An LGBTQ couple has acquired a marriage certificate in Nepal, officials said yesterday, a first in South Asia and hailed by the pair as a win “for all.”
Transgender woman Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey obtained a marriage certificate from a local ward in Lamjung district on Wednesday.
“We are very happy and proud. This has finally happened,” Gurung said.
Photo: AFP
The couple held a Hindu marriage ceremony in 2017, and live together with their dog and cat.
“This is a win not just for us but for all couples like us,” she said.
In June, the Nepalese Supreme Court issued an interim order allowing all same-sex and transgender couples to register their marriages, directing the government to establish a separate temporary register until laws are formulated.
Gurung, 41, and Pandey, 27, were the first to apply at the district court, but it refused to register their marriage.
Their appeal was also rejected.
“We then approached the local authorities, who were much more open to listen,” said the couple’s lawyer, Rounik Raj Aryal.
Yubraj Adhikari, chairman of rural Dordi municipality in Lamjung district, said the registration certificate was issued after instructions from the Nepalese Department of National ID and Civil Registration.
“The instructions were based on the Supreme Court’s decision and they submitted all other required documents,” Adhikari said.
Many in the community were waiting for Gurung and Pandey to pave the way and register their marriage.
“It is a win after a decades-long battle for marriage equality. They have made history. It is a milestone day for us to celebrate,” LGBTQ rights activist Sunil Babu Pant said.
Nepal already has some of South Asia’s most progressive laws on homosexuality and transgender rights, with landmark reforms passed in 2007 prohibiting discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.
A third gender category for citizenship documents was introduced in 2013 and Nepal began issuing passports with the “others” category two years later.
However, Nepali law had stayed silent on same-sex or transgender marriages despite a 2015 expert committee recommendation to legalize same-sex marriages following a Supreme Court order to enshrine the rights of sexual minorities.
The Supreme Court also ordered the government this year to recognize a non-heterosexual marriage of a Nepali with a foreigner and issue a spousal visa.
However, the country’s LGBTQ community — estimated at more than 900,000-strong — still faces discrimination, particularly for jobs, health and education.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS