Basanti Kadayat/Pahichan – I am an intersex person. I was born in 2055 BS Baisakh 12 in Achham district, Nepal. I was born as the eldest child in my family. Everyone was aware about my different sex when I was born. The excitement of my parents on the day of my birth, slowly faded away when I started to grew up with ambiguous sex.

Society started to treat me differently. Friends were indifferent towards me.  I was stigmatized by friends and teachers in family. I was not weak in my study. I always stood second in my lower classes.

But as I grew up, the discrimination increased in a way that I could not pay attention to my studies.  I started to feel mental pressures. My studies started downgrading. At last, me and my family had to flee away to Kailali from Achham because we could not tolerate the hatred of society anymore. Even after we reached Kailali, we had never heard about LGBTI. The place was new, but same things happened with me here as well.

I went to school being sad. I did not know anyone here. Those I knew stayed away from me.  One day I ended up hearing a program called Pahichan in the radio. Through it, I came to know that there is an organization that is working for us. I also came to know, there are millions other like me. That happiness at the moment was just…

However, I still could not come to contact with the organization.  After one year, I was successful to come in contact with Blue Diamond Society branch office Dhangadhi. I met with intersex friends like me. Carrying heart full of happiness, I reached home in the evening. Today, it has been a year, I am here. I am working in a branch office of Blue Diamond Society as a supervisor. I am very glad with Blue Diamond Society and the people who run it.

There were so many things we have fought and achieved for and now we have to achieve a  lot of things. The achievements we made in just less than two decades is appreciable. This is what we have to feel proud of.

It is not difficult to make people understand about LGBTI. But, those people who behave like they don’t understand despite understanding, we can do nothing. In recent times, many political parties have raised this issue.

We are not bad people, we have been made bad people by the society. Government should provide opportunities. If we get opportunities, there is nothing we cannot do. I am an activist. If I get opportunity, I can do anything.