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Friday, July 4, 2014

How pink is Nepal? Seen in the streets of Kathmandu...


These are some graffiti we noticed in the streets of Kathmandu. These three are situated around a park which is a known cruising areas for gays. Now, Nepal isn't the most progressive, but it is far from being the worst country with regards to LGBT rights. Same sex relationships aren't criminal and there's talk of including same-sex marriages and third gender in the next Constitution (if it ever goes through). If you ever come to Nepal, notice how on the arrival and departure forms, it even allows you to check 'other', besides male and female.


Some of this is due to activism and one of the LGBT organisations that receives a lot of attention is the Blue Diamond Society. They do a lot of awareness raising and their founder was even elected as a member of the previous Parliament!


This is not to say everything is pink ;)... Discussing with friends and activists, many cases of bullying and rejection of LGBT still occur. Take the graffiti for instance. Most agree that in India, these would have caused an uproar and would get sullied very quickly. They are unsure whether the fact that they don't cause many waves here is because of 'tolerance' (as much as I dislike that word... I mean, who wants to be tolerated?) or because of 'ignorance'. But no need to look very far, even our Belgian consul referred to some of the more extravagant lady-boys who walk around Thamel on Friday night as 'freaks'...

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