Advertisement
Nepal
AsiaSouth Asia

Nepal’s first same-sex married couple vows to continue fight for gay rights

  • The couple and rights groups have been struggling for years to get the government to legally register same-sex marriages
  • Earlier this year, Nepal’s supreme court issued an interim order enabling the registration of same-sex marriages for the first time

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Ram Bahadur (Maya) Gurung, 36, who was born male but identifies as female, and Surendra Pandey, 26, who was born and identifies as male, at their press conference after they registered Nepal’s first same-sex marriage. Photo: Reuters
Associated Press
The first gay couple in Nepal to have their same-sex marriage officially recognised has vowed to campaign for changes in the law to help others like them to get married.
Advertisement

Surendra Pandey and Maya Gurung were able to legally register their marriage at a village council office this week in the mountains west of the capital, Kathmandu.

Pandey is a man and Gurung is a transgender woman. Nepal does not allow its citizens to change the sex assigned at birth on their official documents.

“We will continue our campaign for same-sex marriage and fight to bring equality to sexual minorities in the country so that generations of people will not have to suffer like we all did,” Gurung told reporters on Friday in Kathmandu.
Ram Bahadur Gurung (left) and Surendra Pandey speak with the media outside the Kathmandu District Court. Photo: Reuters
Ram Bahadur Gurung (left) and Surendra Pandey speak with the media outside the Kathmandu District Court. Photo: Reuters

Other provisions in the law like inheritance, property rights and the right to adopt children have still to be updated in line with the recognition of same-sex-marriages.

Advertisement
Advertisement