Tooting horns and ringing chimes, hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites paraded through Nepal’s capital on Monday for a colorful celebration of Gai Jatra, a Hindu festival to honor the dead that is gleefully overtaken each year by the country’s gay community.
In the socially conservative Hindu-majority nation, the festival was traditionally the only day when people felt free to cross-dress, but social norms are changing fast as the fledgling democracy emerges from centuries of religious monarchy.
A government committee is recommending same-sex marriage be guaranteed in a new constitution — an unprecedented move that would give homosexual couples the right to adopt, buy joint property, open joint bank accounts and inherit from one another. All of the country’s political parties have backed the idea and many within its small gay community hope the new constitution will be passed this year.
Photo: Reuters
“When we gather again next year, we hope we are able celebrate the new law,” said 28-year-old Bipin Lamichane, who wants to marry the partner he has lived with for five years.
Yet changing laws may be easier than changing minds in a country where arranged marriage is still the norm and where up to a decade ago, homosexuals were routinely jailed for up to three months on accusations of “unnatural sex.”
Bhakti Shah, who was fired from the Nepalese army in 2007 when officers rightly suspected she was in a relationship with another enlisted woman, is still hiding their partnership from landlords and neighbors.
“People still think we are two friends or sisters sharing an apartment,” Shah said. “How can we tell everyone we are a couple when we don’t have anything in paper to back it?”
New legal rights and status would give Shah and others the documentation they need to prove a union. Hindu priest Laxman Acharya said he expected most Nepalese to accept the change, given their cultural diversity and youth — the median age in Nepal is 21 and about 35 percent of the 27.5 million-strong population is 14 or younger.
“It is not going to dent the culture or religion,” Acharya said at his temple in Kathmandu. “If two people are happy then no one should say anything.”
Thousands of people lined the streets of Kathmandu’s old city to watch those parading with rainbow-colored balloons and banners along the 1km route from tourist hub Thamel to the central square.
Some of the revelers sported the traditional dress of their ethnic communities, while many others wore and cross dress, but on the sidelines, there was some disapproval.
“Whatever happens inside closed doors should remain there,” retired government worker Raja Sharma, 62, said. “This is ridiculous; marriage is a sacred thing between a husband and wife that has worked for centuries and it should be left alone. Nepal has enough problems.”
Still struggling with poverty, unemployment and poor infrastructure, Nepal has leapt forward in granting rights to gays and minorities, becoming the first South Asian nation to decriminalize homosexuality in 2007 as it embraced democracy and secularism after centuries as a Hindu kingdom.
“We have come a long way, but it is time we finally legalize same-sex marriage,” said Monica Jha, who heads the Blue Diamond Society credited with organizing rallies and lobbying political parties for gay marriage.
The group’s founder became Nepal’s first openly gay legislator and it has also opened a travel agency for gay tourists advertising wedding and honeymoon packages on Mt Everest.
Analysts said that along with ethnic minorities, Nepal’s gay community was among the first groups to demand recognition when autocratic rule transitioned to democracy.
“These groups were finally able to voice their demands and concerns,” said Keshab Poudel, editor of Spotlight magazine. “Nepal is mostly a liberal society and people are able to absorb and digest new values with ease.”
While Nepal’s political parties have said they agree same-sex marriage should be legal, it is unclear when they might agree and vote on the overall constitution after years of failing to do so amid political bickering, though Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has promised to finish the work this year.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in