Source: Wikimedia Commmons
Source: Wikimedia Commmons

Where will all the young queers go?

Despite legal reforms, Nepal’s societal mores continue to constrain daily lives and freedoms of sexual and gender minorities.
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(This is an essay from our December 2015 print quarterly, 'The Marriage Issue: Loves, Laws, Lusts'. See more from the issue here.)

Nepal is often presented as the leader in 'LGBT' rights activism in Southasia, if not in all of Asia. In September 2015, Director of Human Rights Campaign Global, Ty Cobb, lauded the protections extended to sexual and gender minorities in Nepal's new constitution, despite the criticisms made by many feminists and organisations within Nepal. He wrote:

This is a momentous step forward for LGBT equality in Nepal. The nation's leadership has affirmed that its LGBT citizens deserve the constitutional right to live their lives free from discrimination and fear… We congratulate LGBT Nepalis and their allies for this  historic victory, and hope to see other nations across Asia and the globe take similar steps to ensure full legal equality for their LGBT citizens.

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Himal Southasian
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