The Long Aisle Leading to Nepal’s First Same-Sex Marriages
The Long Aisle Leading to Nepal’s First Same-Sex Marriages
The country long seen as a beacon for LGBTQI rights in South Asia still has no law recognizing same-sex marriage. Here's how two couples broke through the bureaucracy — and why hundreds of others still wait to say “I do.”
In 2007, Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the government to legally recognize a third gender category, audit laws to identify discriminatory ones, and explore recognition of same-sex relationships. Eight years later, a new constitution came into effect that has language specifically protecting LGBTQI people. So. Global Press Journal's Yam Kumari Kandal wonders, why are same-sex couples finding it so difficult to have their marriages recognized, and how did one couple, Adheep Pokhrel and Tobias Volz, break through the bureaucracy?