and the Cartoon Network hit “Phineas and Ferb.”
Most recently, he began headlining the Nickelodeon show “Sanjay and Craig,” an animated show about a twelve year-old Indian American boy named Sanjay Patel and his adventures with his best friend, a talking snake whose name is Craig.
Pancholy and Corvaia have not yet announced a date for their wedding.