Melanie Nathan 8-26-10

Hundreds of gays, lesbians, LGBTQI and their supporters from around the country danced through the Nepalese capital in the country’s first international gay parade.

Nepal’s gay community has added some extra colour to the traditional festival of Gaijatra this year, in a carnival of humour, satire, fanfare and fun.Led by Sunil Babu Pant, a parliamentarian representing gays and sexual minorities in the House,  on top of an elephant waving the rainbow flag representing sexual diversities, was followed by hundreds of gays and gay rights activists – on decorated horse-drawn chariots, open trucks and also on foot.

Those present seemed overjoyed that – in Nepal’s otherwise very conservative society – so many had come out on the street, and shown their support. The Interim Constitution of Nepal in 2006 changed the way Nepal’s gay community is treated – establishing the rights of gays and sexual minorities by officially recognising them as the third gender. Before the recognition, gays and sexual minorities were chased and beaten up by the police in the very same streets.

The participants, dressed in colorful clothes, thronged the main streets of Kathmandu, led by Sunil Pant, a member of Nepal’s parliament and the nation’s most prominent gay activist.