Kathmandu : After years of hiding their relationship, Jeshika Gautam and Samjhana Bishwakarma now openly live together as a lesbian couple in Nepal\u2019s capital, Kathmandu. Despite familial disapproval, the pair, both in their 20s, say the gradual shift in social attitudes and the country\u2019s progressive LGBTQ laws encouraged them to declare their love publicly. Now, after dating for five years, they\u2019re ready to marry.<\/p>\n
But Nepal has yet to recognize same-sex marriage, 15 years after the country\u2019s Supreme Court granted equal rights as other citizens to people of sexual minorities and ordered the government to form a study committee on marriage equality. Now, a petition at the court is demanding marriage equality by challenging the country\u2019s 2017 Civil Code, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Petitioners are asking for an amendment saying marriage should occur between two individuals of undefined gender, which would pave the way for same-sex unions.<\/p>\n
The hearing for the case, initiated by Mitini Nepal\u2014a nonprofit working for the rights of the lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community\u2014alongside its president, executive director, and others, was scheduled for Wednesday, May 31. But it has now been postponed to Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long battle,\u201d Gautam told Foreign Policy. \u201cWe want the same rights and equality as other couples. We want to get married.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nepal is touted as a leader in LGBTIQ rights in the region, thanks to the landmark 2007 case\u2014which was cited by India\u2019s Supreme Court when scrapping India\u2019s colonial-era anti-gay law in 2018\u2014and its new republican constitution, passed in 2015, which is among the handful of pro-LGBTIQ constitutions in the world. The 2007 case was the result of onerous advocacy and legal battle by LGBTIQ activists and nonprofits, such as the Blue Diamond Society, a group founded in 2001 to advocate against the country\u2019s discriminatory laws.<\/p>\n
Thanks to these efforts, the Supreme Court, in a remarkable decision for the time, heralded a new chapter for LGBTIQ Nepalis, saying in 2007 that the community was being denied fundamental human rights and should be guaranteed equal rights in the upcoming constitution.<\/p>\n
The Himalayan nation now has provisions to identify as \u201cother\u201d instead of male or female on citizenship ID and passport, though transgender activists say it\u2019s still a daunting task. In 2021, Nepal added the third gender category to its census for the first time. But while many of Nepal\u2019s LGBTIQ rights laws are progressive on paper, rights advocates say implementation hasn\u2019t been on par with the promises.<\/p>\n
A week before last month\u2019s scheduled court hearing date, Sarita KC, executive director of Mitini Nepal, told Foreign Policy that the petition against the Nepal government wasn\u2019t just about demanding marriage equality but also about securing LGBTQ citizens\u2019 safety and security, from parenthood to inheritance to insurance-related rights. KC, along with her nonprofit and its president Laxmi Ghalan, petitioned against Nepal\u2019s Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers; Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs; and Federal Parliament Secretariat. Responding in January to the court\u2019s show cause order, all three government bodies separately wrote, in documents seen by Foreign Policy, that the constitution guarantees equal protection for LGBTIQ people and that the petition to amend marriage law in the Civil Code should be annulled.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the constitution guarantees it, we have yet to be equals,\u201d KC said. \u201cWe just want people from this community to be able to marry whom they want, start a family, and have all the rights just like heterosexual couples.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activists say legalizing same-sex marriage in Nepal is just a matter of time, though it\u2019s taking longer than expected. The same-sex marriage study committee formed after the 2007 decision submitted a report recommending the government act in 2015. The detailed report suggested the government remove legal provisions allowing only a man and a woman to marry and \u201cembrace the norm that marriage can occur between two persons, and \u2026 grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage on the basis of the principle of equality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, the signs from the court itself are good, given it has also acknowledged the validity of same-sex relationships in multiple cases. Nepal\u2019s constitution has a provision for 20 justices, to be appointed by the country\u2019s Judicial Council, to sit on the Supreme Court. There are currently 15 sitting justices, including Hari Prasad Phuyal, who represented the petitioners in the 2007 case and was a member of the same-sex marriage study committee.<\/p>\n
Source : foreignpolicy.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu : After years of hiding their relationship, Jeshika Gautam and Samjhana Bishwakarma now openly live together as a lesbian couple in Nepal\u2019s capital, Kathmandu. Despite familial disapproval, the pair, both in their 20s, say the gradual shift in social attitudes and the country\u2019s progressive LGBTQ laws encouraged them to declare their love publicly. Now, after dating for five years, they\u2019re ready to marry.
\nBut Nepal has yet to recognize same-sex marriage, 15 years after the country\u2019s Supreme Court granted equal rights as other citizens to people of sexual minorities and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":12827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,8,621,492,490,3],"tags":[1159,746,1126,588],"class_list":["post-12826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-human-rights","category-news","category-opinion","category-slider","category-society","tag-lgbtiq","tag-nepal","tag-prime-minister","tag-same-sex-marriage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12826"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12830,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12826\/revisions\/12830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}