Trans People in Nepal Live Without Citizenship
source: http://womensenews.org/story/lesbian-and-transgender/110128/trans-people-in-nepal-live-witho...
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Nepal's Supreme Court ruling deemed homosexual and transgender people equal citizens in Nepal, yet many sexual minorities are still without citizenship certificates, limiting their opportunities.
Bhawana Dhakal, 26, always hated wearing men's clothes.
But growing up in a society that does not accept people of the "third gender," or transgender, she says she had no choice.
"My family does not let me [leave] the house if I do not set off for [my] office in a boy's dress up," says Dhakal, who leaves home dressed as a man every day.
Today, like all workdays, she makes a pit stop on her way to work at the rented room where she changes into women's clothes and applies what she calls "a lot" of makeup every morning before 9 a.m. Then, she heads to work.
Dhakal has a masculine physique, but says she has always carried herself as a woman.
Dhakal was born a boy to a middle-class family in Kathmandu. She says that as she grew up, she realized she liked to wear her sister's dresses and at school preferred to play with the girls in her class rather than the boys.
But as she got older, her classmates began to tease her. Eventually, she says she was asked to leave the school when she revealed she was transgender, an allegation The Press Institute was unable to confirm with the school.
The Supreme Court of Nepal struck down the law that classified homosexuality as bestiality in 2007 and granted homosexual and transgender people full rights. However, many transgender people in Nepal say they have not been granted the citizen certificates needed to receive many of these rights, such as get jobs, enroll in schools or colleges, seek treatment in hospitals or inherit property.
Of the 200,000 people who identify as transgender in Nepal, a country of nearly 30 million people, only five have citizenship, says Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal's first openly gay politician. He is also the founder and chairman of the Blue Diamond Society, Nepal's leading organization for the rights of sexual minorities.
To date, there has been no official government data, as the Central Bureau of Statistics says it did not record the number of transgender people in its last census in 2001. In the new census, scheduled to be held this year, "sexual status" will be collected, Pant says.
Read the full story at Women's eNews http://womensenews.org/story/lesbian-and-transgender/110128/trans-people-in-nepa...
Bhawana Dhakal, 26, always hated wearing men's clothes.
But growing up in a society that does not accept people of the "third gender," or transgender, she says she had no choice.
"My family does not let me [leave] the house if I do not set off for [my] office in a boy's dress up," says Dhakal, who leaves home dressed as a man every day.
Today, like all workdays, she makes a pit stop on her way to work at the rented room where she changes into women's clothes and applies what she calls "a lot" of makeup every morning before 9 a.m. Then, she heads to work.
Dhakal has a masculine physique, but says she has always carried herself as a woman.
Dhakal was born a boy to a middle-class family in Kathmandu. She says that as she grew up, she realized she liked to wear her sister's dresses and at school preferred to play with the girls in her class rather than the boys.
But as she got older, her classmates began to tease her. Eventually, she says she was asked to leave the school when she revealed she was transgender, an allegation The Press Institute was unable to confirm with the school.
The Supreme Court of Nepal struck down the law that classified homosexuality as bestiality in 2007 and granted homosexual and transgender people full rights. However, many transgender people in Nepal say they have not been granted the citizen certificates needed to receive many of these rights, such as get jobs, enroll in schools or colleges, seek treatment in hospitals or inherit property.
Of the 200,000 people who identify as transgender in Nepal, a country of nearly 30 million people, only five have citizenship, says Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal's first openly gay politician. He is also the founder and chairman of the Blue Diamond Society, Nepal's leading organization for the rights of sexual minorities.
To date, there has been no official government data, as the Central Bureau of Statistics says it did not record the number of transgender people in its last census in 2001. In the new census, scheduled to be held this year, "sexual status" will be collected, Pant says.
Read the full story at Women's eNews http://womensenews.org/story/lesbian-and-transgender/110128/trans-people-in-nepa...
