The Nepali Supreme Court released a decision today granting protections and rights for sexual and gender minorities. The decision comes after four gay rights groups, including the Blue Diamond Society, filed a petition through the court.

According to UK Gay News, the decision states:

– In relation to this matter, directive order has been issued to the Government of Nepal to enact new laws and amend all existing discriminatory laws so that all individuals with different sexual orientations and gender identities can exercise equal rights like any other citizens of Nepal.
– A seven-member committee to be formed by the government of Nepal to study the different same sex partnership/marriage bill/act in other countries and recommend the government to make same sex marriage/partnership act.  Based on the recommendation of this committee, the government must introduce a same sex partnership/marriage act.
– The decision also addressed “cross dressing saying can’t be taken as “pollution” but should be taken as individual’s freedom of expression.
– All LGBTI must be defined as “natural persons” and their physical growth as well as sexual orientation, gender identity, expression are all part of natural growing process.  Thus equal rights, identity and expression must be ensured regardless of their sex at birth.

Sunil Babu Pant, the nation’s only openly gay member of parliament and head of the Blue Diamond Society, celebrated the decision.

“Reading this decision my eyes were filled with tears and I felt we are the most proud LGBTI citizens of Nepal in the world,” Pant said. “It is the most beautiful news.”

On Dec. 5, Pant will be in Washington, D.C. to speak at the 2008 International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference. He will speak on a panel called LGBT Issues in Global Human Rights: Can the U.S. Help?, which will feature Zvonimir Dobrovic (founder of Croatia’s Queer Zagreb Festival), Paula L. Ettelbrick (executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian  Human Rights Commission) and Edmond Rhys Jones (human rights officers with the British Embassy in the U.S.). Michael Guest, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania will serve as keynote speaker.

To learn more and register for the conference, click here.

Sunil Babu Pant, a gay man who recently made history by winning a seat in Nepal’s parliament, recently gave an interview to Gay City News about his election and the country’s changing attitude toward the LGBT community.

“There has been a significant change in the Maoist attitude toward sexual and gender minorities. I and the BDS had many meetings, dialogues, and orientations with several parties, including the Maoists. And this year, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the Nepali Congress Party [the second-largest party in the constituent assembly], and the Communist Party-(United) all included LGBT rights in their election manifestos.”

Pant, 35, founded gay rights group the Blue Diamond Society in 2002. In the most recent election, ten candidates from the organization sought public office, eight of whom were transgender.

Read the entire article here.

A historic election in Nepal has given the country its first openly gay representative.

Sunil Babu Pant won his election to Nepal’s 601-member constituent assembly, after being picked by the Communist Party of Nepal-United to join the body. Nepal’s elections are conducted under a proportional representation system, and the minor party was alloted five seats.

Pant, 35, founded the country’s first organization to protect the rights of sexual minorities. He was one of five openly gay men to seek political office in this cycle.

“We are honoured to send Pant as our representative to the constituent assembly,” said party official Ganesh Shah. “We hope it will improve the lives of a people who are the most repressed in Nepal, disowned both by society and their own families.”

According to The Times of India, Pant founded the Blue Diamond Society in 2002, which fights for molested and detained gays, spreads AIDS awareness and runs a hospice for terminally ill gay patients.

(Via Queerty)

In a country where homosexuality is essentially illegal under a law that bans “unnatural sex,” five Nepalese gay men are running for elected office in an effort to shake up the status quo.

“We are standing in the elections to fight the discrimination against our community,” Sunil Babu Pant, founder of the Blue Diamond Society, told Reuters. “This is a very symbolic approach to tell all Nepalis that we have equal rights.”

The men are running with the Nepal Communist Party for seats on the new 601-seat constituent assembly in the nation’s first national vote since 1999.

In Nepal, LGBT citizens claim to face job and school discrimination and are sometimes the victims of assault or rape. There are, however, promising signs for the future. A December Supreme Court decision ended discrimination against gays and sexual minorities.

The election will take place April 10.