Roughly 1,500 people on Tuesday marched
through the streets of Kathmandu to celebrate the city's annual LGBT
Pride parade.
Many wore vibrant costumes and carried
rainbow flags, the
AFP reported.
The parade coincides with the Hindu
festival of Gai Jatra, which commemorates the death of people during
the year and has also been used as a venue to criticize the
government.
“In recent years the gay community
has started using the festival to call attention to its demands for
equal rights,” the AFP wrote.
American artist Gilbert Baker, who
designed the rainbow flag, was among those honored at Tuesday's
event.
(Related: Gilbert
Baker, designer of gay pride rainbow flag, dead at 65.)
“Every year we celebrate a pride
festival to show that we want to be recognized in this society with
our different identity, that we are a part of this society,” Pink
Gurung, president of the LGBT rights group Blue Diamond Society, told
the AFP.
Activists say that while Nepal has some
of the most progressive laws on LGBT rights in South Asia,
discrimination remains.
“The government has recognized us but
should do more,” said Kirti Gurung, a transgender woman. “People
of third gender like us should be able to come out in the open;
society should accept us.”