A constitution that names queer people
In 2015 Nepal becomes the first country in Asia to name queer people explicitly in its constitution.
On 16 September 2015, the Constituent Assembly in Kathmandu adopted Nepal's new constitution. The country had struggled over it for seven years; a first assembly had failed at the task, and only the devastating earthquakes of that spring brought the feuding parties back to the table. When the result was announced, the hall broke into applause. Four days later the text was solemnly promulgated.
For queer people, an unusual amount was at stake that day, and they got an unusual amount. The constitution explicitly names "gender and sexual minorities". One article prohibits discrimination against them by the state and the authorities. A second allows people to have their self-determined gender identity entered on their citizenship certificate. A third guarantees participation in public office according to the principle of inclusion. No other country in Asia had done this before, and worldwide only a few had managed it, among them South Africa and Ecuador.
This was by no means a given. The Supreme Court had already ordered equal treatment in 2007 and recognised a third gender, but a ruling is not yet a constitution. That the decisive wording made it into the text was above all the work of the Blue Diamond Society, which for years advised MPs, presented studies and organised workshops in every part of the country. Its executive director Manisha Dhakal said afterwards that no one could now exclude the community from housing, education, work or health care.
One gap remained. The text said not a word about marriage, and the Civil Code that later came into force explicitly defined it as a union of a man and a woman. Only in 2023 did the Supreme Court order the interim registration of same-sex couples.