Kathmandu resident Niraj Sunuwar, 20 and Aashik Lama, 20 were in love with each other but could not express their feelings with each others due to socio-cultural boundaries. Finally after several weeks, Niraj decides to break his silence and proposes his sweetheart in a flight to India. Their hurdles were not over yet at this point as they had to face problems to establish their identity. The couple could not come up openly about their sexuality though they had already started living together without their family permission.
Lama remembers, “My parents got to know about my sexual orientation nearly after one and half years but they refused to accept our relation. It took time for us to explain them about our relation”. Niraj and Aashik are just an example. There are about 100,000 LGBTIQ people who still are in dark to come up openly to talk about their sexuality. The people belonging to this community are still in limbo regarding their marriage, though supreme court has said that LGBTIQ people have ‘Right to have one's own identity’ and shall get access to all legal facilities without any discrimination. Government has recognized LGBTIQ rights as fundamental rights. The Supreme Court says that if an adult wants to stay in a marital relation with another adult under their mutual understanding that it is their fundamental rights.
In Pictures: Blue Diamond Society organizes 20th Nepal Pride Pa...
Though government seems positive regarding LGBTIQ right, the Nepali society still cannot accept it easily resulting the community to share their sexual orientation openly. To break this barrier hundreds of LGBTIQ supporters gathered at Maitighar Mandala on Saturday to participate in Nepal’s first-ever pride parade.
Every year, June is celebrated as pride month to fight violence and discrimination against LGBTIQ community. In Nepal, annually Gaijatra is celebrated as Pride Parade but Queer Youth Group organized the country’s first pride parade to mark global pride month.
Speaking about parade founding member of Queer Youth Group, Rukshana Kapali said, “We have never celebrated pride parade in Nepal so we are so happy to be a part of it. We believe this kind of event helps to create space and visibility for queer people.”
The two hours long colorful and flamboyant parade was busted with rambunctious people, which created a charismatic aura throughout the road. The participation and enthusiasm of people in the parade shows that this flame of equality is not going to end.
